Channel 4 Paralympic Torch Relay Team

Channel 4 Announces Paralympic Torch Relay Team

Five individuals who have made outstanding contributions to British disability sport have been rewarded with a place on the 24-hour Paralympic Torch Relay in August.
(PRWEB) June 21, 2012

Five individuals who have made outstanding contributions to British disability sport have been rewarded with a place on the 24-hour Paralympic Torch Relay in August.

Channel 4 will be represented by Jackie Bullen, Stacey Burns, Jenny Archer, Tony Larkin and Heather Hodge, who have displayed "the Paralympic values of courage, determination, inspiration and equality to make a difference or push the boundaries of what is achievable."

The quintet will cover 0.5 miles together holding their own torches, although only one will be lit at any one time.

The lit flame will be passed every 160m so all five members of the Channel 4 team will have the opportunity to hold the torch.

In all, 580 people will work in teams of five to carry the torch from Stoke Mandeville, the spiritual home of the Paralympic movement, to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford throughout the day and night between 28-29 August.

About Channel 4's team:
Jackie Bullen
Jackie is a voluntary press officer for Goalball UK and mother to women’s ParalympicsGB team member Georgie Bullen.

Jackie discovered goalball after taking Georgie to a sports day organised by British Blind Sport. Georgie was spotted in 2009 and Jackie has been her biggest support taking her to training camps across the country.

Jackie took on the challenge of building public awareness of goalball and gave up a huge amount of time writing to journalists, organising awareness days, facilitating TV crews and organising the two squads.

She also helped raising funds to support training and transport. It was through this role that Jackie met Stacey Burns, Series Producer of Channel 4’s "That Paralympic Show" who nominated her.

Jackie also runs her own house and pet-sitting business. Her husband and three sons Jamie, Josh and Nick will be in London cheering the GB team on.

Stacey Burns
Stacey is the series producer of Channel 4’s programme "Road to London 2012: That Paralympic Show."

Stacey has worked across four series since 2010 delivering 40 episodes of the popular Saturday lunchtime which is presented by Ade Adepitan, Rick Edwards and Iwan Thomas.

The show educates the audience on all things parasport whilst raising the profile and awareness of a range of individual sports.

Stacey and her team have worked with all sports governing bodies, travelled the country visiting training camps and competitions in search of elite athletes and performances to bring them to a brand-new audience.

As well as working on "That Paralympic Show" Stacey has also produced two series of the short films "BT & Channel 4 Presents…." which showcases the skill, determination and awe inspiring dedication of some of the world’s best Paralympic athletes.

Stacey was nominated by Deborah Poulton, Project Leader Paralympics for Channel 4.

Jenny Archer
Jenny is coach to world-class wheelchair racer David Weir. Jenny met David at the London Youth Games and after following his career became his coach in 2002.

She guided Weir to double gold in Beijing 2008, triple gold at the 2011 World Championships and a record sixth title at the 2012 London Marathon. Formerly a teacher, Archer was a fitness coach with Wimbledon Football Club for 11 years before coaching Weir.

Jenny was nominated by Channel 4’s reporter and and ex-Olympic 400m runner Iwan Thomas.

"I had the pleasure of being coached by Jenny for a feature we filmed on 'That Paralympic Show' and from day one I could see the close respectful bond she had with her athletes," said Iwan.

"The amount of time and dedication she gives is amazing, she is the one who deserves a medal! A real joy to meet and work with such an inspirational woman.”

Tony Larkin
Tony has been the head coach of the GB/England blind football team since 1997 and has taken the team to seven European Championships, six World Championships and the Beijing Paralympics.

The former professional footballer has also worked for the Royal National College for the Blind since 1989, where he currently holds the post of director, setting up the UK's first blind football academy.

He has been an inspiration to many blind young people and has been instrumental in raising the national profile of blind football and in developing a national blind football coaching network.

Tony was nominated by Stacey Burns, Series Producer of Channel4’s "Road to London 2012: That Paralympic Show."

Heather Hodge
Heather is mother to "That Paralympic Show" biggest fan, eight-year-old Billy, who is hemiplegic.

Billy made a video about Paralympic sport as part of a homework project. Heather sent the video to Channel 4 where the team were moved by what they saw; the video was shared and was picked up by LOCOG, IPC, BT Paralympic World Cup, Hemihelp charity and lots of Paralympic websites and athletes.

Heather is a bursar at Billy's school and has organised a Paralympic awareness day for the summer term giving children the opportunity to try disability sports as well as arranging trips to watch the BT Paralympic World Cup.

She is also the regional representative for Hemihelp charity and arranges events for parents and families to get together and socialise and helped to set up a new Facebook-based support group.

Heather was nominated by Deborah Poulton, Project Leader, Paralympics Channel 4.

Paralympic Gold Medallists Heading to Eton Manor

Paralympic Gold Medallists Heading to Eton Manor Wheelchair Tennis International

Peter Norfolk, British gold medallist from Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer from the Netherlands, unbeaten over an incredible 452 singles matches since January 2003, are two of the stars among the entries confirmed for the Eton Manor Wheelchair Tennis International from 3 to 6 May.

(PRWEB) April 21, 2012

Peter Norfolk, British gold medallist from Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer from the Netherlands, unbeaten over an incredible 452 singles matches since January 2003, are two of the stars among the entries confirmed for the Eton Manor Wheelchair Tennis International from 3 to 6 May.

Download images from Eton Manor

Part of the ITF Wheelchair Tennis circuit and the London Prepares series, the official London 2012 test events, the tournament will give players the chance to compete in the London 2012 venue for Wheelchair Tennis ahead of the Paralympic Games.

The world-class line up for the tournament will feature players from around the world competing in all six Paralympic-featured events: men’s and women’s Singles; men’s and women’s Doubles; Quad Singles; and Quad Doubles.

In the men’s competition, British No1 Gordon Reid will expect strong competition from Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands - the Singles gold medallist in Athens 2004 and silver medallist from Beijing 2008.

Esther Vergeer will also be expected to set the standard on behalf of the Netherlands for the women. Vergeer has won Singles gold at the last three Paralympic Games. Britain’s 19 year old No1 Jordanne Whiley will be among those to provide the latest opposition to Vergeer’s unbeaten status in May.

The Quad competition features GB stars Peter Norfolk and Andrew Lapthorne. Peter has won the last two Paralympic Singles gold medals. Andrew is the current world number 4 and recently partnered Peter to the Australian Open Quad Doubles title in January. As well as featuring in the Doubles, they will also compete against each other at Eton Manor.

The tournament will be vital in giving the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) the chance to test its operations including the athlete and wheelchair movements around the venue, the results and scoring systems, and workforce.

The competition lasts for four days and 3,000 tickets have been sold to the public for Saturday 5 May. On the same day four other Olympic venues will be in operation simultaneously as LOCOG test operations with over 70,000 people on the Olympic Park.

The full list of entries can be found here:
http://www.londonpreparesseries.com/wheelchairtennis/whos-competing/index.html

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office.

Notes to editors:

Esther Vergeer (NED) – World number 1 since 1999. She already has five Paralympic gold medals and is unbeaten in over 452 singles matches since January 2003, including 20 consecutive Grand Slam singles titles.

Jordanne Whiley (GBR) – Great Britain’s number 1 at just 19 years old. Jordanne is one of the top wheelchair tennis players in the country, following her father who is a wheelchair tennis player and was also an Athletics medallist at the 1984 Paralympics in New York. She became Britain’s youngest ever national wheelchair singles champion when she won the title in 2007, aged just 14. Jordanne made her Paralympic debut in Beijing, where she reached the quarter-finals of the doubles tournament with fellow British player Lucy Shuker.

Peter Norfolk (GBR) - Quad singles champion from Athens and Beijing, won his fifth Australian Open in January. Peter has dominated the Quad classification of wheelchair tennis since it was introduced into the Paralympic programme for the Games in Athens in 2004. This domination earned him the nickname “The Quadfather”. Peter won Britain’s first ever tennis medal at a Paralympic Games by becoming Paralympic Champion in 2004, he retained the title in Beijing in 2008. Peter also helped Great Britain’s medal tally at both Games by also medalling in the doubles.

Andrew Lapthorne (GBR) – Andrew took up wheelchair tennis six years ago. Andrew made his Grand Slam debut at the 2011 Australian Open in Melbourne, where he partnered Norfolk to win the quad doubles, thereby winning his first Grand Slam title. Lapthorne and Norfolk retained the Australian Open title in January this year.

Gordon Reid (GBR) - from Scotland, has beaten the current world number 1 Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands twice in 2011.

London 2012 Games partners:
The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Supplier, Otto Bock. The London 2012 Paralympic Games also acknowledges the support of the National Lottery.

World’s Best Wheelchair Rugby Teams Arrive in London

The World’s Best Wheelchair Rugby Teams Arrive in London

Four of the world’s best Wheelchair Rugby teams will compete in the London International Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament this week, a test event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games and part of the London Prepares series.

(PRWEB) April 19, 2012

Four of the world’s best Wheelchair Rugby teams will compete in the London International Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament this week, a test event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games and part of the London Prepares series.

Taking place from 18-19 April in the Basketball Arena in the Olympic Park, the event will give the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) the chance to test its operations including the field of play, results and scoring systems, and workforce.

For the competing teams this will be their one chance to compete in the same venue that will host the Wheelchair Rugby competition during the Paralympic Games.

Wheelchair Rugby is one of the most fast and thrillingParalympic sports and with Australia, Sweden, Canada and Great Britain ranked second, fourth, fifth and sixth in the world respectively competing in the tournament, it is set to be a fierce contest.

Debbie Jevans, Director of Sport at LOCOG, said: 'The London Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament is the first Paralympic test event of this year and will be a vital test of our operations. Wheelchair Rugby is an exciting sport and we are delighted to be hosting some of the world’s best teams as well as being able to offer the opportunity to thousands of people from the local area to come and watch the competition.'

Tickets for the Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament have been given to local schools and colleges as well as members of the sports governing body. Over 2000 spectators will enjoy the action over the two days of competition.

Wheelchair Rugby during the Paralympic Games takes place from Wednesday 5 September – Sunday 9 September 2012 with eight teams battling it out in the Basketball Arena.

For more details, visit http://www.londonpreparesseries.com

Notes to editors:
For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office.

London 2012 Games partners:

The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Supplier, Otto Bock. The London 2012 Paralympic Games also acknowledges the support of the National Lottery.

Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/4/prweb9421385.htm

London Olympics : Paralympic Games to be Opened by The Queen

Paralympic Games to be Opened by The Queen

With six months to go to the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is delighted to confirm that Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, will open the London 2012 Paralympic Games in the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday 29 August.

(PRWEB) March 01, 2012

With six months to go to the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is delighted to confirm that Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, will open theLondon 2012 Paralympic Games in the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday 29 August.

With the role of The Queen in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday 27 July already established, The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will now open both Games. As Head of State, The Queen will proclaim the Paralympic Games open by saying: ‘I declare open the London 2012 Paralympic Games’.

This will be the first time The Queen has opened a Paralympic Games. In 1976 the Queen opened the Montreal Olympic Games and in 1956 The Duke of Edinburgh (on behalf of The Queen) opened the Melbourne Olympic Games.

The 1984 Paralympic Games were officially opened by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. These Games were held in both Europe and North America, with the Opening Ceremony in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire – the birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

LOCOG Chair Seb Coe said: ‘This summer we will be hosting the largest Paralympic Games ever and the Opening Ceremony on 29 August will be a fantastic event. The Paralympic Games will undoubtedly be a time of extraordinary pride for our nation, and it is fitting that Her Majesty will declare us underway.’

International Paralympic Committee President Sir Philip Craven said:
‘I am delighted that Her Majesty The Queen will be opening the Paralympic Games, further underlining the significance and status of these Games not just to the Commonwealth but to the whole world.’

Notes to editors:
Further detail on the Opening Ceremonies can be found here:http://www.london2012.com/games/ceremonies/the-ceremonies/opening-ceremonies.php

Stoke Mandeville as birthplace of the Paralympic Games:
In 1948, Dr Ludwig Guttmann organized a wheelchair archery competition at Stoke Mandeville hospital for World War II soldiers with spinal cord injuries. The competition took place between sports clubs and other hospitals on the same day as the Opening Ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games. Four years later, as more sports were added, athletes from Holland joined in and the international Paralympic Movement was born.

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office.

London 2012 Games partners:
The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Supplier, Otto Bock. The London 2012 Paralympic Games also acknowledges the support of the National Lottery.

Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9243580.htm

Wenlock and Mandeville

Wenlock and Mandeville

The groundswell is growing in London against the elitism and commercialisation of the London 2012 Olympics, dubbed in some quarters “The rip-off Olympics.” One commentator has captured the mood:

"The Olympic spirit no longer exists, it's been completely replaced by a relentless hunger to make the Games as much of a money-spinner as possible; for the contestants, for the organisers, and especially for the corporate sponsors."

The imposition on Londoners is considerable; Transport plans based on 30% of Londoners not going to work during the Olympics, sky high ticket prices but the best seats reserved en bloc for freeloaders and sponsors. A so called “traffic free” Olympics but with 3 Zhil Lanes (now renamed Olympic Ways) for the “Olympic Family (50,000 “VIPs”, officials and freeloaders) to have exclusive access to these lanes in 3,000 prestige cars on security grounds - and this for what was billed as "Car Free Olympics!" And then there is the overweening sponsorship; In the Olympic sites, you can only drink Coca Cola products, you can only use Visa, you can only eat McDonalds, you cannot wear anything with somebody else’s logo in an outburst of sponsor fascism. In Bhopal in India nearly 200 survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster have burned effigies of Lord Coe and an Indian Olympic official to protest against Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the London Games.


Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the organising committee with the London 2012 Logo which bears a passing resemblance to Lisa Simpson!


Olympic Stadium under construction in 2010 with Canary Wharf in the background. All the main venues have now been completed a year before the event.

The spectre of commerce was conspicuous in its absence at the first Olympic Games staged after the Second World War. The president of the IOC, Avery Brundage, was a right-wing businessman from the USA; but he opposed with a messianic vehemence any moves to develop the Olympics on a more commercialised footing. Even at the time of his retirement, at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Brundage was still declaring that the IOC ‘should have nothing to do with money.’ The idealistic founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertain, spoke against ‘athletics as a show’, implying that commercially-based large-scale events would corrupt the amateur spirit: drawing upon promotional budgets and generating large crowds to justify the investment in the event, ‘these oversized showcases are the source of the corruption at the root of the evil.’


The main venues @ The Olympic Park in East London

Consider then that London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville have failed to visit a single school in an Olympic borough as head teachers struggle to pay their "exorbitant" appearance fee. Pupils in Hackney were left disappointed after the two characters used to promote the Games stayed away, despite repeated requests by staff. Emma Penzer, the head of Mandeville Primary, said her school had failed to qualify for a free visit, despite sharing a name with one mascot. She said the school, from where pupils can see the Olympic stadium, was now considering paying £850 for the privilege. "Normally we would not even consider spending £850 on something like this," she said."But as our name is Mandeville and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the children, we have thought about it. We'd hoped for a free visit but didn't win the draw."


Stoke Mandeville - Spiritual Home of the Paralympics

The characters are named after the small town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire - which hosted a precursor to the modern Olympic Games in the 19th Century - and the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire. The Wenlock Games gave inspiration to de Coubertain as he formed his concept of the modern Olympics in 1896. Olympic motifs chime through the design: Wenlock wears the Olympic rings as friendship bracelets, and although predominantly silver in colour, also contains flashes of gold and bronze. Mandeville's head reflects aspects of the three crescent shapes of the Paralympics symbol. In a deliberate homage to London taxis, each has a yellow light on top of its head, with an initial in the middle.

Mandeville's name is inspired by Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire. In the 1940s, Dr.Ludwig Guttmann came to Stoke Mandeville Hospital to set up a new spinal unit to help former soldiers suffering from spinal cord injuries. Looking for ways to inspire those in his care, he encouraged them to take up sport, leading to the formation of the Stoke Mandeville Games, widely recognised as a forerunner of the modern Paralympic movement.

You can follow the adventure of these strange (and expensive) creatures on their own site;

http://www.london2012.com/mascots

The £850 fee is to cover the two "actors" who put on the Wenlock and Mandeville costumes and also to pay for an assistant. A visit from one of the characters costs £600. Neighbouring Newham has had one school visit, Greenwich one and Tower Hamlets three.




Stratford International Station - The public transport gateway to the Olympics - just 9 minutes from St. Pancras on "The Olympic Javelin"

Andrew Boff, Tory spokesman on the Olympics at the London Assembly, said he will raise the subject as it appeared Hackney schools were "not getting their fair share". A spokesman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games said: "Our priority is and has always been to make mascot visits available free to schools via initiatives and competitions."Wenlock and Mandeville have already visited many schools."

Perhaps Jeremy Clarkson could arrange for them to be executed in front of their Olympic family?

See also; London Olympics 2012

http://www.daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/01/london-olympics-2012-stratford-station.html

Paralympic Games and Stoke Mandeville

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html

Happy Birthday NHS July 5th 2011

Happy 63rd Birthday to the National Health Service!


Stoke Mandeville; National Spinal Injuries Centre

Local residents, service providers, service users and Labour Party activists were joined by Cllr Michael Beall and Cllr Robin Stuchbury at the main entrance of Stoke Mandeville Hospital on today, Monday 4th July 2011 at to celebrate the establishment of the National Health Service 63 years ago under a reforming Labour Government in 1948. The impetus was the widespread National feeling that having made such sacrifices in wartime together the country owed its citizens the respect of providing healthcare free at point of delivery based on need, not what people can afford to pay.



The event involved the cutting of a cake adorned with 63 candles and the singing of Happy Birthday to the NHS.

----
The following local residents have expressed their sentiment about Stoke Mandeville Hospital and its services:


Zard Ali Khan with his grandchildren

Mr. Zard Khan: "I worked at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for 6 years and loved every minute of it. Now as a patient with mobility issues, I am more than ever in need of high quality local services."



Cllr Michael Beall

Cllr Michael Beall: “The NHS is a fantastic institution and the coalition government are tearing the heart and soul out of it. I am very worried that the health concerns of my electorate will not be met under the proposed budget constraints and will do all that I can to ensure their voices are heard."

Shirley Raw: "I've been to Stoke Mandeville Hospital recently and I have nothing but praise for the speed and courtesy with which I was seen. I really worry about the ability of staff to keep this standard up if their numbers diminish and their workloads go up.”

----
Email; Aylesbury_labour@yahoo.co.uk
Website; http://www.aylesburylabour.org.uk/
Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/aylesburylabourparty
Twitter; @aylesburylabour


Stoke Mandeville; Home of the Paralympics

To the residents of Aylesbury Vale Stoke Mandeville is not just a much appreciated local health facility for it has left a very big footprint on the world. The Paralympics are a particular source of pride for it is Stoke Mandeville Hospital and a remarkable surgeon Ludwig Guttmann who gave birth to the remarkable phenomenon of the Paralympics. As the first organised “Stoke Mandeville Games” took place in conjunction with the 1948 Olympic Games hosted in a war shattered London then for the 2012 games in London the Paralympics will truly be coming home!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html

St. George’s Day in Aylesbury

St. George in person in Aylesbury!

The 23rd of April is St. George’s Day, the feast of the Patron St. of England. This of course would have been a great surprise to St. George who, being a Minor Asian, never knew the place existed. What is clear is that Richard the Lionheart, a French Plantagenet, who actually spoke English badly and spent less than six months in England as King endorsed St. George as Patron Saint because the Crusaders identified with his being martyred in land which they held as part of The Kingdom of Jerusalem and then of Acre in the 13th Century. George's reputation grew with the returning crusaders. A miracle appearance, when it was claimed that he appeared to lead crusaders into battle, is recorded in stone over the south door of a church at Fordington in Dorset. This still exists and is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to Saint George. The Council of Oxford in 1222 named 23rd April as Saint George's Day.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-st-george-and-england.html



So today in Aylesbury our out of touch Town Council organises St George’s Day events to demonstrate its irrelevance and its increasingly urgent need to justify its own existence. Afterwards to recover a gentle stroll to our wonderful (they only overspent by £18,000 a seat!) new Waterside Theatre and then to the adjoining canal basin which is the terminus of the Aylesbury Branch of the Grand Union Canal.






WARNING; Scenes of Morris Dancing in Kingsbury Square

Laugh if you may but Aylesbury, the County Town of Buckinghamshire, is not unknown to the stars of stage and screen. Part of Clockwork Orange was filmed in our concrete underpasses, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh lived nearby at Notely Abbey, David Jason lives by Coombe Hill and Sir John Gielgud lived in the South Pavilion, Grendon Underwood House, now Tony & Cherie Blair’s country house. Many made their way to the Prime Minister’s country house at Chequers 2 miles from our modest cottage and Burton, Taylor and many famous luvvies used to wine and dine at the Bell in Aston Clinton when it was a rather top restaurant. And then there was an actor who began his acting career in Aylesbury more than 60 years ago.






The shape and use of materials in the Waterside Theatre is designed to echo the wooded rolling Chiltern Hills with their limestone underlay


Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury


Ronnie Barker's statue

A bronze statue of the late comedy legend Ronnie Barker was unveiled last September at the opening of the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury. The Porridge and Two Ronnie’s star, who died five years ago, was born in Bedford and Aylesbury Vale District Council commissioned sculptor Martin Jennings to design the statue as part of its Waterside development project. It now takes pride of place in the new public space in Exchange Street. The statue was officially unveiled by Mr Barker's widow, Joy.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/ronnie-barker-in-aylesbury.html

The Aylesbury arm runs in a beeline from Marsworth Junction, on the Grand Union Canal which connects Birmingham to London, ending up in the town basin, the home of the Aylesbury Canal Society. From Marsworth Junction to Aylesbury Basin is around six and a quarter miles and sixteen locks, the Marsworth seven and Aylesbury nine. The canal arm took just three years to build after over fifteen years of 'planning'. The canal takes most of its water from the Grand Union through Marsworth Junction - Aylesbury Canal Locks 1 and 2, the only staircase locks on the southern Grand Union Canal system.
















Aylesbury Canalside

Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. In the 2001 census the Aylesbury Urban Area, which includes Bierton, Fairford Leys, Stoke Mandeville and Watermead, had a population of 69,021, which included 56,392 for the Aylesbury civil parish. This is expected to be over 90,000 after the 2011 census.
The town's population has doubled since the 1960s due to new housing developments, including many London overspill housing estates, built to ease pressure on the capital, and to move people from crowded inner city slums to more favourable locations. Indeed Aylesbury, to a greater extent than many English market towns, saw substantial areas of its own heart demolished in the 1950s/1960s as 16th-18th century houses (many in good repair) were pulled down to make way for commercial developments.



Traditionally the town was a commercial centre with a market dating back to the Saxon period. This is because it was established on the main Akeman Street which became an established trade route linking London to the southwest. In 1180 a gaol was established in the town (it is still there though has moved locations two or three times) which only really happened in main towns across the country.






Market Square, Aylesbury

By the late 19th century the printers and bookbinders, Hazell, Watson and Viney and the Nestlé dairy were the two main employers in the town, employing more than half the total population. Today the town is still a major commercial centre and the market still meets on the cobbles of the old Market Square four days a week. Nestle and Hazell, Watson and Viney have both gone, as has the US Automotive parts producer TRW, who left the town in 2006. Although three major industrial centres make sure the town has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.


Britain's most unlikely Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beconsfield


Sir John Hampden, the local MP whose refusal to pay the Ship Tax to Charles I led to the English Civil War

Stoke Mandeville was also the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which first took place in 1948 and are now known as the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games. The Games, which were held eight times at Stoke Mandeville, were the inspiration for the Paralympic Games, also called The Stoke Mandeville Games, which were organised in Rome in 1960. The wheelchair aspects of the 1984 Paralympics were also held in the village. The London 2012 Summer Paralympics mascot, Mandeville, is named after the village, based on the games once held there. Stoke Mandeville Stadium was developed alongside the hospital and is the National Centre for Disability Sport in the United Kingdom, enhancing the hospital as a world centre for paraplegics and spinal injuries.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html

As well as the convenient and much improving shopping, educational, medical, entertainment and employment opportunities of Aylesbury what most people appreciate here is the position at the centre of the fertile Vale of Aylesbury just the far side of the Chiltern Hills from London. Buckinghamshire is one of the loveliest of the Home Counties - some say the loveliest - and its Chiltern Hills and beechwoods, beautiful River Thames and the rolling acres of Aylesbury Vale make it a place for visitors to enjoy. Country walks run between picturesque villages with a host of welcoming pubs.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/chiltern-spring.html

The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beechwoods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. A wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams.







So that is the attraction of Aylesbury, a sizable town with facilities which make it convenient set in lovely Buckinghamshire countryside within 50 minutes commute of London and with good travel connections to the rest of the UK and to London’s airports.


The Chiltern Hills