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.........................................................................................................................................................................The next Fandance is Sat 18th May 2024....................................................................................................................................................
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................................................................................................................................................................... Lloyds Bank Sort code: 30-90-09 a\c No: 30516068........................................................................................................................................
Having taken into account the current COVID restrictions that currently apply in the different parts of the UK, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 reunion.
The Chairman Nick Butler will be heading up the Fan at 0930 hrs on Saturday the 15th May and he will lay a BAFC wreath on behalf of the Club at the summit.
He will also toast The Fallen.
If other members wish to make their own pilgrimage up the Fan at their own risk please follow the relevant COVID restrictions that will be in place.
As a Club we are not able to accept liability for members safety and well being over the weekend of 14/15 May. Our Clubs insurance that normally covers Fandance will not operate this year.
Update to follow reference Aldershot 10 Miler on the 20th November 2021.
...........................................................................................................................................................The 10 Miler will be held on w/e Saturday 23rd November 2024..................................................................................................................................
There was I, thinking that you weren’t really interested.
Well most of the time I was sitting in a caravan in a field, trying to understand
the study of ornithology. I once asked a friend some years ago whilst on security,
the friend being an ex WO1 in the West Country, said he was all into ornithology.
I said at the time, that he was joking, but if not, he would use that as a cover for anything else
that may have taken him to foreign parts.
He insisted that was not the case, and that he really did enjoy the study.
Anyway next stop, we travelled up to North Yorkshire, (Scarborough) but outside of the town.
The last time I was there, was when I was sitting on a Donkey on the beach. Around 1956 when my dad rejoined the Army after the Malayan Police.
To find the hook ups was done with the map and numbered to where the sites were.
I then (if pos) went on my phone (roaming) found the site which corresponded with the post code.
Then looked closely to ensure the site is peaceful, with no hidden surprises.
Of course this method did not always work, as it depended on the phone signal.
Something in the order of a pig farm, which unfortunately did happen.
Now can anyone explain the significance of these statues, (made of Iron) on Scarborough front?
Last edited by HappyJack; 29 September 2014, 20:33.
Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam
A Great Civilization is not Conquered from without
Until it has destroyed itself from within W.Durant
There was I, thinking that you weren’t really interested.
Well most of the time I was sitting in a caravan in a field, trying to understand
the study of ornithology. I once asked a friend some years ago whilst on security,
the friend being an ex WO1 in the West Country, said he was all into ornithology.
I said at the time, that he was joking, but if not, he would use that as a cover for anything else
that may have taken him to foreign parts.
He insisted that was not the case, and that he really did enjoy the study.
Anyway next stop, we travelled up to North Yorkshire, (Scarborough) but outside of the town.
The last time I was there, was when I was sitting on a Donkey on the beach. Around 1956 when my dad rejoined the Army after the Malayan Police.
To find the hook ups was done with the map and numbered to where the sites were.
I then (if pos) went on my phone (roaming) found the site which corresponded with the post code.
Then looked closely to ensure the site is peaceful, with no hidden surprises.
Of course this method did not always work, as it depended on the phone signal.
Something in the order of a pig farm, which unfortunately did happen.
Now can anyone explain the significance of these statues, (made of Iron) on Scarborough front?
Could be that Steves fame has spread as far as Gods Country John, and the statue depicts that historical event of him and his mucker exiting the NAAFI store in the dead of night?
After completing the Coast to Coast walk, we went on the piss in Scarborough. So to satisfy a great thirst they had to bring in extra barrels of beer. Hence the statues ,
Could be that Steves fame has spread as far as Gods Country John, and the statue depicts that historical event of him and his mucker exiting the NAAFI store in the dead of night?
Sounds more like Steve and Chalky.
"We're surrounded on all sides... Good... you're obviously in the right place".
Googled Scarborough and smuggling, the statue is called Smugglers apprentice.
A story about Scarborough and smuggling.
George 'Snooker' Fagg dominated Scarborough smuggling in the 1770s. His schooner, the Kent, was armed to the teeth, with 16 four-pounder guns, and a dozen swivels. The local revenue cruisers were no match for this sailing fortress, and hesitated to engage the ship, even when it was clear that smuggled goods were being openly sold.
Fagg was so cock-sure that he invited the revenue men aboard the Kent one summer's day in 1777 when trading with the massed ships in Bridlington Bay. Fagg had sent a message across to the revenue cruiser to enquire how they were fixed for provisions. Hearing that stocks were low, the cheeky smuggler entertained several of the revenue men on board the Kent, sending them back with a free half-anker sample of gin.
Less than a month later, relations between the preventives and their adversary were less cordial. For once the revenue men were able to muster a force sizeable enough to tackle the Kent: acting on a tip-off, two revenue ships closed on the Kent off the coast near Filey. The captain of one of the cruisers ordered Fagg to 'heave to, or we will fire...' and was greeted with a cheery reply of '...fire away, you bouggers, and be damned to you!'
The ensuing battle was agonizingly prolonged because the wind has dropped to the gentlest of breezes. Out-gunned for once, the Kent attempted to flee and nearly succeeded. But just as the smugglers were drifting out of range, a naval frigate appeared, and then another. In the dying wind, Fagg resorted to desperate tactics: he put his men in small rowing boats, and ordered then to tow the badly damaged schooner. When defeat was clearly inevitable, the surviving smugglers surrendered, and were taken on board the revenue ship. The Kent was sailed into Hull by her captors, and the substantial cargo of tea and spirits unloaded into the customs warehouse.
The Yorkshire smugglers were by all account a popular lot — or to put it another way, the revenue men were as unpopular locally as they were elsewhere in the country. One of the few ways that the customs men could secure the cooperation of local people was with the aid of prize money from seizures — greasing a few palms locally quickly loosened tongues.
The widespread use of informants led indirectly to an orgy of brutality in Scarborough, and to a trial that attracted as much attention in Yorkshire as the trial of the Hawkhurst gang did in Kent.
The story started with a fairly routine seizure: acting on information from an informer, revenue officers seized a boat-load of tubs just north of Scarborough in August 1822, but the smugglers who were rowing them in from the lugger anchored off-shore escaped capture.
In the normal course of events, the story would have ended here: losing just one boat-load of gin was regarded as an acceptable risk. However, the local customs authorities weren't satisfied, and cast around for people who knew a little more about the run. Billy Mead from Burniston came forward, and implicated a wool merchant called James Law. Law was certainly a smuggler, but claimed that on this occasion he was innocent, and that Billy Mead was lying. The case eventually went to the King's Bench in London, and Law won his case against the informer — Mead was found guilty of perjury.
This caused merriment in Scarborough, but also much bitterness. The Scarborough smugglers were looking for revenge, and the target for their violence was a woodman named James Dobson, who had given evidence against Law the smuggler. Dobson visited Scarborough on market day, February 13th 1823, and was met by a mob baying for blood. He was severely beaten, breaking his ribs, rolled around in a dog kennel, then paraded through the streets tied to a ladder. He would probably have died had he not been rescued by a couple of farmers.
Law was apparently involved in the violence, and a witness at the subsequent trial gave evidence that Law kicked Dobson to the ground at the Old Globe, shouting 'damn him, kill him, he is an informing devil'. Whether this is true or not, Law had certainly been drinking in the town that day, because he and some friends rode drunkenly home on the night of the 13th, making a point of stopping outside the Burniston house of Billy Mead, the convicted informer. The drunken group hurled abuse at the dark windows, but it appears that Mead was prepared for trouble. He smashed a window of the house and fired a pistol out into the dark. The shot hit Law, who was taken severely wounded to the Dodsworth Farm in Harewood Vale.
This fanned the flames of public anger. The following day, a mob several hundred strong attacked one of Billy Mead's friends who had given evidence at Law's trial for smuggling, and practically killed him. In a separate incident, a group laid siege to the house of a local customs man.
When Law died, Billy Mead was put on trial for murder. For obvious reasons the trial polarized local opinion, and created a great deal of interest. The jury heard that a Burniston girl had warned Mead that his Law was after his blood, and, perhaps swayed by this evidence, they took less than half an hour to find the man guilty of manslaughter. Mead served just two years for the crime, and was wise enough to leave the area when released. He subsequently pursued a profitable career as a confidence trickster in Leeds.
Today, The Three Mariners inn is closed. It once had four entrances, including a tunnel that led away from the cellars. There is an abundance of low-ceilinged corridors and concealed cupboards, and the front windows provide a perfect view of the harbour entrance, despite the fact that buildings crowd in around the tiny house.
"We're surrounded on all sides... Good... you're obviously in the right place".
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