Great Britains Past and Present

Hello and welcome to Great Britain’s Past and Present, I Really hope you enjoy your stay!!

A bit about Me:

The Author

Well I am Bill, I live near Chester in the Picturesque County of Cheshire in  Northwest England, UK.  I was born in Paderborn West Germany (as it was back in 1980). Bothof my parents were serving Soldiers in the UK Armed Forces.  My Father also called Bill was a Staff Sargent with REME (Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers) attached to 3rd RA (Royal Artillery) and Mum was EAG (Experimental Assistant in Gunary WRAC (Women’s Royal Army Core) [now disbanded] My Grandfather was a Major, and my Grandmother worked for the GPO. (now called the Post Office, but back then the GPO’s duties were transferring messages in secrecy during the War as it was in her time when she served.

It was during my Fathers Posting to Barker Barracks Paderborn when I popped in to the world. I was lucky or unlucky depending on what you think, to be brought up in a world of Heavy Artillery (Tanks, and so on) rolling down the Street at 7am and thought nothing of Armed men walking us to School each morning. Ironically it was the IRA (Irish Republican Army) that posed the biggest threat to the British Forces in Germany in the 1980’s. For obvious reasons with thousands of military personnel concentrated into the area it was a prime target!

People often ask why we were and still are there, (although the forces are beginning to pull out of Germany now)  The answer, Well it was the height of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall was still up and the “Iron Curtain” was fully closed! But We and our allies were the occuping force after World War II. 

So what made me want to write this site?

Being an Army lad, I love all things historical, especially Castles, Strategies,  Forts, Wars, The Empire, Industry, Artillery and General society as a whole including it’s politics to Religion. I adore Architecture, Old Churches, Abbeys and this Countries Myths, Legends and Folklore.  I wanted to share my love here on the Web and you never know even start a good ole’ Fashioned debate or two.  This site began life as the Isleofavalon.com and soon found that I locked myself into to much of a small subject area to give this site justice, so the site became greatbritainspastandpresent.com, the items on the Isle of Avalon (Glastonbury) will still be here and added to.

I hope in time to:

Build a site that is a “blast from the past, reminiscing over times past, but not forgetting the here and now and the future to! Great Britain has a colourful past and in my opinion is fascinating, am sure each Country has the same kind of historical events,

What I do away from writing?

I have a bit of an eclectic history regards career, I was a professional Trombonist until 2008, and during my time playing live and also some sessions, I was lucky enough to Meet Nelson Mandela During “Celebrate South Africa Freedom Day – Concert on the Square” which took place in Trafalgar Square on 29th April 2001. That day still remains as a highlight of my life so far, I played as part of a group from SouthAfrica and Britain as part of a project looked after by The Prince’s Trust. We played on the Saturday backing Billy Ocean, and appeared on Stage with Labbie Sifri, Hugh Masekela, Lady Smith Black Mombasa, REM, The Corrs, and many more. The event was a tribute to 7 years of Freedom from apartheid in South Africa and Trafalgar Square also being home to the South African Embassy was the place of the demonstrations to release Nelson Mandela from Prison back in the 80’s.

I studied Music Performance at LIPA Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts during that time worked sessions and generally learnt the art of blowing the hell out of “horns”. I met some good friends back then and 1 still remains today, also a fellow ex Trombonist, he produces music these days and good luck! You can find his stuff here http://www.mediamusicnow.com where the team there produce Royalty Free music and much more to.  It was him who introduced me to this medium and many thanks are due for the support and encouragement! I am dreading my Beer debt!!!

Me and Religion

Yes I am not shy to say that Religion plays a special part in my life, I am a practicing Anglican, many times during my posts you may see references to this especially in the Religious Architecture articles. It is never my intention to push my beliefs to others, I am not a “Born again” type. So there isn’t any underlying messages of moral values and so on!

I am a Verger or Virger (taken from the Latin Virge) or the Mace/Staff of office carried,  he/I lead the Clergy in procession and generally assist when needed around the Church.  I know the general perception of Virger is a bumbling idiot as in Dad’s Army or plain missing a part as in Alice in the Vicar of Dibley but it is far from the real duties of Virger in Churches and Cathedrals. One thing I am learning fast in this vocation is that you have to be slightly eccentric as my Parish Priest/Boss will undoubtedly vouch, I meet that bit of the Criteria… But any views in these pages regards Religion are mine and mine alone, they are not official and may sometimes be controversial but that’s me.

Contact

I would love to hear your views/opinions and Ideas for new articles for this site, you can either leave a comment on the site or email me direct and I will personally reply to you. One thing though, I am aware that wherever Religion is mentioned in what ever sense there are always some who disagree. Please don’t make this personal as your comments/emails will be immediately deleted. I love nothing more than to debate these matters though and look forward to hearing from you.

Subscribe

RSS is up and running through Feedburner just click the link at the top of the homepage, I also have an email Subscription link done through Feedburner so you will get updates directly to your inbox! Feedburner does this for me and I do not hold your address, so I can personally guarantee no Spam from this site, and no marketing either.

Usage

If you run your own similar site then your more than welcome to use some of my articles if you wish, I ask if you link back to my site and also to Credit my work where it is due. The site is registered under a Creative Commons 2.0 Share and Share Alike licence.  A lot of work goes into each and every article and to copy and call it your own is totally wrong. If you have any queries then please email me through the contact page.

So there’s a little about me and how this site came in to being I hope you enjoy your stay and hope to make this a great place to be

Sincerely

Bill

August 2009