Worrying

 

Worrying

Arthur, trying to make sense of it all.

Our middle daughter lives in South London, not far from Crystal Palace. Early each morning she goes for a run with her dog, Arthur. This morning, she discovered something disturbing in the woods. She took photographs, but did not investigate closely and would not allow Arthur too near, either.

Instead, she called the police, for what she had found looked worryingly like a body. 

 A police car and an ambulance arrived on the scene and after a short while the authorities determined that the polythene wrapped ‘body’ had probably been deposited as a Hallowe’en prank.

The police officer who was the first to investigate agreed that it looked very suspicious. It is a shame that one person’s idea of a joke results in money being wasted on public resources, but such things must be examined.

Not long ago, the various parts of a dismembered body were found near this location, so police are aware and alert at all times. This time, fortunately, it was just a poor joke in bad taste.

999

 

999

999 is the UK emergency number. If we require the immediate assistance of police, fire or ambulance our trembling finger jabs that number. It is also the number to be called if help is needed from HM Coastguard, Mountain or Cave Rescue and also for Lowland Search and Rescue.

The Berkshire Lowland Search and Rescue team can sometimes be found training in one of our local woods. On one occasion, when we were returning from a walk, Bertie, our late very placid and gentlemanly Labrador suddenly stopped, stood stock still and barked ferociously at a bush several yards away. Sure enough, a volunteer was hiding in it, waiting to be ‘rescued’.

We count ourselves extremely fortunate that we have had little need to call the emergency services. Once we had to call the local fire brigade when our daughter’s car caught fire. 

Crowthorne is an on-call (retained) fire service that has always been crewed by local people. A retained firefighter is a trained professional who may have a full-time job without the fire service but responds to emergency calls in the area.

On the occasion of the car fire, Barry had just got home from the ‘village’, which is more of a small town, actually, where he had been chatting to one of the retained firemen in a local shop. The car caught fire, though I can’t remember how or why, and 999 was called. Among the fire crew who attended was the chap Barry had been talking to a few minutes before. It was quite funny, really, when we looked back on it.

Whenever Barry set off on a sailing trip he always made sure I knew where he was going and what times he would call me, as he always liked to contact me daily. It was a safety strategy, as he had no desire to sail off the edge of the world! He said, ‘If you don’t hear from me by . . . (whatever time it was) . . . call the Coastguard.’ This was in the days before mobile ‘phones and GPS when courses were plotted on charts. 

I didn’t think any more of it until the day I didn’t hear from him. Feeling a little apprehensive, I called 999 and a rather bored-sounding operator said, ‘Which service do you require?’ When I said, ‘Coastguard’ I could almost hear her sit up straight as her voice changed. We don’t live anywhere near the coast so I suppose it was surprising.

I explained the safety plan to the Coastguard and where Barry had been heading. He then asked me, ‘What colour is the yacht’s deck?’ I told him it was white. Most boats have white decks so I couldn’t see how that could help, but he was the expert and I was now rather worried. He said he’d call me back with any news. A couple of hours later he called to say, ‘We’ve found your wandering boy.’ I was mightily relieved.

 It turned out that the boat was outside St-Vaast-La-Hougue, in Normandy, north-western France, unable to get into the port because it was low tide and the lock gates were closed.

                         Images of St-Vaast-La-Hougue courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Strange attitudes

 I was reading KLo’s post ‘Why is There an Inherent Disbelief of Rape Victims?’ and it reminded me of something my husband told me a little while ago.

Many years ago, before we were married, he was at a party in the 60s and talking to an attractive  young woman who was training to be a doctor. After a while she asked if he could give her some advice. What she told him shocked and astounded him.

She had been having a dental procedure when the dentist began making sexual advances to her which she had not invited and did not welcome. She reported the assault to the police whose response was, ‘We won’t do anything until we’ve received further complaints.’

The young woman was extremely distressed and asked Barry what she should do. He advised her to go back to the police and complain vociferously. Naturally, she was reluctant to do so and so he offered to go with her and voice her grievances but she backed off, not wanting to face the unsympathetic police again. Maybe talking to a young man who believed her story helped her to overcome her confusion and regain some confidence.

If such a stance had been applied by police to every criminal act, there would have been multiple robberies of houses, repeated muggings, several shoplifting offences, maybe even manifold murders before they would believe there was just cause to bring perpetrators to book.

Attitudes to sexual crimes have changed and continue to change, but far too slowly. There is too much acceptance that ‘professional people’  and people from ‘impeccable’ backgrounds are incapable of immorality and too much condemnation of young women’s dress, behaviour and attitudes added to a sense that victims ‘have asked for it.’  Those who speak out are brave to do so.

Fire!

Yesterday fires broke out in four different areas of Swinley forest. 150 fire fighters from four fire and emergency services attended alongside police and ambulances. Forest Rangers were hauling water bowsers while a police helicopter overhead directed operations and was alert to fresh outbreaks.

Image copyright Ian Emery

Strong swirling winds ensured that the fires spread rapidly in the dry undergrowth. The fire travelled underground as well as over the surface. There has been little significant rain for several weeks and the rich leaf mould covering the ground and the resin in the trees is highly combustible.

The skies were dark and the air was thick with smoke, the smell permeating everything. Emergency services are expected to remain on site until it is certain that the fires have been extinguished. Today a pall of smoke hangs over the forest and the wind is picking up again so that any small smouldering could be fanned into life afresh. It will be several days before we can resume our customary walks in Crowthorne Forest.

Some businesses and houses were evacuated yesterday and today local schools close to the forest boundaries have been closed. There has been no loss of life and for that we are thankful but the police will now be actively seeking the person or persons unknown who set the fires.

Last night we took the dogs to Simon’s Wood beyond the opposite end of the village but we could still see and smell the smoke, so today they will have a rest. It’s not good for their lungs – or ours – to breathe in smoky air.

You can just make out a fire appliance with its blue flashing light in the centre of the photo.

A week ago Barry reported fire and emergency services were called out. We thought it had been quenched. Maybe it was, but fire reappeared in the same area, so it seems that someone was determined to burn the forest. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, where nightjar, Dartford warbler and woodlark breed.  It is also one of the most important sites in the country for dragonflies and damselflies. 24 of the 38 species in the UK breed here.

Broadmoor

Image courtesy of Daily Mail and Wikimedia Commons

Many of you will already know that Barry and I live in a village in Berkshire. Crowthorne is not an attractive, chocolate box spot with thatched roofs and roses round the door, but more of a place you travel through to reach somewhere else. Since the bypass was built about twenty years ago most people don't even have to go anywhere near it now. I say that we live in the village but that is rather misleading for although our postal address is Crowthorne, geographically we live in Wokingham Without. (Without what, you may ask.)
Crowthorne is known mainly for two institutions – Wellington College, originally a boys' independent school but now co-educational. Fees are around £30,000 per annum. At the other end of the village, on the edge of the forest, is Broadmoor Hospital, the best-known of England's three high-security psychiatric hospitals. It houses 260 men and costs about £100,000 per patient per annum. During the First World War part of the hospital was used as a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers who were mentally ill. It was known as Crowthorne War Hospital.

Image courtesy of Sun and Wikimedia Commons

In 1952 one of the inmates escaped and murdered a local five-year-old girl. Local residents called for a warning method to alert the community to escapes and a system of warning sirens was established. These are based on the air-raid sirens so familiar during the Second World War and are tested for two minutes every Monday morning at 10:00. The two-note wail is then followed by a single tone 'all clear' for another two minutes. Every school within hearing of the siren has procedures to follow if the alarm warns of an escape. Basically, the schools lock all doors and windows and children are not allowed to leave except into the care of a known adult. It only happened once when I was teaching, in 1991, and it was not a pleasant experience.
Escapes are rare - the last serious one, in 1991, was of a child rapist. Road blocks were set up and vehicles were checked. At the time, Barry was just starting out for a run with the dogs. On the track entering the forest police had strung a tape on the understanding, presumably, that no-one would think to go either side of it. They stopped Barry and showed him a photo of the escapee and said, 'If you see him, run back here and tell us'. They had no intention of going into the trees!
Barry didn't see the escapee but he was recaptured two days later.
Many years ago a patient escaped but was so frightened by the unfamiliarity of the outside world that he gave himself up very soon.
It is thought but not proven that Jack the Ripper, who murdered prostitutes in the London of the 1880s, was Thomas Cutbush. He was a main suspect in the murders, which ceased after his arrest. He was committed to Broadmoor after being declared insane and died there in 1903.
Another murderer who was in Broadmoor for a time was Robert Maudsley. He was the inspiration for Hannibal Lecter. Current patients include the Yorkshire Ripper and the Stockwell Strangler.
One of the most interesting inmates was W C Minor, a retired American army surgeon. He was not considered a danger and so was allowed to buy books from London. Through his association with booksellers he learnt of the call for entries to what would become the Oxford English Dictionary. He sent thousands of contributions to the editor, Dr James Murray, who became very interested in his prolific correspondent and subsequently visited him in Broadmoor.
The hospital provides employment for many local people. It is often said, rather unkindly, that the nurses are more frightening than the patients! | must say that the ones we've met, walking their dogs, are friendly and have a great sense of humour. That must help in a job that could be soul-destroying. It's hard to find humanity in men who have committed such heinous crimes but, as the Quakers say, we must strive to find 'that of God' in every man.

Pity the lovelorn Boa Constrictor!

Essex (UK) police have warned that a 6' Boa Constrictor, possibly driven by seasonal reproductive urges, has escaped through a bathroom window. He is called Diago (perhaps the owner intended to name him Diego after Diego Maradona, the well-known Argentinian footballer.) Does that mean that anyone spotting him should call his name and expect him to slither forward? Obviously, snakes being 'aurally challenged', (read my previous post) said call should be accompanied by repeated stamping on the ground.

The report continues, 'Although the reptile's bite is not poisonous, constrictors do bite if attacked' . . . (but they're constrictors . . . biting is not their primary, instinctive mode of response to perceived danger!)
Apparently, it is a juvenile, maybe even an adolescent, and we all know how unpredictable they can be – and that's just human teenagers – but it could be a danger to small animals. Keep your mice and guinea pigs indoors, just to be safe!
'It may have left the town' said local sources – cue lots of Essex girl jokes!

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast . . .

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.

William Congreve (1670 1729) extract from 'The mourning bride' 1697

A policeman in Northern Ireland used his initiative when faced with an unruly mob of drunken teenagers. They were throwing missiles so he decided to use the address system in his vehicle to relay music to calm them. He chose music usually associated with patrolling ice-cream purveyors rather than patrolling panda cars. His plan worked! The teenagers stopped throwing things and started laughing.

However, he has been told that he must expect to explain his actions and is to be disciplined. I think he should be commended for his insight and common sense! Would the authorities, whoever they are, have preferred the situation to escalate out of control so that force should be used? Whatever happened to common sense in this world?

I say, 'Well done, officer, and more power to your elbow!'