Latest / Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast / S1E9 - Neil Fleming - Fellfoot National Park - Volunteering and Community

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S1E9 - Neil Fleming - Fellfoot National Park - Volunteering and Community · Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast

0:10
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the podcast.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: Today we're taking a beautiful walk around Felfort Park, and I'm joined by the remarkable Neil Fleming.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: Neil moved to Cumbria from Scotland in 1987 and has dedicated a lot of his spare time committed to volunteer work, whether that is getting involved in organizing large events or helping local communities or raising money for local charities, Neil's your man.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: His passion for community really shines through and it's really inspiring.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: Neil encourages everyone to volunteer and emphasizes that you don't need to be exceptional, you just need to show up.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: Join us on this wholesome and uplifting episode as Neil inspires us all to give back to our communities and make a difference.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: So lace up your shoes and let's get walking.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Hi Neil!
1:15
SPEAKER_04: Hi Sikana.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: How are you?
1:17
SPEAKER_04: Hello right, thank you.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Good.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: It's nice to meet Doug as well.
1:21
SPEAKER_04: Yes, he's uh itching to go on this walk.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: So I've never been to Falfoot before, so this is nice.
1:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's something somewhere we've always come uh with the boys and ourselves, um, and with Dog.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:37
SPEAKER_04: Not necessarily in that order.
1:38
SPEAKER_04: In that order.
1:39
SPEAKER_04: There's a train, there's a steam train on the other side.
1:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I've done the other side, I've done the aquarium.
1:46
SPEAKER_04: So this end of the park, um all park situated on the bottom or southeast side of Helf of Windermere.
1:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:54
SPEAKER_04: Um and the end of the park that we're at is where the boat houses are.
1:58
SPEAKER_04: I think there's something like five old, you know, stone boat houses, which have been they're all all run by the National Trust now.
2:07
SPEAKER_04: And all been there's a big cafe and they've converted into seating areas and the ice cream shop and so on.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:13
SPEAKER_04: Uh and you can hire boats, so it's it's a kind of an activity place, I suppose, or a park where you can just come and have a cup of coffee and do nothing, yeah, or dog.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: Picnicking.
2:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then as you go down the path, it opens out more of the trees and which way do you want to go?
2:30
SPEAKER_04: Uh go down the grass, yeah.
2:32
SPEAKER_04: Um and then as you get right down towards the far end, there's what used to be just a big field, big sort of dog walking area where you can let the dog off the lead and it can just run around.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well that's good, hey.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: So how long have I known you, Neil?
2:48
SPEAKER_01: It's been a while, hasn't it?
2:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's a question.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: Is it 20 oh Christmas?
2:55
SPEAKER_04: No, not that long.
2:56
SPEAKER_04: Ten years, have you?
2:57
SPEAKER_01: Ten years.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: Well I was gonna say 2011.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: 2012.
3:00
SPEAKER_03: Maybe, yeah, okay.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: Oh actually maybe 2013.
3:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: So somewhere around there, anyway.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: So um so it's nice we've kept in touch.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: Not that you really had a choice, because every time I see you, I don't remember having a choice, no.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: Every time I see you at the Kazakh to barrow I'm in your face.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: So one of the things I wanted to ask you about was um your journey to Cumbria, because you're not from Cumbria, are you?
3:30
SPEAKER_04: No, I'm from Paisley, um, but I've retained your accent well.
3:37
SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm gonna deliberately try to uh retain it or lose it.
3:40
SPEAKER_04: Um I probably didn't have a massively strong accent in the first place.
3:45
SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
3:46
SPEAKER_04: Um so um compared with you know Paisley's just along the road from Glasgow and parts of Glasgow where I can't understand what they're saying.
3:55
SPEAKER_04: Glasgow's got a whole series of different uh incomprehensible dialects, yeah, unless you're born and brought up in that particular area.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:04
SPEAKER_04: Um so I've I wouldn't say I've got strong dialect, but um oh, so my wife is from Edinburgh.
4:12
SPEAKER_04: We actually met here, she came to work, um uh same as me in the shipyard.
4:18
SPEAKER_04: She came after she left school, she came down as an apprentice, and then got sponsored to go to university, whereas I did my degree up in Scotland and then got my job down here, um, and we met actually down here.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh, office romance.
4:34
SPEAKER_04: Uh something like that, but not quite.
4:36
SPEAKER_04: Well, she was actually my landlady because she was um I mean she was younger than me.
4:40
SPEAKER_04: Sounds like she's some kind of uh Norobati type thing, but yeah.
4:45
SPEAKER_04: But yeah.
4:46
SPEAKER_04: She she came down here when she was uh about 17.
4:50
SPEAKER_04: Um so because she knew she was going to be here for a while and at that time houses were incredibly cheap.
4:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, she bought a terrace house in the centre of Barrow, and she actually, because she got sponsored to go to university, she wasn't actually there a lot of the time.
5:03
SPEAKER_04: Right.
5:03
SPEAKER_04: And she rented it out to people like myself that were new starts in the company.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: Oh that's great.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: So that's how I met her.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Very savvy.
5:11
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, so yeah, she still kept charging me.
5:14
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, she did.
5:16
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: How funny.
5:20
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, we've I've been here since 1987.
5:23
SPEAKER_04: Wow and she's actually been here slightly longer.
5:26
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, definitely.
5:27
SPEAKER_04: We wouldn't leave.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:28
SPEAKER_04: Um and of course, uh, we've got two boys, and they were both born here, and this is very much their home and where they've always lived.
5:36
SPEAKER_04: Um and it's been a great place to bring them up.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:39
SPEAKER_04: So there's lots and lots of countryside, they're both quite outdoorsy.
5:43
SPEAKER_04: Um one in particular, um, actually ended up doing a degree in sports science, but he you know he loves climbing and sailing and swimming and um pretty much anything outdoors.
5:56
SPEAKER_04: Anything outdoors, and all accessible things.
5:59
SPEAKER_04: The more dangerous the better, I think.
6:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, go scrambling and things like that.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that just the thought of it makes me feel sick actually.
6:06
SPEAKER_04: Well, you didn't get it from me.
6:08
unknown: No.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: But I guess it's also the environment encourages that, doesn't it?
6:14
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, I I love the outdoors.
6:15
SPEAKER_04: I love walking, like we are just not in.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:18
SPEAKER_04: And having a dog is great for that.
6:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
6:24
unknown: Yeah.
6:25
SPEAKER_04: There's a bit of a win-win there, I suppose.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think when you live here, you have to be willing to be out in the wet anyway, or you're never gonna go out.
6:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and we got a border collie, and you don't get a border collie and not expect to go out.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you knew what you were doing.
6:40
SPEAKER_04: We knew what we were doing, yeah.
6:41
SPEAKER_04: My parents had a border collie when I was small.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: So Yeah.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: I looked into getting a dog because of um working from home so much, and I ended up on a website called Dogs for Seniors.
6:53
SPEAKER_04: So I figured it was what you searched on.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: Figured it was a sign that it wasn't gonna fit my lifestyle.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: It did make me laugh a lot.
7:05
SPEAKER_04: It's good to have a dog.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: I could have got a robot dog, I suppose, but that still needs some sort of maintenance.
7:12
SPEAKER_04: Almost certainly, probably more than you think.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: So, how did you get involved with volunteer work?
7:19
SPEAKER_01: Because obviously we know each other through work.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, but then I've seen you on Facebook all over Facebook, Neil.
7:27
SPEAKER_01: That's not my choice.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh but yeah, posting about lots of very different things.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: So, how many things do you volunteer for?
7:35
SPEAKER_04: Uh quite but in in different capacities.
7:39
SPEAKER_04: Um I think um I was thinking actually, why why did you even want to interview me?
7:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh because I it's a walk and talk, isn't it?
7:47
SPEAKER_01: It's a walk and talk.
7:48
SPEAKER_04: Sorry, yeah, but yeah, because I kind of think I'm just kinda Mr.
7:54
SPEAKER_04: Ordinary, really.
7:54
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I suppose I do things and everybody does things, so nobody's actually ordinary, everybody's no exactly.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: So the things And I think you do a lot more than you give yourself credit for.
8:04
SPEAKER_04: Well, I do things that I enjoy, so yeah, um, it's not like I'm some kind of martyr.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, I wasn't suggesting that.
8:12
SPEAKER_04: So I think I happen to enjoy volunteering and I enjoy being with people and doing different things and kind of helping other people to learn how to do things and um just working as part of a team.
8:25
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, like I said, I do I do do quite a lot of volunteering and but in different capacities.
8:30
SPEAKER_04: So in some cases, um like Kazik Barrowaki already mentioned, I'm on the organizing committee for that.
8:37
SPEAKER_04: And have you been?
8:38
SPEAKER_04: That must be immense an immense task to get it, but it's a big committee, so we've got about a dozen people on the committee.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Right.
8:46
SPEAKER_04: Uh it's a long established organisation, it's been going for about fifty-five years now, I think.
8:51
SPEAKER_04: So so uh it's not too corny, you know.
8:54
SPEAKER_04: The current committee is just custodians really for for a big event that raises about half a million pounds a year for charities and and no.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: They're local charities, aren't they?
9:05
SPEAKER_04: Mostly, not entirely.
9:06
SPEAKER_04: People can nominate any charity really, but it tends to be mostly local charities.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:12
SPEAKER_04: And we do kind of try and steer people towards local charities, and we do have a kind of ring-fenced pot of money from each walk that we do specifically give to local charities, sometimes very, very small local charities that don't have much of a fundraising capability of their own.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:31
SPEAKER_04: So we do like to sort of prioritize or make sure that local charities are looked after, because a lot of them find it quite difficult to raise money because uh some of them are for quite you know niche um illnesses or conditions where you know they they're run by people who themselves or whose partners maybe have a health condition, and so they don't have a lot of time to go doing charity fundraising for themselves.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:58
SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, not like the big national charities like cancer care and so on, which is a great charity by the way, but you know, they've got a huge infrastructure.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: I've walked the Kazakh to Barrow for them before.
10:08
SPEAKER_04: Well, well it was set up, it was set up um just as a challenge um between the crew of HMS Resolution that was being built in the shipyard at the time and and the shipyard team that was you know building it.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: That's why they have the cup.
10:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's the resolution cup, yeah, for the first it's a first team home, whether a ship shipyard or a Royal Navy team gets the resolution cup.
10:33
SPEAKER_04: It's a bit like the ashes or something.
10:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh, but it's not really about that, but that's that was its origin.
10:39
SPEAKER_04: Um and they so they decided to walk from Keswick to Barrow, which was about 40 miles.
10:45
SPEAKER_04: I think originally the challenge was to walk 50 miles, but everyone realised that was a bit ridiculous.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: That's a bit far.
10:51
SPEAKER_04: Uh so it actually goes from Kazakh to Barrow, uh or just outside Keswick, which is just under 40 miles every year.
10:59
SPEAKER_04: Um normally the first weekend after the first May Bank holiday.
11:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:04
SPEAKER_04: And we have about uh well this year about 1500 people walked it from Keswick to Barrow.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wow.
11:10
SPEAKER_04: And we also have a shorter walk from Constant to Barrow.
11:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that and that's the one that I kind of organised really.
11:19
SPEAKER_04: So that's had about 2,000 people walked it this year.
11:23
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
11:23
SPEAKER_04: So that was started off um about 10 or 11 years ago, I think.
11:28
SPEAKER_04: Uh so I've been involved in that ever since it started.
11:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:31
SPEAKER_04: With a very small number of girl guides, I think it was we did the first year just as a trial, and it's sort of just grown a little bit each year.
11:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and the idea of it is I just love it.
11:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it the constant barrel just means that people who can't walk the full cousins battle have got an alternative, and it's done on the same day on the same route, the bottom part of the route, so you've got the same it's sort of experience.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: Um and the people that come out to support are just wonderful.
12:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's just such a sense of community and recently as well with Dave Day and Barrow, you know, the community really came out and supported that.
12:11
SPEAKER_04: It's a similar thing, you know, when you get the the local sort of barrow community behind you or something like that, it is incredible.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's really uplifting and really wonderful to see.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: So with um Kazik to Barrow, then you're on the organizing committee.
12:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
12:27
SPEAKER_04: And was that by invitation or yeah, that that one was at the time.
12:31
SPEAKER_04: Uh it well it still is, but it's a bit less formal than it used to be.
12:36
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, it it it certainly used to be you had to be invited, whereas now you can sort of volunteer and it's a bit more inclusive, I suppose.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:45
SPEAKER_04: Uh so things have changed a lot even in 15 years.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and was that because of your impeccable project management?
12:53
SPEAKER_01: That must have been, yeah.
12:54
SPEAKER_04: No, it was because actually, um Cadid Borough committee, like I said, there's about a dozen or so people, and the idea is that different people have different sort of primary roles.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:04
SPEAKER_04: Um, so they have someone who does um fundraising, you know, merchandising, sorts out the gift aids, yeah.
13:12
SPEAKER_04: And they were looking for somebody with an IT background.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
13:15
SPEAKER_04: So there was someone already there, but then we did someone else.
13:19
SPEAKER_04: So that was me, really, and I initially looked after the website and a few other bits and pieces like that, yeah.
13:26
SPEAKER_04: Um, and then kind of moved more, I suppose, into the Constance Barrel setup when that started because that was just after I joined the committee.
13:36
SPEAKER_04: So I just kind of turned into your little baby.
13:39
SPEAKER_04: Turned into my baby, yeah.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's nice though, it's nice to have that connection.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: I saw on the um spreadsheet that they sent out or posted on Facebook that there's ten people who've done it more than 30 times.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: They're kept it back.
13:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
13:54
SPEAKER_03: So helicopter is coming past.
13:57
unknown: That's handy.
13:59
SPEAKER_03: Don't know what that's to do.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: We're expecting the red arrows at 323.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: So here somewhere.
14:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so the the good thing about the Kesitz Barrow as well is that it follows uh just a standard kind of process every year.
14:15
SPEAKER_04: So you get really busy from about January through to May, and then there's not so much to do.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: So I did it one year, Neil, and um the Dustin Men came.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: It's a true story, and we had to move out of the way because they were picking up garbage.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:35
SPEAKER_01: It was this was years ago, so funny.
14:38
SPEAKER_04: Right.
14:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's just one of these.
14:41
SPEAKER_04: It's just a it's a local thing, it's got its own entry on Wikipedia and everything.
14:45
SPEAKER_04: It's just something that's uh almost a rite of passage for people that are born in Barrow, they got to do Kazakh Tabarrow at least once.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:53
SPEAKER_04: So you know that that's kind of how I started really in this area with Kazakh Tabarrow.
14:59
SPEAKER_01: And um and did you find it expanded your social network or your general network?
15:04
SPEAKER_04: Oh definitely, yes, yes.
15:05
SPEAKER_04: I met a whole lot of people and uh that I would never have um otherwise met, and and also it just gives you sort of access to a whole lot of other contacts and even equipment and things that you can borrow and use.
15:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, um, so yeah, it was very good as a little not not intentional at the time, but uh as a bit of a springboard for doing other things.
15:29
SPEAKER_04: So uh because it's quite highly organised and quite well established, yeah, it was a good place to learn.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: Um and what did that springboard to?
15:41
SPEAKER_04: Um well the other things I do, I suppose, um I'd organise a number of events and festivals mostly around Alverston.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm also a parish councillor.
15:53
SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, in the Lindell village where we live.
15:58
SPEAKER_04: So again, that's voluntary role, it's not it's not a massively significant role, but it's you know it's an important tier of local government, yeah, just to make sure that residents are represented in some way.
16:11
SPEAKER_04: Parish council doesn't have a great deal of powers, but uh it's still I think a good thing to do.
16:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:17
SPEAKER_04: Again, not a massive commitment, especially in a village where not much happens.
16:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but in a way, you know, that's quite good.
16:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh, but you know, if people do have an issue of compliance or there's a planning issue or whatever, that you know the parish council is a focal point.
16:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so um so I do that.
16:38
SPEAKER_04: Uh I organise a couple of festivals in Alvaston, one called Retro Rendezvous, which we've done for about 10 years, which is actually in partnership with a cycling event.
16:51
SPEAKER_04: Um the idea was there's about 500 cyclists come to do sort of retro cycle ride round to cycle bike on their retro bikes.
17:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:02
SPEAKER_04: So a retro bike is anything over about 20 years old, I think.
17:06
SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
17:06
SPEAKER_04: But it's basically kind of steel frames rally bikes.
17:10
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no e-bikes, but but someone did have a chopper this year.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: Oh really?
17:14
SPEAKER_04: And uh yeah, so it could be anything from a penny farthing up to a chopper, really.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: And what inspired that?
17:20
SPEAKER_04: Well, it was a friend of mine uh who well I didn't really know, but um anyway, he he and his uh well he and his wife, that sounds awful sexist, didn't it?
17:32
SPEAKER_04: Uh pair of friends of mine organized this uh cycling event, and they basically approached at um at the time it was a guy called Dave Watson, who ran um a group called um Alvaston Live Music.
17:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and uh they wanted to provide some entertainment for the cyclists.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:54
SPEAKER_04: Um and so Dave did that with the Alvaston Live Music team, and I was kind of invited in to help with as you say, really project managing it.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:04
SPEAKER_04: Um because project management probably wasn't Dave's strong point.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:08
SPEAKER_04: And um so sadly Dave uh passed away a few years ago.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: I wondered if it was that Dave, because we interacted a couple times.
18:17
SPEAKER_04: Right.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: That was a big dog.
18:24
SPEAKER_04: It was very well known.
18:25
SPEAKER_04: He worked in the NHS, he was retired, but he was a retired nurse and uh loved music.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:32
SPEAKER_04: Um, and yeah, we he he got really, really well known singers from all over the country, folk singers, uh mostly to come to Alvaston, and they would almost always they would stay in his house, you know.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow with him, and he'd you know he'd put them up and he was quite involved in the refugee for the Ness Refugee, yeah.
18:50
SPEAKER_04: So that's the same day, yeah, yeah.
18:52
SPEAKER_04: And his wife Linda, she's still involved.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:57
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, so he was absolutely great, and and and um uh completely different type of influence.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:04
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I got involved in that at the time when he was doing the music and Alan Alan and Ali were doing the bikes, and then um kind of ended up holding the baby, yeah.
19:16
SPEAKER_04: Uh which is fine.
19:18
SPEAKER_04: But um, we've actually just recruited a new committee member in the last few weeks.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: So by invite.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:26
SPEAKER_04: I think it's more mutual.
19:27
SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay, yeah.
19:28
SPEAKER_04: It was by invite, but it was someone uh who already volunteered.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's important to get the right people as well.
19:34
SPEAKER_04: It's I was being a bit facetious, but it's okay, but um yeah, so we do that again, it's just once a year, and it tends to be it fits in reasonably well with the Kazakh barrow.
19:45
SPEAKER_04: It's a little bit close, it's always in the beginning of June, so and the Kazakh Barrow is always the beginning of May.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: So that's a heavy eight week.
19:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's fairly hectic time.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: And how do you balance or is there anything else before we move that on that you volunteer for?
20:03
SPEAKER_01: I feel like there's more than a lot of things.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, come on.
20:06
SPEAKER_04: Uh so I'm a trustee at um Ford Park in Alvaston, which is a community park, so it's owned by a charity.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: Um and does that cover maintenance of the Hood?
20:17
SPEAKER_04: No.
20:17
SPEAKER_04: Oh, it doesn't.
20:19
SPEAKER_04: It's adjacent to Hood, but Ford um Hood is actually owned and maintained by Alvaston Town Council.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: Oh really?
20:27
SPEAKER_01: It's not national trust.
20:28
SPEAKER_04: No, okay, no, it's it's locally owned, but the land it sits on, or at least the land around, is owned by a charitable group called Alvaston Town Lands Trust.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: Right.
20:39
SPEAKER_04: Which is a sort of ancient trust that's been around for hundreds of years.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
20:43
SPEAKER_04: Um so they own the land and they rent it out, they have a tenant farmer and they um maintain the paths up the hill and that kind of thing.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: Right.
20:52
SPEAKER_04: So we did run an event there called Light Up Hode at the beginning of this year.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, I saw that.
20:57
SPEAKER_04: And we had to get permission from the Townlands Trust and the Town Council, and we also used Ford Park because the three facilities are all kind of together, and we thought, you know, we could we could do something with this, you know, we could make better use of the three and work a bit more in partnership.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: So that was a really that's nice, successful event.
21:17
SPEAKER_04: Um we got basically again, it was the first one, and we got about 500 people come along at dusk that's great, and and bring torches and so on.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: Am I remembering this right?
21:29
SPEAKER_01: No.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, I think it was candle torch light late in the city.
21:32
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think they were the week before that.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:34
SPEAKER_04: Um but no, all we were doing was um getting people to farm a line as a zigzag path was all uphill.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:42
SPEAKER_04: And we had a drone and we just wanted to kind of emulate um what already happens actually on a few of the mountains in the light district, like Hulvelan and so on, where they've been doing the same kind of thing for a few years now to raise money for charity.
21:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh huh.
21:57
SPEAKER_04: So we thought that would be quite nice to do in Austin.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: And it worked, so I think we'll do it again next year with maybe the pictures.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the pictures look really great.
22:07
SPEAKER_04: It was slightly odd because I was on the hill.
22:09
SPEAKER_04: The pictures did look great and we did get the effect that we wanted, but being on the hill as part of it was a bit odd because you can't sort of see yourself.
22:18
SPEAKER_04: And so it felt like oh this looks alright because I can't really tell.
22:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: And see if the vision's been realised.
22:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it did it did work, but at the time it was almost like a little bit of an anticlimax.
22:32
SPEAKER_04: You're kind of on the hill thinking, is that it did it work?
22:35
SPEAKER_04: You know, did anybody notice?
22:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's cool though.
22:40
SPEAKER_04: But again, that was that was just a bit of fun.
22:43
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't specifically to raise money for charity or anything, it was just a bit of fun.
22:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:48
SPEAKER_04: Um, but in future, if it gets bigger, then we'd like to, you know, if there's any surplus from it, you know, we'd like to give that money to the hospice or to Ford Park, because Ford Park itself is a charity.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:03
SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, there's always little things like that that you can do.
23:08
SPEAKER_04: It actually wasn't very hard to organise, but yeah, you have to just make sure you've ticked all the right boxes and got all the right people on side and got the right permissions because there are, for example, public footpaths, and you have to get permission to have an event on public footpaths.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's just wait for this.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Um is that a person jumping out of the plane?
23:31
SPEAKER_01: The helicopter.
23:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they just come up from the back of the Swan Hotel and that's uh someone famous.
23:40
SPEAKER_04: Could be, yeah.
23:42
SPEAKER_04: Maybe they've heard that we're doing this at the end.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, probably.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: Trying to get a picture from above.
23:46
SPEAKER_04: What's the picture of Doug the Doug?
23:48
unknown: Yeah.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Definitely very noteworthy compared to the two of us.
23:54
SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, yeah.
23:56
SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, I was thinking that earlier, you know, I was saying why you're interviewing me.
23:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
24:00
SPEAKER_04: Because I don't think of myself as being in any way special.
24:03
SPEAKER_04: I mean, you'd walk past me in the street, I don't look like a film star or I think.
24:08
SPEAKER_04: No.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm dressed in my well, you don't see it, Neil, but someone else.
24:13
SPEAKER_04: I don't think so.
24:14
SPEAKER_04: No, no.
24:15
SPEAKER_04: I mean I'm thinking I'm I'm dressed in my jeans and my trainers, and so I'm the same as I would have any day.
24:21
SPEAKER_04: Any day, yeah.
24:23
SPEAKER_04: The same as I've dressed for the last 40 years.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, I was uh so this is the whole point of this podcast is to shine a light on people who are kind of I guess unsung heroes, fly under the radar, do all this like hard work to help us have these community events, and um I think it's important to to share that with everyone and to say, you know, you do have a day job.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: You're not doing this, yeah, and a family.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: And a family, and dog.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: So it's not like you've you're not busy.
25:00
SPEAKER_04: No, but I like being busy, but yeah, but equally, I think this this thing about me being Mr.
25:06
SPEAKER_04: Ordinary, I I I don't mean that in a kind of self-deprecating, false modesty sort of way.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:12
SPEAKER_04: I mean I uh I uh actually am doing something that anybody could do.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
25:17
SPEAKER_04: Um you know I've got some.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: But you're doing it, that's the difference.
25:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I've got some specific skills and experience and so on, but yeah, other people do too.
25:24
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, different skills and experience.
25:26
SPEAKER_04: So if your thing is needlework or something thanks, mate.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: I didn't mean you no, I really don't that's the case.
25:36
SPEAKER_04: But you know, whatever it is, whatever your skill is, yeah, you know, you you could you could um do something to share that skill with underprivileged people or you know, go along once a week or once a month to the local brownies or girl guides or scouts or whatever.
25:53
SPEAKER_04: You can you know there's all sorts of things you can do that don't need a great deal of commitment, but you can just help other people to learn and appreciate.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you get so much back for yourself as well, don't you?
26:06
SPEAKER_01: It's so rewarding to get involved in something and feel like you're contributing to your community.
26:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was asked actually last year to go along to the local uh Cobb group on Burns Day.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
26:19
SPEAKER_04: And we saw a Barnes poem in the I did, yeah, yeah, the paper, and uh only because I've got a Scottish accent, but it was my only qualification.
26:29
SPEAKER_04: But really, any anybody with a Scottish accent could have done that probably better than me.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: As long as you can read, but it's quite a hard poem to read.
26:36
SPEAKER_04: It was quite a nice thing to do, and you know, and the cops seem to enjoy it.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's what you know.
26:41
SPEAKER_04: And I got a nice thank you letter afterwards and so on.
26:45
SPEAKER_04: So, you know, volunteering as such doesn't need to be anything complex, uh, it doesn't need to be difficult, anybody can do it.
26:52
SPEAKER_04: It doesn't have to be flamboyant, upfront, you know, uh extroverts.
26:58
SPEAKER_04: It could be anybody doing anything, it could be uh answering the phone for a group like the Samaritans or you know, there's lots of different kinds of um groups that help ex-drug addicts and alcoholics and that kind of thing.
27:13
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm not sure if there is such a thing as an ex-drug addict, but yeah, but you know what I mean.
27:18
SPEAKER_04: There's lots of things.
27:19
SPEAKER_04: You don't you don't have to be organizing festivals and standing on stages and making speeches and things.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be overwhelming or yeah in the limelight.
27:29
SPEAKER_04: My message is that any any Mr.
27:31
SPEAKER_04: Ordinary can do something if if you want to.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: And find a community because it's so important.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: I I um listen to a lot of podcasts, and quite a few of the ones I listen to maybe have just attracted these and talk about, you know, one of the biggest problems we're facing as as a nation is loneliness, and you know, so many more people live on their own and don't have this other thing to go to and don't engage in this way with the community.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: And I guess for younger generations coming through where everything is on a device, and actually those social interactions are very different to what we're used to.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's a a really important point, I think.
28:14
SPEAKER_04: Yes, yeah.
28:15
SPEAKER_04: We found actually, yeah, one thing that just occurs to me I haven't mentioned um is that um during the well just before the first COVID lockdown, um myself and a friend Caroline Smith in Alberston, we set up a group at the time called Alvaston Self-Isolation Group, and we subsequently renamed it to be Alvaston Resilience Group.
28:36
SPEAKER_04: So it's still going now.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:38
SPEAKER_04: But we set it up at this just before the start of lockdown because people were being told to self-isolate.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:44
SPEAKER_04: And at the time there was quite a lot of concern about well, how would these people get the shopping done, how would they collect prescriptions, who would make sure that they were okay.
28:52
SPEAKER_04: And the exactly they would have this problem of loneliness.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:56
SPEAKER_04: So on, so lots and lots of people were offering to help, but we kind of felt that we could basically coordinate it, and so we did.
29:04
SPEAKER_04: We set up a group and we sought volunteers, and we had about four or five hundred volunteers.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, wow.
29:10
SPEAKER_04: Very quickly, yeah, within a few days.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: What's the population of Alvaston?
29:15
SPEAKER_04: Um it's about 70,000, I think.
29:19
SPEAKER_04: But it depends what you mean by the population of Alston, because how far does it go?
29:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it it it's not just the town centre.
29:26
SPEAKER_04: I know we distributed about fifteen thousand leaflets, so you know fifteen thousand households if you like, when we set up.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: Wow, um that's impressive.
29:36
SPEAKER_04: But that covered all of the LA 12 postcode area, so there's a lot of villages and to the bottom end of Coniston and out towards Barrow, not just the town itself.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:47
SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot of small rural communities within the Elvison area.
29:52
SPEAKER_04: And you know, the people in those areas who during lockdown couldn't get out, you know, don't have any local shops and so on, no, no, maybe no relatives nearby.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:03
SPEAKER_04: They themselves could be housebound and they were previously reliant on social care and yeah, that kind of thing.
30:08
SPEAKER_04: A lot of that just stopped.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: Right.
30:10
SPEAKER_04: And also people who were working who were self-employed, you know, couldn't open up shops anymore or conducted businesses or they were furloughed.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: Pretty devastating.
30:19
SPEAKER_04: And a lot of people lost a lot of money, particularly if you were self-employed.
30:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
30:23
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't like there was no furlough scheme equivalent.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say there's a lot of people in this area who are self-employed, aren't there?
30:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, it's quite an entrepreneurial area, actually.
30:34
SPEAKER_04: There are no massive employers in Alveston.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:37
SPEAKER_04: There is in Barrow, there's a shipyard, which is um a massive employer in Barrow.
30:42
SPEAKER_04: The main employer by a long way.
30:44
SPEAKER_04: But in Alvaston, there's a lot more small companies and shops and so on.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:49
SPEAKER_04: So there were probably a higher proportion of people in Alvaston were impacted very quickly.
30:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:54
SPEAKER_04: And people who normally were quite self-sufficient self-sufficient, yeah, suddenly had no money, couldn't buy food, couldn't pay the rent, you know, that kind of thing.
31:04
SPEAKER_04: So and um they they fell through the cracks in terms of things like food banks and so on because they didn't qualify.
31:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they didn't meet the normal criteria.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's heartbreaking.
31:13
SPEAKER_04: So we raised some money and we we delivered food and we collected prescriptions and we if you guys didn't do what you were doing, they wouldn't have been known about potentially.
31:22
SPEAKER_04: Um I I I guess something else would have had to have happened, but we certainly gave people a bit of a focal point.
31:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
31:30
SPEAKER_04: Both for requesting help.
31:32
SPEAKER_04: Um we set up a we set up a phone line um and uh which we manned 24-7 and we had a database of whoever called in what they'd asked for, and we one of the big things we did was we collected prescriptions, so we got a number of people basically sort of certified by the police and so on to to do that because some prescriptions are quite powerful, and you can't have anybody just wandering in collecting some of these prescriptions.
32:00
SPEAKER_04: So we had to organise all that.
32:02
SPEAKER_04: We also did food deliveries.
32:04
SPEAKER_04: We worked with a local company and we paid for a whole lot of food to be cooked um and frozen, right?
32:10
SPEAKER_04: And then we delivered frozen meals that people could then heat up in the oven.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: Right.
32:14
SPEAKER_04: So, you know, just things like shipwood's pies and you know, an apple crumble or something, but yeah, but so for people who weren't who wouldn't normally be entitled or wouldn't normally need that kind of thing because but because they've been told to self-isolate or whatever, it didn't wasn't necessarily because they got no money, yeah.
32:33
SPEAKER_04: It's just because they were unable to get out.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:36
SPEAKER_04: And so we did that.
32:38
SPEAKER_04: So um, so actually that was something that started from nothing.
32:42
SPEAKER_04: It was obviously totally unplanned, it just was a response to what was happening with Caroline and myself, and then you know, other people joined the committee very, very quickly.
32:52
SPEAKER_04: We had a committee of about ten people within a week or so.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: And that's and that's what's really important to highlight, I think, in terms of what you do, is that a lot of people would have talked about it but wouldn't have actually done something.
33:04
SPEAKER_04: Well, people were trying to do things themselves.
33:06
SPEAKER_04: You could see people posting on Facebook saying if anyone lives in my street and you want some shopping done, yeah, then let me know, and that's great.
33:13
SPEAKER_04: But we felt that that we didn't know how long it was all going to go on for, and we felt it was a little bit risky and a bit unsustainable.
33:19
SPEAKER_04: What if that person's not available or what if they get COVID and it's not fair.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:25
SPEAKER_04: So we thought there were a lot of people wanting to do something, lots of people, well, four to five hundred people wanted to volunteer.
33:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:32
SPEAKER_04: But didn't really know how or needed a bit of support and direction, so that's what we did.
33:36
SPEAKER_01: Get organized.
33:37
SPEAKER_04: So, and actually, I don't know if you know, but I got a British Empire Medal for doing that.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: Neil, you kept that quiet.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: See, this is what I mean, this is why important it's important to talk to you.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: It's quite important, yeah.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: So did you go to the palace?
33:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we did.
33:52
SPEAKER_04: It was great, but I didn't wasn't looking forward to it, it's not my thing.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess it's a lot of attention.
33:58
SPEAKER_04: But it was actually really nice.
33:59
SPEAKER_04: It was a lovely day, it was a nice sunny day, and we got lots of nice food and and just wandered around the palace gardens and it felt like a lovely thing to do.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: I would say if you get worthy recognition of all the other things.
34:13
SPEAKER_04: It was it was good, and uh again, uh I didn't particularly feel like I deserved it, but actually, as I said before, I think there is a a thing about false modesty and actually recognising that that when you do do something and people want to thank you, then receive it.
34:33
SPEAKER_04: It's it's yeah, receive it.
34:34
SPEAKER_04: It's it's that's that's because it's intended sincerely, isn't it?
34:38
SPEAKER_04: It's not um and then the other thing I haven't mentioned, I don't think you know this is that Caroline and I who set up the resilience group, we were both uh awarded the Alveston Citizen of the Year this year.
34:51
SPEAKER_04: Oh that's amazing, and also the group got the uh voluntary group of the year.
34:57
SPEAKER_01: So fantastic.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: So I didn't even know these things existed.
35:00
SPEAKER_04: No, well, yeah.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: Did you know they exist?
35:05
SPEAKER_04: Well quite in the same category as uh uh New Year's Honor.
35:09
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't an MBE, it was a BM, which is a British Empire Medal, which was generally given for B E um.
35:14
SPEAKER_04: He said, Oh okay, I think oh that's yeah.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: Not interested.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
35:20
SPEAKER_04: So a British Empire Medal is generally given for voluntary services, it's quite often given to people who um you know run groups like that, or they might they might do sports volunteering, or they might uh run a cricket club or yeah, you know, that that kind of thing.
35:37
SPEAKER_04: It's it's so it's kind of not for doing your day job, it's more for doing sort of extracurricular.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, well exactly.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: And these are things that you go above and beyond for, as well as your very stressful day job.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: I I'd imagine it's pretty stressful.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know, I delegated that to you and I just did my bit.
35:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think my day job's quite I'm not sure about stressful, but certainly very busy to have to balance a lot of plates.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you do then in terms of being so busy with work, doing your volunteer stuff?
36:12
SPEAKER_01: What do you do for your personal self-care and downtime?
36:16
SPEAKER_04: Take the dog out for what?
36:18
SPEAKER_04: Oh to the pub.
36:21
SPEAKER_04: We were at the pub last night, birth to the dog, and um yeah, that's nice.
36:24
SPEAKER_04: And and uh my wife's quite busy as well.
36:26
SPEAKER_04: She's a secondary school teacher, and you know, if anyone doesn't know any secondary school teachers, it's that's an absolutely manic lifestyle.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a whole vocation, isn't it?
36:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so she needs time out as well as sometimes just going to the pub, have a meal, listen to some music.
36:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
36:45
SPEAKER_04: You normally also find if you go to the pub with the dog, there'll be someone else there with the dog and you end up talking to them.
36:51
SPEAKER_04: It's like a bit of a thing that dog owners all talk to each other.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: I'll bring my virtual one.
36:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, I probably know the names of all the dogs around the village, but not the owners.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: Um so where have you put all your um your medals and things?
37:11
SPEAKER_01: Are they out on display?
37:14
SPEAKER_01: No, not really no flashing lights and cabinets.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: No.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: No.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: That's disappointing.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: You're not sure where it is.
37:24
SPEAKER_01: No, I think like you said before, it's nice to be acknowledged, have that acknowledgement, and thank you.
37:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and and to learn to accept it.
37:32
SPEAKER_04: It's not it isn't my natural thing.
37:34
SPEAKER_04: I'm not I'm not an extrovert, you know.
37:36
SPEAKER_04: I d I don't seek uh limelight.
37:39
SPEAKER_04: I certainly don't uh take selfies and yeah, we're gonna have to take one for the podcast.
37:44
SPEAKER_04: Oh you didn't tell me that.
37:47
SPEAKER_04: I've never liked having my photograph take.
37:49
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
37:49
SPEAKER_01: Well you can face the other way if you like.
37:51
SPEAKER_04: Right, okay.
37:52
SPEAKER_04: But I suppose I thought when I was thinking about this um this discussion.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely not an interview.
38:02
SPEAKER_04: If if people who are listening to this feel that there's nothing that they can do, that there's nothing special, that they're just ordinary, yeah, you know that that to my mind that's me.
38:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's great, you know.
38:15
SPEAKER_04: So you can definitely do something.
38:17
SPEAKER_04: You can even if it's just knock on your door and talk to your elderly neighbour or something and just make them feel a bit more um listened to.
38:26
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
38:27
SPEAKER_04: There's always something that you can do that makes someone else feel better.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really lovely.
38:35
SPEAKER_04: Sounds a bit corny, no doesn't it?
38:37
SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't, it doesn't.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: It sounds you know, sometimes when you don't say these things out aloud, it doesn't register with people.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: Like it wouldn't register with me that um you know I'm standing next to someone that someone's so famous.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: Who has been to the palace and had tea?
38:55
SPEAKER_04: Well yeah, quite quite nice tea, and little cakes with crowns on them.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: Any other insider info?
39:02
SPEAKER_01: What did you wear?
39:04
SPEAKER_04: No, I can't tell you.
39:04
SPEAKER_04: Oh, did you have to sign it?
39:06
SPEAKER_04: It was just uh it was interesting actually, because part one of my various jobs uh has been in security.
39:13
SPEAKER_04: And um when we went to the palace, um there was lots and lots of security, so obviously I was looking at how that was done.
39:20
SPEAKER_04: That's quite interesting, lots of armed police and barriers and gates and stuff outside.
39:27
SPEAKER_04: You know, it's all quite intimidating outside, and you get searched and you kind of feel guilty before going in for something.
39:33
SPEAKER_04: A little bit, yeah, but then when you get in, it's totally different.
39:36
SPEAKER_04: It's like a little oasis of CAM.
39:39
SPEAKER_04: So there's no s no obvious security at all.
39:41
SPEAKER_04: But it's because the security, I forget what they're called, I think they're called gentlemen at arms.
39:46
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
39:47
SPEAKER_04: Uh and they're all wearing tailcoats and top hats and they're carrying rolled up umbrellas.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: It's just like the movies.
39:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, it was brilliant, it was so clever, and um, you know, so they kind of directed you into which queue to stand in for your cup of tea and everything, but it was all just so um old-fashioned.
40:06
SPEAKER_04: But you know, I'm sure they're all retired police sergeants and army officers and so on.
40:11
SPEAKER_04: So um yeah, I don't know if they had machine guns tucked up their coats, but it was all very, very British and it was just part of the kind of quaintness and and yeah, you know, uh the regal bit.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: And um I was gonna ask you something then about oh, the introversion.
40:34
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: So how do you manage that?
40:36
SPEAKER_01: Because your job involves being around people, your volunteer work involves being around and I know you're not necessarily in the spotlight, but yeah, yeah, from what I've seen at work, you do need to take centre stage sometimes.
40:50
SPEAKER_04: Well I do because um I think um I don't think it's massively uncommon.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
40:56
SPEAKER_04: I think um people that are, for example, film stars or comedians and so on, quite often do that because they themselves, you know, don't feel that they've got anything to say.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and and so uh I'm not saying I'm quite that extreme, but yeah, but I think having a thing to do, having a reason for speaking to people, yeah, um does help massively.
41:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh okay, yeah.
41:25
SPEAKER_04: Going to the pub with the dog and talking to someone else with a dog.
41:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
41:27
SPEAKER_04: It's something you've got in common and you've talked about the dog.
41:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:30
SPEAKER_04: Whereas if I went to the pub and I didn't have a dog, yeah, I probably wouldn't talk to the person at the next table.
41:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:37
SPEAKER_04: So um, so yeah, I suppose that's how I deal with it.
41:40
SPEAKER_04: I deal with it because I'm doing a thing.
41:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:42
SPEAKER_04: You know, I've got a responsibility, I'm I'm organising an event, I've got responsibility for what people are doing, yeah, that they're doing it safely, that they're properly um managed, supported, make sure they get a break, you know, they get bacon button, yeah, whatever it is.
41:58
SPEAKER_04: You know, there's lots to do, so there's lots of reasons to talk to people.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: And um and then do you need time to yourself?
42:06
SPEAKER_01: Because I know I do, and I've started calling it my lockdown weekends where I just don't see anyone.
42:13
SPEAKER_01: And actually one of my friends um noticed it before me, before lockdown, and she would ask me if I was being a hermit this weekend or not.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: So it's something I was always doing but wasn't really aware of.
42:26
SPEAKER_04: Um I don't think I do that not deliberately, but I do have days, I suppose, where I might just decide I'm gonna cut grass or cut hedge, or something we've got quite a biggish garden with a big hedge.
42:40
SPEAKER_04: So once I've made the first cut of the hedge, then I've got to keep clean to it.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: So I guess that's uh quite a solitary activity.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: Um so have you got any other secrets you'd like to share today, Neil?
43:00
SPEAKER_01: Any other awards or any other thing, I've got some guys brigade awards, but that was a while ago.
43:08
SPEAKER_04: Uh no, I can't think of anything that I haven't told you.
43:11
SPEAKER_04: I think you've without really asking me very many questions, I think you've managed to whittle out quite a few things that I hadn't even thought of.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: The power of my charm.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: I warned you about this.
43:22
SPEAKER_04: It's the power of the walk.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: It is, it's true.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: I think it it just gets your circulation going, doesn't it?
43:28
SPEAKER_04: It gets your guard down.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think these are things that you should be okay talking about because they're great.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's so inspiring to know, and and I know you're not doing it for the awards or the recognition or anything, but it's so nice for me to hear that you are being seen and that all your hard work is being recognised, and that's lovely.
43:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
43:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really nice.
43:53
SPEAKER_04: So I just got these steps.
43:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:56
SPEAKER_04: So this this place where we're at, like I said, it's um Twelve foot park.
44:01
SPEAKER_04: It was one of these sort of um old Victorian type estates up the upper steps we were walking just now with the ball at the case.
44:08
SPEAKER_01: Oh okay.
44:09
SPEAKER_04: Which is completely gone.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: This is how I was going to meet my end.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: This is the relief.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: Not yet.
44:19
SPEAKER_04: Uh but yeah, we're we're right at the bottom of the lake.
44:22
SPEAKER_04: And so you you can actually from yeah, you can look up the whole length of the lake, maybe not so much at this time of year, but yeah.
44:29
SPEAKER_04: And the leaves are on the trees.
44:30
SPEAKER_04: But certainly if you're here at winter, you can see right up to the top of the lake.
44:35
SPEAKER_01: Um to have a house here would have been immense.
44:39
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
44:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so the house is long gone, like many of these estates.
44:42
SPEAKER_04: But the boathouses are still here, and yeah, a lot of these trees are quite exotic trees that are around us that would have been planted, you know, by people that collected trees from all over the world.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's interesting, yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_01: And they they're obviously very old to look at the size of them.
45:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but actually, and again, this wasn't something I'd thought about, but you know, coming here, it's owned by the National Trust, but it's maintained by volunteers.
45:07
SPEAKER_02: Oh, is it?
45:07
SPEAKER_04: There's lots of people who do volunteering here.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:10
SPEAKER_04: Someone was telling me just in Alvaston, which as you said it's not a not a very big town.
45:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:15
SPEAKER_04: There's something like eight or nine different places where you can volunteer to do gardening.
45:19
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
45:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:20
SPEAKER_04: Just just gardening, yeah.
45:21
SPEAKER_04: If you want to cut grass or plant gereniums or whatever, you know, there's there's just there's always things you can do.
45:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:30
SPEAKER_01: And being outside is so important, isn't it?
45:32
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I said, you know, from all the laptop work.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: As soon as I'm not sure caged animal has been released.
45:41
SPEAKER_04: Well and you have to kind of exercise, you have to even just exercising your eye muscles if you're sitting at a desk for a long time looking at a laptop.
45:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:50
SPEAKER_04: It's not good for your body, it's not good for your back or your eyes or anything, so it's good to get out.
45:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm getting a phone call.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that does to the recording.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: And just check.
46:04
SPEAKER_01: We're still recording, we're good.
46:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
46:07
SPEAKER_01: I've never had a phone call before.
46:10
SPEAKER_04: I won't ask.
46:12
SPEAKER_01: No, as in while I'm recording.
46:14
SPEAKER_04: I have received a phone.
46:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank you.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
46:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
46:21
SPEAKER_01: So, um, what's the plan for the rest of this year then?
46:24
SPEAKER_01: So you're do you do you do another fine fest?
46:27
SPEAKER_04: Uh I I helped out actually.
46:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, so that's the one you do in June.
46:31
SPEAKER_04: We just we've just done it last week.
46:32
SPEAKER_04: Is that the one I know?
46:34
SPEAKER_01: I was in Italy, sorry.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: Someone had to be here.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, is that the one where you did the Guinness record?
46:41
SPEAKER_04: A few years ago, yes, we did.
46:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
46:43
SPEAKER_04: You did the one.
46:44
SPEAKER_04: It was a phone pie fight.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:46
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we have.
46:47
SPEAKER_04: So I was involved in uh just not really in organizing it, but I sort of supported it on the on the day.
46:53
SPEAKER_01: And did you get the record?
46:54
SPEAKER_04: We did, yeah, yeah.
46:55
SPEAKER_04: We got the world record for the most the largest number of people in a custard pie fight or a phone pie fight.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:02
SPEAKER_04: Uh that was done at Ford Park Fun.
47:04
SPEAKER_04: Oh, was it?
47:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh and was there an odd socks one as well?
47:08
SPEAKER_04: Yes, there were two subsequent ones.
47:10
SPEAKER_04: Uh there was an odd socks one and and another one that was so memorable, I can't even remember which it was.
47:16
SPEAKER_01: But um did you did you make the record though of the We did on one of them, yeah.
47:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
47:21
SPEAKER_04: Can't remember what was the one that definitely oh um no, I I I really can't remember mine's gone blank, sorry.
47:26
SPEAKER_04: But the the foam pi fight one was the first one.
47:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was that was really good.
47:32
SPEAKER_04: Um and yeah, that got the whole community behind it.
47:34
SPEAKER_04: As I wasn't involved in organising it, but uh it helped out a little bit with some of the equipment and just kind of setting up the site for it because it it all had to be done very strictly in accordance with um Guinness World Record rules and they they specify.
47:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well they can either send an official or you don't have to have an official which is what did which is cheaper.
47:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
47:59
SPEAKER_04: Because you have to pay for the official and then come over from America or something.
48:02
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
48:03
SPEAKER_04: There's it was some phenomenal cost.
48:04
SPEAKER_04: But as long as you follow all the rules and you've got lots of documentary evidence and photographs and live video footage and stuff.
48:12
SPEAKER_04: So it was before before drones, really, it's a while ago now.
48:16
SPEAKER_04: But um, so we had a camera up a pole basically filming the whole thing.
48:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:20
SPEAKER_04: Uh and we had a turn style in the middle of the field to count people in, and and it was all fenced off and divided into sections so you could see exactly how many people were in each section, and the women's about each person had to throw three foam pies at people in their own section and so on, and and you had to be able to prove to to the you know Guinness World Records that you'd done it the right way with the right number of people in in the allotted time, and so it's actually quite a complicated, technically challenging thing to do.
48:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh you know, to do it to get the record, and the team that did it um you know did a fantastic job, and I'm sure lots of people still remember taking part in that.
49:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it was I mean I remember it and I wasn't there, but it was probably on holiday again somewhere else.
49:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: But it it looked amazing.
49:09
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, so that was part of Another Fine Fest, which is um which actually celebrated its tenth anniversary this year.
49:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
49:18
SPEAKER_04: So that Another Fine Fest was um set up in in sort of memory of Stan Laurel, who was born in Alberston, and there's uh a Laurel Hardy Museum in Alvaston, so it was a chap called Dave Crossley and uh Mark Greenhoe, who runs the museum who set up the festival in Stan's memory.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good to know.
49:37
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
49:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there was some kind of sense to it.
49:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
49:42
SPEAKER_01: Um not just another one.
49:44
SPEAKER_01: Not just another festival.
49:45
SPEAKER_04: Um but it it's a very um inclusive sort of multi multicultural festival, and you know, there's lots of music and arts and you know, paintings and uh children's things, and every year um something happens like this year.
50:02
SPEAKER_04: People uh made and and dressed up as a giant colon caterpillar and kind of conquered through the town.
50:09
SPEAKER_04: Uh really fun.
50:11
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well it being a tenth birthday is obviously a caterpillar cake, a birthday.
50:15
SPEAKER_01: So that's rebuttal.
50:18
SPEAKER_04: Made complete sense.
50:20
SPEAKER_04: No, it was a col I think it was Oh it was an Aldi, sorry.
50:23
SPEAKER_04: Well, Colin was Colin MS, yeah.
50:27
SPEAKER_01: Oh, so there wasn't a cockpit.
50:30
SPEAKER_04: No, there wasn't a caterpillar fight.
50:31
SPEAKER_01: No.
50:32
SPEAKER_04: Well that would have been a good idea, yeah.
50:36
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I should volunteer for the ideas team.
50:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well you'd be perfect.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: Come up with all these things.
50:43
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, there's always something for every every weirdo.
50:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I'd fit that category quite well.
50:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, perfect.
50:52
SPEAKER_04: The next call on the caterpillar.
50:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, cool.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks, Neil.
50:57
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for your time.
50:58
SPEAKER_01: It's nice to see you, nice to see Doug.
51:01
SPEAKER_01: And that brings us to the end of today's walk around Fellford Park with the incredible Neil Fleming.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: And as an added bonus, a little guided tour tapped in on the side, taking advantage of Neil's experience in the area.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: So thank you very much for that too.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: We've heard about how Neil's volunteer work has been a driving force in supporting local charities and local events and helping to build community spirit.
51:33
SPEAKER_01: His dedication has earned him a BEM and his Olverston Citizen of the Year award, and has even helped to put Olverston on the Guinness World Records map.
51:46
SPEAKER_01: Just amazing.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: Neil's message is clear.
51:50
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be in the limelight to make a difference.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: Just show up, do what you can, and help your community thrive.
52:00
SPEAKER_01: Neil, thanks so much for sharing your story, your strategies, and for showing us how one person's efforts can really make an impact.
52:11
SPEAKER_01: It's been really wholesome and uplifting.
52:16
SPEAKER_01: And to our listeners, thank you for joining us for another walk.
52:21
SPEAKER_01: I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we did.
52:24
SPEAKER_01: And if you enjoyed it, please share your thoughts in our social channels and please tell your friends all about us.
52:34
SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to come back and join us for another walk.
52:38
SPEAKER_01: So until next time, keep exploring.