Introducing March's Speaker

Krzysztof (Krys) Stankiewicz

Born in Manchester (1952), bred in St. Helens where I attended West Park Grammar School and spent my formative years.

My twin brother Mike and I were brought up in a Polish-speaking household with a strong sense of Polish tradition and history. We didn’t speak English when we went to school, but we soon caught up! Being bi-lingual from an early age has undoubtedly enriched my life, as it has given me access to two very different cultures, in which I feel equally at home.

My first visit to Poland was in 1966 – a landmark year as it marked the Millennium of Polish Christianity. Poland had suffered badly during WW2 and even then there were visible signs of wartime damage and a sense that the country was still re-building. The Poles value their historical heritage and old cities, like Warsaw and Gdańsk, which had been substantially destroyed had been rebuilt as a national priority in the 40’s and 50’s, with their historic centres lovingly recreated from contemporary archive plans and drawings. I sensed that historical legacy – and the great desire to preserve it – very keenly right from my first visit. Subsequent visits in the 60’s and 70’s served only to strengthen this feeling.

In November 2017 my wife Ania and I moved to Poland after a lifetime in the UK. We’re in Słupsk, Ania’s home town in Pomorze (many people know it as Pomerania) in what is now NW Poland, but what before WW2 was the German Pommern (when the town was known as Stolp). Słupsk is a very old town, founded around 1000 years ago at the dawn of the modern Polish State. It has had a rich and varied history, one that to some extent has mirrored the changes that Poland itself has undergone over the centuries. Some of those changes we’ll be covering in my talk, which will focus mainly on the 400 years of the Rzeczpospolita, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which existed from 1386 to 1795.

"Living with 60 Million Foreigners", Monthly Talk 15/02/21(Mon)

Historical Society welcomed – insofar as “welcoming” is possible in these times – Christina Spencer for our February talk. The blog administrators were a few minutes late due to a combination of technical issues and looking after Historical Society’s youngest member (born in November 2020) and would like to take this opportunity to apologise for not being able to transcribe the whole talk.

As part of her work with the German Foreign Office, Mrs Spencer would often work as an interpreter for the police. The police make sure to employ competent professionals, but some companies cut corners when it comes to language services and this can have amusing results. Mrs Spencer gave some examples. Firstly, when Vauxhall developed the Nova, it was launched at an exhibition in Spain. The opinion was that the car would perform poorly in Spanish-speaking markets – “no va” being the Spanish for “doesn’t go”. Secondly, when the German pharmaceutical company Bayer wanted to market some headache tablets in the United Arab Emirates, they were very careful to use only images and were then puzzled that the campaign was so badly received. Bayer had forgotten that Arabic reads from right to left, meaning that local consumers took the advert as saying that a happy-looking lady took the tablets and then looked really ill. Thirdly, a gentleman was once addressing a conference in Russia and had taken the trouble to learn the Russian for “hello”. Upon arrival, he realised that he hadn’t learnt the Russian for “ladies and gentlemen”, so he asked one of the hotel staff to read what was written above the toilets. The conference attendees were amused to be addressed as “latrines and urinals”.

There are many aspects of life in the UK which are confusing to those who grew up elsewhere, even when these people have an excellent grasp of the English language. Some of the confusion is caused by the distinction between British and English – although the vast majority of British people speak English as a first language, not all these people are English and the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish will be quick to point it out. Although Britain made the transition to decimal currency in 1971 (almost precisely 50 years before the talk, in fact), other units of measurement remain in common use in the UK which are not so widely understood elsewhere. An example is giving temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit – Mrs Spencer finds this particularly amusing given that Gabriel Fahrenheit was, in fact, German.

Certain elements of UK life seem almost deliberately designed to baffle. When thinking about schools for her children, Mrs Spencer in the first instance assumed they would go to a public school, before finding out that here in England, public schools are private. Given that her children were special, she then considered a special school, not realising that this referred specifically to pupils with special educational needs. When she saw that there was such a thing as an approved school, Mrs Spencer hoped that her husband would consider this sort of establishment – until she learnt that approved schools are corrective institutions for young offenders.

The British are prone to understatement. Mrs Spencer remembered the hurricane of 1987 (which caused 22 deaths and many, many injuries) being described as “a bit blowy”. A crucial element of British humour is that when a misfortune befalls an individual, that same individual will often find the event very amusing. Tea if offered should always be accepted and the weather is an endlessly interesting topic of conversation.

The English language is rich in examples of signs and headlines with the potential to be read in multiple ways with very different meanings. Mrs Spencer shared some instances with us, including:

- “comprehensive school drop-outs cut in half”
- “all meat in this shop is from local farmers killed on premises”
- “toilet out of order, please use floor below”
- from a private medical firm offering keyhole surgery: “we operate on your doorstep”

Mrs Spencer also recounted the time she was particular to get the mince for her mince pies fresh from the butcher, not out of a tin. She nevertheless congratulated her mostly British audience for speaking the world’s only truly global language, however illogical it may be.

28 devices tuned in to the meeting and many of these devices were being used by two or more people. One of the meeting attendees was raised in St Helens, but currently lives in Poland. The British are unusual for taking milk in their tea; our attendee from Poland informed us that there, milk in tea is a tuberculosis treatment and some concern was caused when the addition of milk was requested.

A bit more about Monday's speaker

 

Christina Spencer was born in Leipzig in the former East Germany.  She is a dual German/British National and came to study English Language and Literature at Liverpool University in 1959.   

She has worked for the German Foreign Office in this country for 20 years and for the Liverpool based shipping company, Bibby Line Group, for 27 years.  In 2005 she was awarded by the German Government the German Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstorden) – the equivalent of an OBE – for her services to Anglo-German friendship, and in 2009 the Lord Mayor of the City of Liverpool made her an ‘Honorary Scouser’ for services to the City of Liverpool.

Christina, who has lived in this country for sixty years, is the President Elect of the Rotary Club of Wallasey.   She is a keen fundraiser and this year (on 16 March) embarked on a ‘virtual reality walk’ which she called ‘Get Lost Corona’.  She actually walked three miles every day in order to get from Hoylake (where she lives) to Frankfurt/Main in Germany, a total of 209 days or 620 miles.  She persuaded her friends to sponsor her by ‘meeting with her in virtual reality’ in many ‘exciting’ places and reached her destination on 12 October.  Obviously in reality she was walking round and round her home town Hoylake in rain or shine.

She does a lot of public speaking to raise funds for various charities; and in her spare time loves to ‘dabble’ in Encaustic Art (encaustic art is painting with a hot iron and bees wax). 

Next meeting: Monday 15 February 2021

 After the success of our January meeting over Zoom, we're doing the same in February. The talk is entitled:

"Life with 60 Million Foreigners"

and will be delivered by Christina Spencer.

The talk will start at 7:30pm. For a Zoom invitation, please send a request by e-mail to:

sthelenshistsoc@gmail.com

We can't wait!

St Helens Historical Society e-mail address

We now have our own e-mail address as another means of contact. We've added it to the Description section, but it feels right to put it here also:

sthelenshistsoc@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!

The Industrial Heritage of St Helens, Monthly Talk 18/01/21(Mon)

Although we all eagerly await the time when we can resume our regular gatherings, we wanted Historical Society to happen in some form. In January, long-standing Historical Society member, Maurice Handley, obliged by delivering a talk over Zoom about our town's industrial heritage. The talk was based around a series of slides which in their turn featured photographs of various significant structures around the town.

The Cannington Shaw No 7 Bottle Shop is a witness to St Helens's role as a major glass manufacturing centre. It was famed for the production of "codd bottles" - bottles using a marble as the stopper. Although derelict, the fact that it survives at all is noteworthy. For more information on the Cannington Shaw Bottle Shop, please follow the links below:

https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/heritage-at-risk/search-register/list-entry/48565

https://www.facebook.com/CanningtonShaw/

The Sankey Viaduct. Although only six arches are visible in this shot, it is often known as the Nine Arches. Pylons erected during the electrifcation of the line in 2015 can be seen in this photo. Opened as part of the route of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830, it continues to take trains over the Sankey Canal, the oldest canal in England. More information on the viaduct and the canal can be found at the below links:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1075927

https://www.sankeycanal.co.uk/

Factory Row, Ravenhead. Houses purpose-built for glass workers, among the oldest such properties in the country.

Pilkingtons Head Office. Still a major feature of the St Helens skyline, although Pilkingtons Glass as an employer is no longer as significant as it once was.

Reflection Court, the previous headquarters of Pilkington Glass before the construction of the existing Head Office (above). Reflection Court is a listed building:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1283515

The "Hotties" - a section of the Sankey Canal near St Helens town centre, so called because nearby glass works used the water for cooling purposes, a process which heated the water before it returned to the canal. The bridge in the photograph forms part of the World of Glass visitor attraction. For more information on the World of Glass and on the Hotties, please follow the links below:

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/specialist-teams/restoration/restoration-stories/the-hotties-of-st-helens

http://www.worldofglass.com/

An aerial view of the Hotties and the World of Glass.

We have talks scheduled to be delivered over Zoom for both February and March - watch this space!