The last few months have been hectic at the station with both the inshore lifeboat Charles Dibdin & hovercraft Hurley Spirit in action on a regular basis. At the time of writing this we have had over 40 ‘shouts’ so far this year. These combined with our extensive and on-going training programme have kept our volunteers fully occupied.
5th June – rescue of a badly injured & unconscious person in the area of ‘Wigg Island’ nr Runcorn – We carefully transferred him to the lifeboat, gave oxygen, first aid and monitored his condition. We transferred him to the RAF rescue helicopter near Liverpool Airport and he was flown to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool for treatment. Both inshore lifeboat and hovercraft were called out.
7th July – recovered and secured and fishing vessel that had lost its mooring and was a potential hazard to shipping in the river.
16th / 17th July – The Mayor of Wirral visited the station on the Saturday and in the evening the hovercraft Hurley Spirit was in action to assist an injured kite surfer. On the Sunday we launched in severe conditions on a call out to a yacht with engine failure.
23rd July – the Charles Dibdin was launched to assist a yachtsman in Liverpool Bay with a severe crush injury to the foot.
30th July – We responded to the report of a large silver object falling into the sea off New Brighton. We recovered it and unfortunately it turned out not to be of alien origin but a group of party balloons tied together. Our hopes of being the first RNLI station to have an alien encounter were dashed!.
31st July & 7th August – our volunteers performed ‘man overboard’ recovery demonstrations to appreciative passengers on board of Mersey ferry’s on charity cruises.
We have had other call outs but these ones have featured in the press.
For more information on these and other rescues please have a look at www.rnli.org.uk web site select the ‘In Your Area’ tab and go to New Brighton lifeboat station. There you will find press reports, photographs and now videos of these and other activities at the station.
£50,000 Fundraising Campaign for Crew Training & Equipment
So far we have raised a magnificent £32,000 from a wide range of people & organizations – this has been a great effort and is putting us well on our way towards our target. If you can help us by donation or involvement in some activity to raise funds that would be great – for more information please phone: RNLI on 0161 787 8779 or email [email protected]
New Brighton Heritage and Information Centre.
The New Brighton Heritage and Information Centre at number 90 Victoria Road was opened by the Mayor of Wirral, Cllr Moira McLaughlin,on Saturday 16th July.
We are currently showing part of the Lifeboats On Call 24/7 photographic exhibition – a project undertaken by the Wallasey Amatuer Photographic Society together with the children of New Brighton Primary School showing a year in the life of the New Brighton Lifeboat Station.
Seen here are 3 of the school’s pupils – Niamh King, Carolyn Fraser and Matthew Brown showing their work to the Mayor.
The Centre hopes to gradually gather an exhibition of New Brighton’s fascinating history with the help of those people in the community who have New Brighton memorabilia which they wish to display.
We would be grateful if anyone who has such memorabilia would contact the Project Manager, Cathy Elwin, at the Centre on 639 3555 to arrange for it to be displayed.
The Centre is manned by volunteers and we would like to hear from anyone who can spare a couple of hours each week to help with this.
Our thanks to everyone who has been involved in getting the Centre up and running and to the many people who have visited it so far to talk to us about New Brighton past, present and future and who have left their helpful comments in our Visitors Book.
If you haven’t visited the Centre yet, please come along and tell us what you think and give us your suggestions as to how you would like to see it developed.
Opening times are 10.30 am till 4 pm Monday to Saturday and 11 am till 3 pm on Sundays.
We’d also like to thank all those volunteers who deliver the Walrus every March, May, September and December.
We’ve been doing this now for 16 years and consider it to be a great community achievement. If there is anyone out there who could spare some time to deliver a few we’d be glad to hear from you – ring 639 5798 or email [email protected].
The deadline for articles to go in the December Walrus is Friday 18th November.
Informal meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Magazime pub from 7.30 pm
20th September
18th October
15th November
Wallasey Ladies Lifeboat Guild
Christmas Coffee Morning
St James Church, New Brighton
Saturday, 12th November - 10.30 am to 12 noon
RNLI Good – calendars and cards etc
Cakes and preserves Raffle
Entrance £1.00
To mark UN Peace Day, Wallasey Peace One Day group are holding a concert on Friday Sept. 23rd. 7.30pm St. Albans Church Hall, St. Albans Rd. Liscard, Wallasey: Folk Night with Phil Chisnall and Friends, guest speaker Allan Williams of Quaker Peace Initiative. Refreshments and bar. Wheel chair accessible. Tickets and information contact: [email protected]
Dear Resident,
There have been a number of recent burglaries on the Wirral, where the offenders have gained access to properties via the Upvc front door. These have occurred where householders have inadvertently left the front door insecure, by failing to lift up the handle engaging the multi-locking system, and then turning the key. In other instances, the burglars have inserted an implement through the letterbox to release the door handle, or used a thin screwdriver between the door and frame, to release the door latch. Never leave keys in door locks. These should be taken upstairs, along with any car keys, during the nighttime.
If your front or rear doors are of Upvc construction, it is imperative to ensure that the bolts are activated, and the lock is engaged with the key at all times, to prevent these walk-in/sneak burglaries. The latch itself will not provide adequate security, and this has been clearly illustrated over recent months.
20% of burglaries that take place involve no forced entry, i.e. the burglar gains access via an open window or door. It is obviously important to ensure all windows/doors are secured when leaving the premises unattended. Opportunist burglars will often take advantage of doors and windows, left open by the householder for ventilation, in the warmer summer months, even when the house is occupied.
Many thanks,
Merseyside Police
The Bards of New Brighton exists to promote appreciation of poetry and to encourage people to write verse and read it out in front of a supportive audience.
The club, which has an open membership and charges no admission fees, meets on the second Monday of each month in the back room (the folk music room) of the Magazine pub in Magazine Brow, New Brighton.
The Bards were formed by local writer and journalist Steve Regan, of Victoria Road, nearly five years ago. For a while the group met in the Ginny (Little Brighton) pub but eventually moved to the Mags because it offered a bigger room.
All sort of poetry is read out at the Bards’ nights – humourous, political, spiritual, locally-themed, philosophical, and, of course, love poetry.
The atmosphere is lively and friendly. Whoever is compere on the night will often compliment you on your poetry, and there is a lot of friendly banter between the local poets.
These days Steve Regan is helped in the running of the Bards by Dave Costello, who lives in Liscard. Dave recently won first prize in the prestigious Welsh Poetry Competition.
The two men say they have been encouraged to see people grow in confidence and eloquence after coming regularly to the Bards of New Brighton to read, or “perform” their poetry.
Each poet gets to read in a four minute slot, and those who have a bit more to read will be given two such slots if they so wish.
So successful has been the Bards’ open and democratic style of performance poetry, that Steve and Dave have started a sister club in Liverpool, called The Liver Bards! This also offers open-floor live poetry – in the upstairs concert room of the Ship and Mitre pub, Dale Street, Liverpool city centre, L2 2JH. The Liverpool nights take place on the THIRD MONDAY of each month, starting 8.15pm.
The New Brighton Bards poetry nights at the Magazine pub starts at 8pm on the SECOND MONDAY of each month.Upcoming dates for 2011 are: 12th September; 10th October; 14th November; and 12th December. All are welcome.
More of Steve Regan’s writing about New Brighton on his “Last Resort” blog on the Liverpool Echo website http://steveregan.merseyblogs.co.uk/
Steve invented the “Sam Brady” column on the old ORACLE Teletetext service. He still blogs as Sam Brady “The Man They Can’t Gag”
http://sambradyoracle.blogspot.com/
Follow him on Twitter @StephenJRegan
PICTURE CAPTIONS …
Part of the Bards’ reading lectern, which some poets prefer to use
BARDS’ founder Steve Regan
In days gone by New Brighton always had a tourist-trail map so that visitors could be sure of finding where all the important things were. No such map has been properly produced for many years, so New Brighton Community Partnership are now holding a competition to “bring back the tourist map” !!. Think of all the places worth a visit in the town, all the new places there are going to be and get them on the map. If you want some inspiration then visit the new Heritage Centre at 90 Victoria Road where there are some copies of old tourist maps available to look at. Entries are for under 10`s, 10 to 16 years and over 16`s. Your maps should be returned to the Heritage Centre, 90 Victoria Road by 3.30pm on Friday 30th September. Don` t forget to include your age, name and contact details. The prize for the winners will be to see their entry included in a New Brighton Map Postcard and Poster Set. Entries will be judged by New Brighton Community Partnership and “The Timelines” (who currently have a range of local reproduction memorabilia available – call in at the Heritage Centre for details). Get creating and good luck !!. (Barry Humphreys – The Timelines).
It’s almost two years since the new Floral Pavilion opened its doors in December 2008 with a classic comedy performance from Ken Dodd and the New Brighton theatre and conference centre continues to go from strength to strength.
The autumn sees yet another star-studded line visiting the much loved seaside resort with everything from Rolling Stones legend Bill Wyman, family favourites Mr Men & Little Miss and Peppa Pig, to the Wirral debut of the classic musical Blood Brothers courtesy of Bill Kenwright Ltd.
The enviable location on the very tip of the peninsula and its panoramic views across Liverpool Bay have seen the theatre grow in popularity as the perfect place to meet for a coffee, enjoy a meal or even tie the knot!
Everyone at the Floral Pavilion are looking forward to welcoming faces both old and new over the coming months.