The Friday Five 11.11.22
This week: caravans, lawnmowers, wind turbines, concrete houses and a peculiar place name on the North Devon coast. And some jobs. It's the Friday Five.
1. PLANNING MANAGER, CARAVAN & MOTORHOME CLUB
Location: East Grinstead, Sussex/Home
The job: “To advise the head of estates and wider estates team on all planning related matters relating to the Club’s UK-wide portfolio of sites. To help deliver the Club’s site and accommodation department’s strategy in alignment with the overall long term business strategy by developing and improving the Club’s Estate’s portfolio right through to securing planning consents.
“Responsibilities include:
- To provide strategic planning advice to internal customers
- Preparation and submission of planning appraisals, statements and applications for site related developments
- Selection, instruction and management of external professional advisers including planning, heritage, ecology, highways, flood risk
- Day-to-day management of planning projects, including liaising with other in-house / external disciplines and local planning authorities to ensure swift, positive outcomes.
“The Caravan & Motorhome Club provides more than one million members with access to nearly 2,700 locations in the UK and Europe, as well as giving them access to our vast knowledge and expertise in how to make the most of caravanning and motor-homing as a leisure pastime.”
Fun fact: The first leisure caravan is thought to have been designed and commissioned by William Gordon Stables, a Royal Navy doctor and author of adventure stories, in 1885. ‘The Wanderer’, based on a Pullman carriage and built of mahogany and maple wood, was constructed by Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works. Thirty feet in length, it was exceedingly luxurious, and contained a china cabinet, a bookcase and a piano (it was a bit like the one pictured).
Consequently it weighed two tons and wherever it went the ‘gentleman’s caravan’ had to be preceded by a valet on a bicycle to warn people of its approach (and, presumably, to look out for obstacles). The valet also cooked the meals.
Despite its cumbersome progress, Stables travelled more than 1,300 miles in the horse-drawn vehicle throughout 1885 in the company of the aforementioned valet, John the coachman (with gloves and top hat apparently), an Australian cockatoo called Polly and Hurricane Bob, a Newfoundland dog who was referred to more formally as 'Robert' on Sunday.
Stables recorded his journey in The Gentleman Gypsy, one of more than a hundred books he wrote in his lifetime. Other works in his remarkably varied portfolio included an account of medical life in the Navy, several guides to domestic cats and dogs for pet owners and MANY adventure stories, mainly for boys. His final work, published posthumously in 1911 (he died the previous year) was titled The Sauciest Boy in the Service: A Story of Pluck and Perseverance. Ah, different times.
2. OPERATIONS MANAGER – TOWN PLANNING, IPSWICH BOROUGH COUNCIL
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk/Home
The job: “As the professional lead for the planning service, you will be managing policy, development management, conservation, and our special projects team. Supported by a dedicated business support team, you will have direct responsibility for 27 members of staff and four major workstreams.
“You will use your professional skills to help shape our town with major projects and strategic programmes, you will take a leading role with our partners and communities, be an active member of our senior management team, be an inspiring leader for our planning service and an advocate for high quality design, infrastructure and sustainability.
“A skilled manager with experience of delivering programmes and projects with a broad planning experience, you will understand how to work collaboratively with elected members, your team and partners to deliver a prosperous, sustainable future and share our focus for a high-quality place for the people of Ipswich.”
Fun fact: Sticking to engineering firsts, the world’s first commercially available power lawnmower was built by Ransomes, Sims and Jeffries of Ispwich in 1902. The mower was driven by an internal combustion engine.
Ransomes is a rather interesting business. The enterprise was started in the late 18th century by Robert Ransome, a Quaker and ironmonger who set up one of the first brass and iron foundries in East Anglia. By 1789 the business was manufacturing ploughs and by 1845 it was fully-fledged engineering firm building agricultural equipment, bridges, wind vanes, street gas lighting systems and working on the nascent railways. The firm even built China’s first railway, the Woosung Road, which opened in 1876.
As the business diversified, it began manufacturing specialist equipment for telescopes and astronomical observatories (including telescopes for the Royal Greenwich Observatory), portable steam engines, fighter aircraft during the First World War, battery-electric commercial road vehicles, forklift trucks and, of course, lawnmowers.
Different parts of the business were gradually sold off during the latter part of the 20th century, leaving – in the 1990s – just the lawnmowers, produced under the Ransomes, Westwood and Mountfield brands. But even these were snapped up in 1998. It had been a ride, lasting more than 200 years.
Nowadays, the company exists only in the form of its producers - around 140 of its steam engines survive in preservation. But they’re also represented at Ipswich Transport Museum and an exhibition about the company can be seen at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket.
3. PROJECT MANAGER, ONSHORE DEVELOPMENT, SCOTTISH POWER
Location: Glasgow/Home
The job: “The project manager will become a member of the onshore renewables development team based in Glasgow. This role encompasses all aspects of project development to ensure the effective delivery of onshore renewable projects to meet the ScottishPower Renewable’s (SPR) ambitious onshore pipeline growth targets.
“You will focus on the delivery of planning consents/permits for the projects with all necessary financial approval and budgetary control associated. You’ll establish strong relationships with major stakeholders including regulators, planning authorities, governments and communities.
In addition:
- You’ll lead and recommend appropriate project and commercial strategies
- You’ll be responsible for financial management, while also being involved in the tendering process and management of external suppliers
- You’ll formulate the strategy and review of the environmental impact assessment process, including the preparation of environmental statements and planning applications for our renewables projects
- You’ll liaise and consult with stakeholders to secure approval and / or resolution of any issues raised on projects.”
Fun fact: Oh look, here’s ANOTHER engineering first. No idea why this is a theme this week – it’s just the way the dice rolled. Anyhow, the first automatic wind turbine to generate electricity is thought to have been built by American scientist Charles F Brush in 1887.
The turbine powered 12 batteries that provided electricity to his home, a mansion he’d built in Cleveland that showcased Brush’s many inventions. Not only was this the first house in Cleveland to have electricity, but it’s reported that the turbine never failed to keep the house continuously powered over its 20-year lifespan.
Brush, as you might expect, was an interesting fellow. Born in 1849, he began experimenting with electricity at his parents’ farm aged just 12. Within a few years he had built his first arc light, built his first generator to power arc lights and started getting involved in public street lighting.
In 1879, the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation was started in Lambeth, London, using Brush’s many inventions. He got involved in hydroelectric power plants (yes, we’ve had renewables for a VERY long time now) and then phonographic products. Among other things, Brush invented the first piezo-electric (crystal powered) stylus for record players.
Even after his death in 1926, the company he founded continued to specialise in recording instruments, including reel-to-reel tape recorders and the amazing ‘Mail-a-Voice’ dictation recorder, which was basically a precursor to computer floppy discs (in the days before the internet, Millennials…).
Despite his very concrete achievements, Brush wasn’t immune from some questionable speculation. In 1898, for example, he claimed to have discovered a new gas, ‘etherion’, which was 10,000 times lighter than hydrogen and 20 times faster at conducting electricity. The ‘new gas’ was quickly identified by others as water vapour. Nevertheless, he was still made a fellow of the North British Academy of Arts. Now, that's an accolade worth having.
4. PRINCIPAL PLANNING OFFICER x2, THURROCK COUNCIL
Location: Grays, Essex
The job: “The principal planning officer – policy will be responsible for the development of planning policy and strategy to help inform the preparation of the Thurrock Local Plan. As a key part of this role, the post holder will be required to co-ordinate the development of policy; to act as an ‘intelligent client’ in the procurement and commissioning of supporting technical studies’ to project manage the work of interdisciplinary project teams where necessary; and to assist in the production of the local plan and the supporting evidence base.
“The principal planning officer – infrastructure will need to possess a wide breadth of professional knowledge, expertise and experience on a range of matters, including planning for the development and delivery of strategic growth locations (housing, employment and town centres), while also ensuring that the enhancement of the borough’s built and natural environment, continues to contribute to the transformation of Thurrock as a place to live, work and enjoy.
“You will be joining a team of 17 planners and designers charged with progressing the local plan through the regulation 18 and regulation 19 stages and onto examination and adoption in 2025.”
Fun fact: The Dell is one of the most notable buildings in Grays, as it was among the earliest houses in Britain to be built in concrete, in 1872. It was built on the instruction of Alfred Russell Wallace (pictured), the naturalist, explorer and biologist who independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection (but was just beaten to publication by Charles Darwin).
Wallace chose concrete as the material for his home because there was a nearby cement works and a supply of gravel on the four acre site that he leased for the purpose.
Wallace employed Thomas Robjohns Wonnacott of Farnham as his architect because he had experience in the then new material. But Wallace himself seems to have been very influential in the designs and a plan of the ground floor that he drew is kept in the Natural History Museum.
Unlike later designers and builders who took advantage of the properties of concrete to create new forms (resulting in, for example, Brutalist architecture), Wallace’s design was traditional in look and scale. Aside from its material, The Dell is a traditional, large family house with a size, layout and decorative features that were fairly typical of the time.
Wallace lived there for just four years, moving soon after the death of his young son. The househas since been used as a convent by the Sisters of La Sainte-Union des Sacrés-Coeurs and was more recently converted into flats. It is, however, a grade II listed building and carries a green Thurrock Heritage plaque acknowledging Wallace’s role in developing the theory of evolution by natural selection.
5. LEAD PLANNING OFFICER/SENIOR PLANNING OFFICERS x3, NORTH DEVON COUNCIL
Location: Barnstaple, North Devon/Home
The job: “North Devon Council is looking to fill a number of posts in its development management team which has been identified as a central pillar to ensuring the prosperity of North Devon through well-facilitated place-making. You’ll play a vital role in shaping how we meet our growth objectives, while looking after the stunning environment of North Devon, including the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Braunton Burrows.
“As lead officer you will be involved in:
- Delivering corporate objectives across the development management team
- Mentoring and developing a team of planning officers
- Dealing with major planning applications.
“As a senior planning officer you will be involved in:
- Contributing to the growth of North Devon and the delivery of the local plan
- Dealing with major development proposals
- Guiding development from the outset as part of our pre-application service.
“Our development management team was recently ranked the second highest performing authority in the South West in government performance tables.”
Fun fact: Let’s talk names, specifically Westward Ho! In North Devon. Yes, it has an exclamation mark – indeed, it’s the only town in Europe to have an exclamation mark as an official part of its name (Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec, Canada shares this unusual distinction).
You may know that Westward Ho! Is also the name of a novel by Victorian author Charles Kingsley. But did you know the town is named after the novel and not vice-versa? In fact, Westward Ho! is the only town in the British Isles to be named after a book.
But how did this strange borrowing come about? It’s obvious, innit? Charles Kingsley, who also wrote The Water Babies, was a local and set part of his tale in the North Devon town of Bideford. Published in 1855, it’s a romantic adventure telling the story of Elizabethan privateer Amyas Preston who fought alongside Sir Francis Drake.
The novel’s popularity – and Kingsley’s powerful descriptive powers – provided an enticing platform for entrepreneurs wishing to pull tourists to the area. In the mid 1860s a seaside hotel built close to Bideford took the name Westward Ho!-tel with the writer’s approval. Villas followed and soon an entire settlement.
People had started colloquially referring to the settlement by the name of its hotel and so Westward Ho! Stuck. So the exclamation mark is official, and pretty unique.
Modern readers might balk somewhat at Westward Ho! the novel, which is profoundly anti-Catholic, repeatedly stresses English superiority and is less than flattering about native peoples. Nevertheless, it is, apparently, a cracking read.
Photo credits | Sylvain Thiollier, Shutterstock; Tom Meaker, Shutterstock; iStock; Morphart Creation, Shutterstock; Seven Maps, Shutterstock
