Visit to the Guide Dogs Centre

Twenty of us drove the three miles south from a good lunch at The Heathcote to the Guide Dogs for the Blind National Centre, south of Leamington near Oakley Wood. This is the largest dog breeding centre in the world – yes! In the world! (Who knew??). they have room to breed up to 1,500 puppies a year. And they are world leaders in “puppy socialisation and dog training”.

Guide dogs say “we’re here to help people with sight loss live the life they choose”. And unfortunately there are more and more people losing their sight each year – apparently at a rate of one every six minutes, or 20 in the time we took to enjoy our tour.

We were taken on the tour in groups of five and we learned lots. For example it takes a couple of years to rear and train a guide dog. And costs £30,000. But then they can work for 8-10 years and totally transform the lives of the humans matched with them.

The Centre is a very impressive complex of buildings which include a dad’s home, a mum’s home and a ‘honeymoon suite’, a pre-whelping area, a place for pups to be born, another for post-whelping, plus a hospital and even an isolation centre. There are playgrounds for puppies too. And they have underfloor heating!

Dogs come from all over the world to this famous centre. They have a cryogenics centres and an important DNA bank. They have incredible knowledge about how to breed dogs with just the right traits to match up with humans.

One of the intriguing and challenging parts of the tour was going through the sensory tunnel. And when the braver amongst us volunteered to take hold of a white cane, put on a blindfold and walk up an incline then back down some steps. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But not when you try it for the first time!

The volunteers are a wonderful group of people. Totally committed to what they do. And obviously loving every minute of it.

And yes – we got to see some adorable puppies too.

Another excellent MIRTH outing, for which we thank Peter Davis and others involved

Welcome Hills Walk

A couple of innovations were tried in this week’s MIRTH walk. The first was the staggered start. Not entirely successful, but at least we were all together by the time we reached the steeper part of the hill up from Stratford-upon-Avon to the Welcome Hills. Our objective? The famous Welcome Hills Obelisk. Yes – the one with the amazing views west -> south -> east, over Stratford and to the Malvern Hills. All clearly visible on this gloriously sunny day.

Among the 10 of us were a few who had not been up to the obelisk before and were intrigued to learn that the monument was erected in 1876 by Robert Needham Philips to commemorate his brother, Mark Philips, and their father, Robert Philips. Mark Philips was a prominent figure in the early 19th century. He was born in Manchester in 1800 and made his fortune in the cotton industry. He was also a successful politician and served as the first Member of Parliament for Manchester from 1832 to 1847. Robert Phillips was a successful businessman and landowner. He was also a philanthropist and donated money to a number of charities, including the University of Warwick and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
The obelisk is a beautiful and impressive monument. It is made of limestone and stands 100 feet tall. The four sides of the obelisk are inscribed with tributes to Mark, Robert, and Robert Needham Philips

On then to lunch at the Boar’s Head in Hampton Lucy where we were joined to two more MIRTH stalwarts to enjoy the fine fare this pub always has to offer us.

And the other innovation? The return trip to our starting point in Maidenhead Road, Stratford. Why? Well … to look for the pair of boots which one bright MIRTH spark had forgotten to put in his car after the walk 😳. He was mightily relieved to find the boots in a box kindly labelled ‘Lost & found’ – and to realise that while he might have lost his boots (temporarily) at least he hadn’t lost his marbles 😉

Finding (& keeping faith ) in a bad world.

Chris McKeogh visited MIRTH for a third time in 8 years to share insights into his life, faith and career.

Again we enjoyed hearing how his career progressed thorough the ranks of the police force and stories as to how this had been impacted by his Christian faith. Chris spent the final part of his career as deputy director at the National Crime Agency.

A Spring walk in the park

There were 8 of us on the MIRTH walk this month. We walked through the Parks of Leamington. The spring flowers are emerging and made a cheerful display along the way.

You can walk from Newbold Comyn to Jephson Gardens then cross the road to Pump Room Gardens before arriving in Victoria Park. The round trip is about 3 miles all through parks or green spaces.

Richard pointed out various points of interest, some members had there own stories to tell of the 1998 Easter floods when the town was divided into two when the River Leam burst its banks and flooded the bridges.

Something new always seems to be happening in Leamington. In the Jephson Gardens a team were hard at work installing a statue by the sculptor John Bridgeman recently donated to the town by his family.

After our walk, it was good to have lunch at the Newbold Comyn Arms.

The Shetland Bus

Long standing MIRTH member Paul Davison delivered a fascinating talk on “The Shetland Bus”. In April of 1940 Germany invaded Norway to help secure the supply route of iron ore that was vital to the war. The King of Norway refused to surrender. After leaving Oslo and heading North he was together with key members of the Government evacuated to the UK where they governed in exile throughout the remainder of the war. At the same time Winston Churchill was establishing the SOE (Special Operations Executive) to take the fight behind enemy lines. Therefore the scene was set for the secret operation known as The Shetland Bus to be created.

Paul went on to explain that Norway was a tough place to be a farmer but a great place to be a fisherman. The Norwegian fisherman had great navigational skills, a big network of contact and lots of courage. Many of these fishermen would volunteer for this dangerous work. They came and lived in the Shetland islands as the nearest free land to their now occupied homeland. They then used their skills to smuggle agents and war supplies into the Norwegian resistance and smuggle out refugees that were being hunted by the Gestapo. Most of the operations took place in the Winter months when the longer dark nights provided better cover from the German air patrols. In the first two Winter seasons mainly Norwegian fishing boats were used but these suffered much damage from storms and air attack with casualties reaching nearly 50%.

The USA provided a solution by supplying three submarine-hunting ships. These very fast and agile ships could get in and out of Norwegian waters avoiding navel units and if attacked by aircraft they had excellent AA guns. Each ship was manned by 22 Norwegian volunteers and operated successfully through until the end of the war. The brave resistance of the Norwegian population was supported by this vital secret operation and Germany kept an army of over 280,000 in Norway trying to supress the resistance. Paul highlighted key individuals and memorials that commemorate these brave men in both the Shetland Islands and in Norway.

Walk around Whitnash

This month’s walk was around Whitnash and Leamington. Starting at the Plough & Harrow pub. We passed the centuries-old St Margaret’s Church. We continued through a large recreation ground before finding ourselves back in Leamington Spa. As often in the winter months, we explored using paved paths rather than muddy tracks.

We were passed by another walking group from the U3A as we walked along the Grand Union Canal.

We headed back into Whitnash past the impressive Civic Centre they have recently built. We passed by the St Margaret’s Shops and a large number of emergency vehicles were present and police tape surrounded the area. I found out later that sadly a man had been found dead in a car parked there.

We headed back to the cars and off to the Royal Horse for lunch.

It is always interesting to walk around the towns and villages close to Leamington, these places are much older and were much more important than Leamington Spa in years gone by. Only when the spa waters were discovered in the late 18th century did Leamington Spa develop from a tiny village into the town we have today.

Lagos to Leamington – a Career in Jornalism

On Tuesday 21st January 30 MIRTHers came to listen to Shyamantha Asokan talk about her experience in journalism and share reflections about issues including ethics and bias. She is currently a BBC journalist covering Birmingham and the West Midlands.

She started by telling us about her work as a reporter and photographer in the UK, Nigeria, India and the USA and her writing for The Economist, The Washington Post, the Financial Times and Reuters.

Questions from the floor started to flow very quickly – at Shyamantha’s invitation. She was impressed by how engaged and interactive our MIRTH audience was! And she was very good at throwing questions back to us, because is passionate about seeking feedback from her audiences.

She moved on to talk about her current work and the kind of stories she is covering and producing in Birmingham and the West Midlands. These include stories about motherhood and women’s rights. She also gathers in-depth case studies for NGOs – and it’s in that capacity that she came to know about MIRTH, when she was hoping to write a story about us.

Discussion ranged across current issues about how people access news, what they think about different media sources, impressions of degrees of bias, the borders between reporting and opinion, and of course how ethical journalists are (compared to for example social media ’news’ providers).

Our members agreed that it had been a fascinating talk, with useful insights into the world of journalism; and that we had really appreciated the opportunities to question & comment, and interact with Shyamantha.

Walking the Lawfords

Eight men were out braving the cold on this January morning. This week’s walk revisited Long Lawford.

We walked on the lanes to avoid the mud in the fields from the recent wet weather.

We walked around enjoying nature, cows were being fed in the barns and some daffodils were making an early appearance. The old landfill on the site of the old Long Lawford airfield with its gas extraction plant looked a bit like a golf course from a distance.

The last time we walked this route we passed flytipping, again we passed some senseless flytipping of rubbish (who thinks this is ok)?

Later we found a huge green tank being constructed on Coronation Lane, many theories were put forward by the MIRTH men as to the purpose of this tank, it was most likely a slurry tank (you can see the details
https://planning.agileapplications.co.uk/rugby/application-details/39961) yes, that’s a lot of slurry.

We passed over the main West Coast railway. A train of Tesco containers passed underneath on its way from Daventry to Doncaster. It was good to see so many containers off the road.

After the walk, we adjourned to The Old Smithy for lunch. We enjoyed good conversation over our food and drinks. Join us next month for another walk.

Blue Plaques of Leamington

Eight of us set off on a walk around Leamington. Richard had prepared a walk around town visiting some of the many properties with blue plaques. It is amazing how many influential people have lived in the town, including architects, hymn writers, artists, engineers, and many other professionals. Among the famous names are Frank Whittle the inventor of the jet engine, Frances Ridley Havergal a hymn writer who also attended St Paul’s Church, and Malcom Sayer the designer of the E-type jaguar.

As we walked past Portland Place we were reminded of the devastating power of the wind. In the recent storms a large cedar tree had fallen seriously injuring a passer-by. A mini crushed by the tree still remains where it had been parked.

After 2 hours of walking we adjourned to the old library for a much-needed lunch.

Mirth Christmas Lunch

This week we held our annual MIRTH Christmas lunch. Twenty-nine of us gathered at the Rugby Tavern for our celebrations. When we gather we like to chat; this time there was perhaps a little too much time for chat as we waited patiently for our food to arrive, some even thought we were copying Reginald Perrin’s no food dinner party idea.

We had all the usual trimmings including Christmas Crackers with bad jokes (Why did no one bid for Rudolph and Blitzen on eBay? Because they were two deer! Bom Bom)

Our food did eventually arrive and we all enjoyed a good lunch.

New friends were made over lunch and old friendships strengthened.
We look forward to our events in 2025.