Time on our hands??

That's unfair advantage :-))

Martin P

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campingstoveman
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Perk of the job :-))

As long as you didn't push an autograph book at them, they were all great to deal with.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Peter A Forbes

What an interesting thread & such utterly shameless name dropping!

Raymond Mays when I was a teenager & didn't know who he was.

Marjorie Cottle. She was a Triumph ISDT rider in the 1939 competition held in Nazi-controlled Austria in the last few days before England declared war on Germany. That year, Britain sent both a civilian and a military team to compete. After four days, when it seemed that war could break out at any minute, British officials told the civilian team to return to England immediately. Cottle refused to leave and competed on the fifth day alongside the British Army team. When they too were ordered to abandon competition, Cottle and the Army team rode their motorcycles to neutral territory in Switzerland only hours before the declaration of war.

I was a bike mechanic in a big shop in Bristol & she came to see her grand-daughter collect her Honda SS50. She asked me something technical & I was flippant in my reply. "Don't you bullshit me young man, I was riding Triumphs before you were born!" I knew I knew who she was but couldn't place her - then it came to me. "Austria perhaps ?" & she looked straightly at me, somewhat aback. "You're Marjorie Cottle! I am honoured to meet you" & shook her hand. At the time, I was much into vintage trials stuff & knew all about her. It was years since anyone had recognised her & she was quite fluffy all of a sudden.

Peter Cushing in the bar of The Swan in Anwick whilst filming "Ivanhoe!" for the Beeb in (erm) 1996. He came & talked to me & eventually got round to asking me what the BBC were like to work for. All those feature films & never worked for the Beeb! A man of A Certain Age even then, he was a real gentleman & was more than pleased to pose with us Vikings the next day.

Prince Edward when he had a TV production company. After the shoot he took us to the pub & bought us food & I made a point of buying him a pint! Held Princess' Anne's reigns once at Badminton whilst she got off & adjusted the girth & stirrups. Was next to Princess Di in a traffic jam on the M4. Startled I said "You're Princess Di!" (duh! great pick up lines of our age!) & she simpered at me & nodded. "Lovely day" she said, top down (the car, the car) & hair blowing in the wind.

Rory Bremner who came up to me as I arrived at Location "You must be Kim Siddorn" to which I replied "You must be Rory Bremner"! I knew I'd like him when he offered to help me carry stuff.

The Time Team presenters. Mike Harding is very interested in the Longhall we are building & we are going to invite him to Twelfth Night. Went to a lecture by Mick Aston about Early Medieval Monasteries. Bumped into him in the corridor whilst he was struggling with a big folder of notes & I caught some for him. He spoke for over an hour walking up & down with his hands in his pockets. Really interesting - and he never once looked at his notes ;o))

Michael Wood (the "In Search of ...." man,) a couple of times now. For long years a hero of ours & it was a pleasure to tell him that his influence changed the face of re-enactment.

Peter Scott one day at Slimbridge. We talked about ducks & then his dad. There hours I was.

Harrison Ford in the bar at Pinewood when I went up to collect our ship replica from the Big Tank. We ate egg & chips together & talked about Labrador puppies.

My window cleaner when I had the shop in the '80's. He'd flown MkV Spitfires in the Battle of Britain & told me an interesting thing - they didn't sit around in deckchairs waiting for the bell, they sat in their aircraft dispersed around the field "so Jerry couldn't get us all in a neat row!" Made sense to me. The next day he appeared with a thin leather cushion which contained a folded squab of cotton fabric. "Try that for size, young 'un" so I sat on it, "not very comfy, is it? Now try sitting on it for eight hours!" He gave it to me & I have it yet.

But my favourite is old Jock on the burr bench at Milliers on Southmead Road where I did me time. He was second chef on the Titanic! This was the late fifties & he was an old boy - 70 odd, I suppose. He could have been - I believed him anyway. Said he took ship at Southampton & went ashore in Glasgow, his home town. Got pissed with his mates & missed the ship. "I took it as a sign from God that I should ne'er go to sea again & I've not crossed the sea since. "

Keep them coming - we should compile a book!.

Regards,

Kim.

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kimsiddorn

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Charles Hamilton

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Charles Hamilton

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