79. Candlelit Carol Service – 15th December 2016

Just to remind you all that this years Candlelit Carol Service will be held at St Mary-at-Hill Church,
Lovat Lane on Wednesday 15th December at 6.00pm. The service will be followed by mulled wine and mince pies.

Several Livery Company Masters (including me) will be taking part in the Service. It is always lovely event, and it will be led by our Chaplain, Rose Hudson-Wilkin. I hope as many of you as possible will come and join us.

The photograph shows the interior of the Church.

78. The Worshipful Company of Cutlers – 600th Anniversary

The history of the craft of Cutlers dates back to the 12th century and in 1285 the first reference is found to a “house of the Cutlers”. On 4th December 1416 the craft received its first Royal Charter from King Henry V – the only such Charter given by Henry during his reign.

So this year the Company celebrates its Sexcentenary. Ralph Riley, our Clerk, and I were invited to join in the celebrations held on Monday 5th December – firstly at a Service of Thanksgiving in the beautiful Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great and then a reception in the Grand Hall of the Old Bailey. Both were attended by almost all Livery Masters and their Clerks – a magnificent turnout for a very important celebration.

In his address, the Chaplain said he was looking forward to seeing as many of us as possible in 2416 to celebrate 1,000 years of the Cutlers Company!

Many thanks to the Master Cutler for including us in this celebration.

Photographs show the invitation and order of service, and the magnificent domed ceiling of the Grand Hall.

77. Lecture at City, University of London

As part of our attempts to build a closer relationship with City, University of London (and a member of the alumni), I was invited to attend the George Daniels Lecture at the university earlier this week.

The annual George Daniels Lecture celebrates the life and work of Dr. George Daniels CBE who was considered, during his lifetime by many to be the best horologist in the world and was famous for creating the co-axial escapement which has been used by Omega in their highest-grade watches since 1999. George had a close relationship with the University right up to his death in 2011.

The lecture, given by Matthew Read, looked at how the future of clockmaking is being shaped. In particular with growing awareness of the preservation of horological heritage, scientific analytical techniques are now widely employed in curatorship and conservation to reveal information that would otherwise remain hidden.

A fascinating lecture given by Matthew who teaches foundation, postgraduate and MA horology programmes at West Dean College in West Sussex.

Many thanks to the University for inviting me to attend.

Photographs shows Matthew at work in West Dean and a beautiful marine chronometer made by George in 1953.

76. The Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch 2017

Earlier this week the Lord Mayor arranged a launch party for the 2017 Big Curry Lunch. The 2017 lunch, planned for early April in the Guildhall will be the tenth such event.

The beneficiary of the lunch is ABF, the soldier’s charity. The first nine lunches have raised a total of £1.65m and the Lord Mayor has set us an ambitious target of raising £450,000 in 2017 to help ensure that over the ten years since its first event a total of £2m will have been raised.

The launch party was held at the City of London Club and was very well attended by livery company Master’s and their Clerks. Although the Lady Mayoress and Sheriff Peter Estlin were present, the Lord Mayor was on an extended overseas trip to Qatar where he is promoting the City of London. By the wonders of modern technology, he was able to speak to us all with his smiling face beamed onto a large screen!

The Worshipful Company of Water Conservators are strong supporters of this event and as well as attending the lunch, the Company has traditionally used its collection from a formal lunch to make a financial contribution to this charity that does so much to support army personnel in their hours of need.

Photograph shows the Lord Mayor “on screen” addressing us all.

75. A Trip to the Royal Albert Hall

Last week, Fiona and I were guests at the Royal Albert Hall to see a Jools Holland concert – as ever,
it was a fantastic performance by Jools and his very talented musicians and singers.

However, on our way in we met a group from the Worshipful Company of Engineers including Master Professor Isobal Pollock and Past Master John Banyard (who I spent much time with at Harvard several years ago!). There is no escape from Livery Companies when you are out and about in London!

74. The Conservator – Lord Mayors Show Special Edition

To enable Members and other followers of our Company to see an early write up of our involvement in the Lord Mayors Show, we have produced a special edition of The Conservator.

This special edition was formatted by Court Assistant David Richards and has been loaded onto our website by our Webmaster, Sue Paterson – it looks great. It contains some background on how the Lord Mayor is elected, how we designed our float and raised funds to build and enter it, as well as what happened on the day. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Photograph shows the front page.

73. Brewery Visit – Tuesday 13th December

My Bailiff, Dylan Barker, has organized a series of visits to breweries and the famous Tipton Pie Factory on Tuesday 13th December.

The plan is to meet at Wolverhampton Station at 10.30am and return there for 5.00pm, Full details are on our website under Forthcoming Events. The cost for the day will be £35.

We have relatively few social events outside of London, so I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to come along. Contact Dylan to add your name to the list: dylan@precolor.co.uk

Photograph shows a painting of the famous Ma Pardoes Brewery which will be one the brewery visits.