At the Carol Service, at Wretton Church, held on Saturday 24^th December 2011 the Stoke Ferry Stompers  presented a cheque for £600.00 to the Parochial Church Council to help with planned Church improvements.  The money was raised from Line Dancing on Tuesday nights.

 In the photograph below,  Carol Nicholas-Letch and John Reeve are seen holding the cheque at one of our classes.

 In the last five years a total of £15,441.77p has been raised by the Stompers and donated to many different charities.  My thanks go to all the members of the Stompers for this magnificent effort.

 Mally Reeves

 We met, as usual, on the first Wednesday of January the 4^th and our speaker was wonderful.

 Barry Hawkins, the auctioneer, came and talked so enthusiastically about his career and how it had changed over the years from livestock to almost anything. He is now venturing into Vintage cars and the Internet. It was sad to realise that in the past people were, in the main, honest and trustworthy and had character which is now no longer the case. People were less greedy and just happy to make a fair and decent deal.

 Barry said that he had had a really enjoyable career but I suspect that it is not such fun these days. It was a most interesting talk.

 The next meeting will be on February 1^st when Mike Wabe will be a Victorian schoolmaster and we are asked to dress up in long dark skirts, white blouse and black stockings with a dark shawl.

 Janet Burns

Secretary

It was good news that Stephen Lawrence’s killers were finally brought to book, I cannot remember any murder case before that has attracted quite so much publicity or any trial that received so much news time on TV.  I am not complaining, it was a brutal killing that horrified and offended every decent person.  I was struck, however, by a letter that appeared in a national newspaper after the trial.

The point that they were making was that the case attracted so much attention, not just because of the racist element, but because it was an unprovoked attack by white men on a black man.  They pointed out, however, that, in 1993, in Camden N London, a white youth, 15year old Richard Everitt, was murdered in an unprovoked attack by a Bengali gang.  As in the Lawrence case, the attackers had expressed violent racist views.  Eleven Bengali men were arrested but only two were charged.  One was found guilty of violent disorder and served 18months, the other was found guilty of murder and served 11years.

In the Lawrence case the Home Secretary visited the site of the murder, where a public monument was erected.  Stephen Lawrence became a household name, hardly anyone remembers the name of Richard Everitt. 

It does seem as though we have reacted strongly to the murder of a black youth by white men in a racist attack, perhaps because we, as white people, feel a sense of shame, anger, maybe even a sense of guilt, but we seem to prefer to ignore the fact that non-white people are capable of violent racist attacks and choose to minimise the news coverage of any such cases.  I suspect that, quite often in the case of a violent crime, they are careful to avoid mentioning that the attacker was black.

Ron Watts

It was certainly a night to remember. A strong wind whistled through the merest crack of the  window. The tiles on the roof rattled away to the buffeting. Sleep was impossible. It was a gale of enormous measure that had begun several hours before!

 Down at the river the same maelstrom raged. The meandering curves were awash with waves and tumbling water was forced down the narrow course by the fury. White crests crashed by and immediately disappeared into the darkness only to be followed by the same over and over again. The sedge alongside the margins bent double and in places touched the water whereupon the whole sedge bed became swamped. The debris of branches and even the river bank itself floated past as the strength of the wind and water demolished anything suspect. Young trees were well and truly tested and mature trees groaned and creaked. A sudden crack followed by an earth shaking thump showed a long dead oak tree astride the river. The obstacle made a feeble attempt to hold back the fierce flow but it was quickly turned and floated downstream adding to the already chaos.

 Mother Nature must have given warning to her kingdom earlier that day long before any signs were recognised by the likes of us! Thus most animals were tucked up snug under the ground and perhaps even asleep and ignorant of the happenings above. Fifty or even sixty rabbits in the same warren formed a single furry mass with their breathing the only movement. The sedate badgers choose to be more individual and snored away in rows whereas the lone fox monitored everything from within the entrance of his den with one eye whilst fast asleep with the other!

 Alas the feathered folk had few options. They went low instead of high and choose mid hedge and bush to find shelter but not complete escape. The partridge and pheasant, all with little sense, stayed their ground and merely looked bemused hardly able to remain upright!

 Within an adjacent spinney a family of deer had found a convienent hollow and with their heads down had perfect shelter but for sure no man was about tonight. Even the perennial poacher had chosen to stay in his bed!

 Beneath the surface of the river Wissey most of our friends the fish had found sanctuary from the fast flow in dykes and inlets. Here they amassed in unusual numbers. A few less fortunate sought the shallows and some the outside of curves but were still forced to contend with the severe current by swimming endlessly to remain stationary. Occasionally an unfortunate was just swept away!

 However a different picture was also forming. A particular family from the watery world was actually enjoying the remarkable change of atmospheric pressure and was in a highly restless state of near frenzy. Little detail is known but all eels are governed by the moon and like influences and tonight the ‘force was with them!’  The eels of the river were not of normal mind and had gathered  in large numbers. The calling had gone out and as the storm reached another peak they departed the river. Wriggling up the banks and across the grass and meadows they marched. It was a sight to behold! Thus they continued throughout the night with more and more exiting the water. As the  rain came sheeting down their passage was made more easy and comfortable. Onward they went.

 Now such travellings of the eel population occur only a few times in a human life span and is seldom witnessed. Where they go no one really knows but they must all return to water eventually! With that reassurance I pulled the covers over my head and tried once more to go to sleep!

 By Ivor Hook