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Following on from the Tudor Pull David, my bailiff and I attended the 360^th festival of the Sons and Friends of the Clergy at St Paul’s on Tuesday last week followed by dinner at Merchant Taylors’ Hall.  St Paul’s was well filled.  The service was attended by the Lord Mayor Locum Tenens along with the majority of Masters.  I enjoyed the music and singing.  The choir of St Paul’s was joined by the choirs of Peterborough and Wakefield Cathedrals.  The dinner was exceptional in that there were bishops and other senior clerics seated at close centres among the guests.  The dinner itself was fine too.

On the following Saturday David and I were guests of the Master Glass Seller Andrew Parmley at a dinner to mark the completion of the Glass Sellers company visit to South Wales.  We share our beadle with the Glass sellers, and continuing from demonstrating his linguistic prowess at my events, Tony introduced Andrew in Welsh; we had practised it a few times beforehand.  Andrew began his response to the toast with a very passable Welsh introduction.  It was a very pleasant evening.

Some of us will miss Tony’s introductions at next year’s Conservator events when I guess that we will revert to a Barbarian tongue.

The Clerk returns from two week’s holiday today!

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On 11^th May I took part in the Tudor Pull which began with a colourful ceremony at Hampton Court where, after a short speech, I presented the Stella (which I think is a piece of a Myddelton elm water pipe) to the Duty Manager at the Palace who then passed it on the Royal Bargemaster.  The Royal Bargemaster was accompanied by a party of Royal watermen. After another short speech we three, Duty Manager, Bargemaster and I took a drink from a ‘River Cup’ and then we all proceeded down to the Gloriana at the river’s edge.  The Beadle and I were transported from Hampton Court to Richmond on the Queen’s Row Barge Gloriana under the control of the Queen’s Bargemaster.  Bob prentice, Master Watermen and Lightermen was part of the crew.  We had a ‘comfort break’ at Richmond and then the Beadle and I transferred to our cutter, the ‘Water Forget me not’ and were propelled down to the Tower by four young ladies.  Mr Bargemaster and his crew were working the safety boat somewhere alongside us.   There were several Livery Company cutters in our flotilla of ‘small boats’. 

Thank goodness the day was dry.  We started at Hampton Court at 10.00am and arrived at the Tower sometime after 4.00pm.  At the Tower there was quite a scramble to get ashore from the cutters so the Beadle and I missed the handing-over ceremony at the Tower.

I was delighted to meet Richard and Jackie Waller at Hampton Court; they followed us down to Richmond which involved a great deal of waving, but not waving goodbye as it turned out.

My sincere thanks must go to all the people who either assisted me during the day or occasionally came to my rescue.  In particular I must thank our crew of four ladies and their cox who saw us safely down to the Tower of London.

It was an exceptional day.

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I mentioned the 100 Club lunch in my last entry.  Well it was a very friendly and informal event in the hall of the Information Technologists.  I was ‘on my feet’ responding on behalf of the guest for just a few minutes.  There were seven Masters in attendance, along with eight clerks and members of the Court of the World Traders.

The following morning I met Judy Ling Wong to discuss possible projects for the Trust and then I attended a lunch at Goldsmiths’ Hall.   This lunch is an annual event that follows the Trial of the Pyx; which is of very ancient origin and involves the Assay Office conducting an examination of the coinage and reporting its verdict.  The principal guest was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, who made an interesting and what I thought was a light hearted speech.  The chancellor has attended every year.  I was sitting close to Miss Ransome Wallis, the Art Director and Curator at Goldsmiths who was interested in my stories about Hugh Myddelton, the lead mines and his chalice in Ruthin.   After lunch she took to me to see the portrait of Sir Hugh by Cornelius Janssen.  I also met the Assistant Librarian Eleni Bide who was most pleased to send me images of the portrait.  I have included one here.

Image, courtesy of The Goldsmiths’ Company

I also met the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, who recognised me as a Water Conservator; I confess that I was wearing my tear drop; he is an honorary member of the Company.

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The Election Court held on April 16^th marked the beginning of my count-down (so I thought) to the next Installation Court in July.  I am pleased that our Master-elect and his three Wardens have been elected, they are already planning ahead.  I am looking forward to the Installation Court on 02^nd July.  At the well-attended Election lunch in the elegant Cutler’s Hall our principal guest was Ms July Ling Wong CBE who is highly regarded in the social and environmental world and would like to help us develop our schools programme.  Leading and learning from the future as it emerges leads to many surprises, Judy is one such emergent surprise.  I hope that a good relationship will develop between the Master’s committee and Judy.

On St George’s day the Clerk and I attended the annual lunch at Watermen’s Hall when the Watermen and Lightermen celebrated the English Saint.  There were red roses for everyone.  The Masters and Clerks were seated on separate tables which was an interesting approach.  Masters of about 40 old and modern companies were well mixed up.  I was sitting between the Master Girdler and the Master Management Consultant with the Master Coachmaker and Master Wax Chandler opposite.  It was an excellent 14-hour day which left me exhausted on the day following.  We share our beadle with the Watermen so it was pleasing to here Mr Beadle’s fine voice, he looked after me throughout the day.

This Master business is tough.  At the 100 Club lunch next week I have been told that I will be the Senior Master attending since the other Masters will be from Company numbers 103 to 110.  So I will be on my feet again when I had thought that I was finished with all of that.

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It has been a busy time since my last entry a couple of weeks ago.

I visited Ysgol Gogarth in Llandudno on Monday 7^th April and was pleased to learn and report to you that we will be going ahead with the classroom/observation room as a memorial to dear Marj.  The building will be called Hafan Marj  (Marj’s place) and should be completed in about 12 weeks.

Agenda, minutes, menus, guest lists, seating plans, ‘meeters and greeters’ allocated and ceremonial for the Election Court and the lunch have been settled.  3rd April found me and the Clerk at the service in St Bartholomew the Great to celebrate the presentation by HRH Prince Charles of their royal charter to the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers followed by lunch at Haberdashers Hall.  The lunch was a fine affair and I was entertained throughout by a taxi driver who had actually shaken the Prince’s hand.  We had a lively conversation.  In the evening my bailiff David and I attended the Lord Mayor’s dinner for Masters and guests at the Mansion House; a truly memorable day.  Next day we were at St Pauls for the United Guilds Service which is always memorable too, due to the scale of the event, the address by the Dean and the singing of the choir.  The Dean focussed on leadership and fellowship amongst the Livery.  The Bishop of St Asaph attended as my guest.

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I am sorry for the break; Conservator business gets in the way of writing-up things.  I am reminded of the time when I was a resident engineer on site supervising a contractor, when things were quiet there was nothing to record and on busy days there was no time to record anything.  

March 4^th I supported our Conservators at the pancake races at the Guildhall and attended a Master’s Committee meeting.  On 10^th, 11^th and 12^th I was in London for another Master’s Committee meeting on Monday morning with Miss Judy Long who will be our guest speaker at the Election court lunch.  On Monday evening the Thames Warden and I attended the Modern Companies dinner at Wax Chandlers Hall.  It was useful to exchange ideas with other Masters.  Clerks are not invited!  Tuesday evening found me in Mansion House at the Plumbers Annual banquet.  Wednesday lunchtime the clerk and I attended the Master Mariners lunch on HQS Wellington where I sat next to His Honour Judge Tudor Owen, Master of the Air Pilots.  His Honour hails from Aberdare at the head of the Cynon valley whist my home town of Abercynon lies at the lower end.  We agreed that this was the ‘centre of the universe’ but was a much more vibrant place 50 -60 years ago.  We had much to talk about which caused amusement to those sitting opposite the two of us.  Of course since he went to Kings College London he was disparaging about University College but I gave him not an inch.  The lunch extended well past 3 o’clock.  

On the way back to North Wales I reflected that I had attended some very special events and met interesting people where I was able to exchange views about the Livery as well as putting the world to right.

I am pleased to report that liveryman Hugh Masters Williams has written a Perspective on ‘Embedded water – the invisible issue’, it should be on the web site soon.  I have been promised one more, are there any others out there?

 

The FM&GP meeting was held on Tuesday 18^th, we had a very small attendance; but I like small committees anyway; this was followed by another Master’s meeting where the programme for next year was the main item discussed.  My time is running short but the list of events needing to be attended by me is still expanding.

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I was in London on 19^th February and twice last week.  On the 19^th I attended a ‘white tie’ dinner at the Guildhall to mark the granting of a Royal Charter to the Honourable Company of Air Pilots, which is a new name for them too.  The principle guest was Prince Philip.  It was a special evening.  I am still without the Master’s Pendant which is a nuisance.  Last week I attended the Wet 10 meeting on 24^th and managed to stay seated despite being not all impressed with the main event, (Marj. would have been pleased that I kept quiet).  The networking after the main event was the better part of the evening and very enjoyable.

By way of a marked contrast I attended an informal dinner on Wednesday 26th of the London Group of the Livery Company of Wales.  There was plenty of discussion and NO singing.  The Master and Clerk of the Livery Company of Wales along with a number of liverymen had come up from Cardiff.  It was nice to spend time in a place dominated by Welsh voices that were mainly of South Wales origin.