Bath Tec School

Welcome Francis

8/18/2009 8:57:23 PM
A warm welcome to you Francis. Is this a new Francis or is it Bill joining twice? Never fear Bill, you're not the first to do it. I did it on MSN if you remember !!
 
Rich

Comments

- 8/18/2009 9:07:48 PM
Dooppelganger I reckon Rich, if you notice "Francis" has apparently been a member since a week before Bill, got lost in the mix somewhere, probably a delayed response to Tony's invitation when the site was set up at the beginning of the year.
- 8/19/2009 11:03:34 AM
O.k., I`ll come clean .. when I joined here I used my MSN account (the email sddress is no longer valid. So I used my current email address instead), in doing so I now had two accounts. I have simplified it now by delelteing all my other contact accounts on the various sites I visit.
 
I have to blame it on both low spirits, and high spirits ..bacardi ..finished the bottle last night.
 
Anyway .. What shal I be ..Fra Fran .. Franc Franci ... or just plain Francis? ...nah .. bill is easier to say.
- 8/19/2009 11:14:00 AM
I bet you've only been Francis when you've been in trouble and on your wedding day, same thing I s'pose Bill.
- 8/19/2009 11:44:26 AM
Funnily enough Stu, my sister and all the family still call me *******, must have been something I said !
- 8/20/2009 12:01:39 AM
Hi Bill and all.
             Don't worry Bill all the best people have aliases at some time in their lives, or maybe all their lives. I worked with a guy for many years who was known to everyone as 'Mick', including all his family. One day I was going through some drawings of his and every one was signed RJJ, so I asked him why. He replied 'Cos its my name, Robert John Jefferies'. I had to ask 'Why Mick?'. 'Dunno', he said 'Everyone calls me Mick, always have done, I like it that way'. So you see, Bill, there are others!
               I still keep in touch with Mick, one of his hobbies is building O gauge model steam locomotives, I have some photos which I will post up when I have a minute. Incidentally, whilst on the subject of photos the ones you posted of Weymouth House are the mutts nuts, as they say. A good example of a building which in its hey day was architecturally superb, but over the decades suffered the revages of time which no one seemed to care about until eventually, trunkated and modified it was surrounded by other inner city tat and detritis that made it look worse than it actually was. Obviously the good bergers of the city were faced with a decision in the end, either demolish the tat, restore WH and tastefully develop the area on a small scale, which I suspect would have been costly. Or take the money being offered by developers for the large scale development of the whole area. Obviously they decided to take the money ad run! Good for the short term economics of the City, but little else, and look what is left.
                Bugger, I'm up on me soap box again, and I promised myself that I would not get stressed about our heritage that the a**holes in power seem hell bent on destroying. Sorry, I promise it won't happen again, carry on taking the pills!
             Incidentally reading the comments of all the other guys regarding the development of the City makes me feel that we all appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet here. By the way I think the redevelopment of Green Park Station shows what can be done with a little imagination, shame that the Sainsbury's building itself could not have been a bit more in keeping, but I don't suppose you can have it all!
              Ah well, week end is nearly upon us again, lots to do! Have a good one everybody.
                               Bi for now.
 
 
- 8/20/2009 7:13:30 AM

Spot on John!

 

Massive urban redevelopment, demolition of swathes of sub-standard inner city housing, meeting the demands of a burgeoning middle class in the new suburbs and accommodating the needs of a relatively prosperous and fashionable population craving distraction and entertainment, were all accomplished with élan 250 years ago – so why not now?

 

I know that superficial comparisons are onerous but why is it that our city fathers have failed to grasp that we have a massive responsibility in nurturing a still relatively intact 18th Century streetscape whilst at the same time a duty to leave 21st Century structures that are exciting and aesthetically mind blowing for our descendants – look at the modernist/cubist work in Prague, the designs of Gaudi in Barcelona……….  Are we incapable or unwilling to do this, or are we so wedded to the cheap and shoddy that we don’t give a damn?

 

Can anyone suggest a single building erected in Bath in the last 80 years that we can be truly proud of;  a structure that fits comfortably within its surroundings but says “I’m proud of what I am and what I do and that no Georgian architect worth his pencil would think me a scar on the city”.

 

Got to start taking the tablets again – soap boxes don’t agree with me either!

- 8/20/2009 10:55:06 PM
Hi All.
Nice one Mike!
I know that many of us have, for various reasons, moved away from the City and quite a few never lived there at all. However, I feel that most of us spent so much time moving around central Bath that we developed a certain affinity with it, and in time learned to care. I think Mr Coarde had it right with his deep love of the city heritage and his fight to save buildings of architectural merit was not applauded nearly loud enough.
Call me cynical if you like, but I can' help being of the opinion that cheap and shoddy usually equals a fast buck in someone's pocket and in today's culture of materialism this scenario will usually prevail in the end. It is too easy to blame architects, some of which I would not pay with bent washers, but I cant help feelintg that many of them do a very good job within the remit of the developers and planning constraints.
I know it's easy to whinge and complain but this isn't very constructve unless you have some remedy for such maladies. This is where it all falls apart, as I have absolutely no idea how to convince people that a little less self interest and more caring about things that really matter is the way forward.
Damn soap box! Said I would not do it again.
What did I do with the pills?
Senility......................................John.
- 8/22/2009 9:27:40 PM
Aha John, the wisdom of youth (or the lack of it) is usually what sums the situation up..until you`ve "burnt the bridge" . or "don`t know what you`ve got `til it`s gone". As the song from Melanie goes "you pay for paradise and you pick up a parking lot".
 
I have to observe that our forebears on both the 16th 17th centuries "obtained" a lot of of the worlds wealth by both fair means and foul. With this wealth they (the entrapenuers) became benfactors to both local instiutions and public building projects.
 
Bath being lucky to have both men of wisdom and wealth, (and a few notable opportunists thrown in for good measure) became noted for it`s architecture due to these above factors. Quality always comes at a cost, and I guess what you`re saying is about the same. Working by constraints of commerceial practice, you can`t have what you can`t afford to maintain.
 
Bath has to be no exception of course, but in recent years, we, (the coumcil tax payers), have seen tax rises well above inflation, development of a "favourite" project policy adopted by the self elected "gang of nine" who control the purse strings. The result?.."poor value for money projects" and in the creation of these projects , a significant downturn in pprojects for "social needs."
 
A "brave new world" was heralded in by our own parents after the war, and it was opportunity to "brush away the old", with hindsight, we look back with a tool our school teachers could not teach us with, "experience". Had we known what we were going to lose in the future, doubtless we (society in general) would not have made those "simplistic" and "cheaper" decisions.
 
Did I mention that I`m not a communist by the way?.. but trying to become a "realist" ..OY ! .. who kicked my soap-box away ? .. now come on, don`t be silly .. just bring it back .. go on, and we`ll forget all about it ..
 
- 8/23/2009 1:55:01 AM
Hi Bill and all.
Hey, Bill, it's nice to know that you have a soap box as well, I think it's something you collect on the way along with experience! Nice to climb up on it sometimes and give forth to the fire and brimstone about the things that are going on these days, I don't think it solves much, but it makes you feel a whoe lot better.
The odd thing about this particlar subject is that it is fairly obvious that everyone that has voiced an opinion really cares about the fate of our fair city, unlike the people that seem to hold power. Don't they realise that they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg, if nothing else!
I've said this before, the final act of heresy as far as I'm concerned was not preventing Fishy Evans' from becoming a dress shop!!
I know the chip shop was not part of the historic city, but it had been in that area since Moses was in short trousers, and we all grew up with it. I checked on the internet as soon as the situation became clear and as far as I could tell Bath does not have a chip shop within the City limits now. A local restauranteur told me that the City had increased the rates for such businesses to such a level that they were no longer able to pay their way. In fact he told me, at his busy city centre cafe, that his rates were about to rise to twenty one grand a year, and he reckoned that he would be out of business by the end of the year. 
Sad state of affairs.
That damn soap box!
Going to bed now, hope I am not so grumpy tomorrow. Have to take sister in law back to Yeovil. They have several good chip shops!
             John. 
- 8/23/2009 8:38:27 AM

True Bill, the rape of the colonies and other lands was something of a British forte in the 17th-19th century.  As you say it furnished cities such as Bath and Clifton with fine terraces and crescents and dare one say it a university (founded almost entirely on the wealth from chocolate and tobacco).  However, we are still an extremely wealthy country today, and by reading comments in this discussion, many of us are passionate about the city we grew up in, visit and/or love - it therefore follows that architectural historians will judge this post-war period in Bath as one of aesthetic poverty and rank carelessness.  We have nothing to show future generations about how we contributed positively to the evolution of Bath (apart from perhaps cleaning up those soot/acid blackened Georgian facades, some of which still linger in one or two places even today).

We were in town shopping on Saturday and it was about 6 pm when we decided to go for a drink.  There used to be a pub, which had an outside drinking area at the back of the Octagon, and being a fairly sunny evening we headed in that direction.  Well, they have certainly tidied up that area.  We sat at a table and after about 10 minutes a sullen and very orange waitress came to take our order......."a pint of best and a small Chardonnay" say I.   She mutters something on an intake of breath which (with my failing hearing) I complete miss.  After a deep and dismissive sigh she gives a repeat performance and I am thus led to understand that I have a choice of 3 very expensive continental "blonde" beers - nothing Bath/English/British.  My Peroni (is it called that?) arrives in what my wife, in a sudden burst of impropriety, called a poofy glass.  As I suspected all gas and no flavour.   Is this what we offer our foreign visitors? Are we ashamed of Bath Ales?  Even the waitresses affected unidentifiable accents.

I've got to stop or I'll be a target for BNP recruitment - the tablets clearly aren’t working at present but the soapbox is standing up rather well.

How about a new discussion on the best drinking hole in Bath?

Mike


 

   
- 8/23/2009 10:28:26 AM
Hi Mike
 
Have a look at the discussion  " Pubs and their part in my downfall".
 
Cheers
 
Steve
- 8/23/2009 11:47:22 AM
 
Hi All - It's AndY Short here. Just to let everyone know, that our english teacher Maureen Williams died last week of cancer. Mike Williiams - physics and chemistry teacher - let me know. Her funeral is at Swainswick Church at 1400 tomorrow Monday. Anyone available please come to the church.
 
I am in the throse of joining The Tec site.
 
Andy. 
- 8/23/2009 2:29:41 PM
Hi Andrew,
I`t`s sad that our first conversation has to take place with a subject such as this, but I`m sure that if Anthony Eccles intends to go that he can give me a lift.  I`d love to be able to pay my respects. ( I can`t really take the scooter because my leg is playing up, and the wife has got the car for her work.)
 
It`s only a little effort to make to show gratitude for her endeavours on our behalf at school. If I should be unable to attend, (I assume that you are), please give my condolences to her husband Mike.
 
Regards, and thanks for letting us know.  Bill
- 8/23/2009 3:58:23 PM
So sorry to read this news.

I'll try to be there tomorrow.

Mike
- 8/23/2009 5:00:30 PM
Hi Andrew, Mike and all, I have just come off the phone from Anth Eccles .. he is away tomoorow a.m. early (with his grandsons for 4 days) .. so, I won`t be able to make it tommorow (so far).

 

Update: I have posted a message on both Forums in "Pub Pals" Bath Tech site to advise them of the funeral tomorrow.

- 8/23/2009 6:25:07 PM
Hi all. It's very sad to hear of Mrs Williams passing. Sadly it's too late for me to arrange any cover from Birmingham so won't be able to attend. I hope she is given a good send off by many old boys as she was, apart being an object of youthful fancy, a very good teacher and I do  thank her for my love of reading,  starting in 1961 with Moonfleet.
 
Rich
- 8/23/2009 7:29:39 PM
Hi guys, sad news indeed, unfortunately I won't be able to attend, no time to rearrange my day tomorrow. Could I please ask anyone who does attend Maureen Williams funeral to express our condolences as a group, to Mike Williams, for those individuals of us unable to attend.
 
Stu
- 8/23/2009 9:44:25 PM
Hi Guys.
I'd like to echo all the sentiments already expressed. A sad day indeed.
As I have already said in the past, I was never taught by Mrs Williams as I was in the third year when she joined the school, but I well remember that she was a breath of fresh air in a stuffy male environment. Had she ever taught me then possibly my English might have been a bit better than it is. (I'm sure there's a mixed something in there).
Obviously I shall not be able to attend the funeral as the notice is too short to change work commitments, so would any of the group that do attend please include my condolences to Mike.
                                     Bi to all.
                                       John.