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2nd Edition April 2020

THE MACKINTOSH TIMES

We hope you enjoyed our first edition, here we are again bringing you more articles, Roger the Beekeeper, new features, quizzes, Covid-19 community updates and lots more to keep you entertained! The Waterhouse and Mackintosh Communities would like to thank SmartMove for the bread they donated to the Residents. We still need articles for future editions, have a go at penning a ditty, leave your articles with the Wardens and then see them in print! Read and enjoy your very own Mackintosh Times and stay safe and well.

Happy Easter everyone at Waterhouse and Macs! Whilst it’s been a strange Easter, the weather’s been stunning and the gardens are beautiful with blossom on the trees and daffodils and tulips in full bud. There is new life all around us as Winter gives way to Spring. May the darkness of this present time give way to the

resurrection of new life. We can look forward with hope to a different world, where people are more generous and caring, and where peace reigns in our hearts and minds. Alleluia Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Hilary

An Easter Message from the Minster

Did you know? This week’s Trivia

On April 11th it was 50 years since Apollo 13 was launched and 25 years since the film

Apollo 13 was first shown

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In these unusual and challenging times when so many of us are confined to barracks, we find ourselves with time to reflect on our own life and experiences. I always remember a debate at school as to “what use is history as an academic subject” and one of the conclusions was that it could be a great guide to the future if we learn from the past. Recently Halifax has been the focus of much interest with regard to its many architectural wonders such as the Minster, The Piece Hall and Shibden Hall, but if we just care to look up as we walk around the town centre there are many other fascinating buildings with tales to tell. If we turn left outside the bottom gate of Waterhouse Homes and walk along Harrison Road, we immediately find ourselves in “Halifax Building Society” territory. Not only did this organisation provide employment for myself for some thirty years but it was also the place where John Bassinder’s Dad worked prior to his taking on the role of Warden at Waterhouse Homes. The office building on the corner of Harrison Road and Trinity Road was previously the site of G H Gledhill cash registers whose business closed in 1975. They not only manufactured cash registers but also time recording machines and aircraft bomb release mechanisms, an extremely versatile company adapting to the needs of the times. The firm is just one of many examples of the inventive capacity of the people of our town. The current office building went through many extensions and alterations and took over the site occupied by Collinsons tea and coffee blenders and the Freemasons Hall. The façade of the later building was kept intact and can still be seen today in its preserved atrium which was a condition imposed on the Building Society by the planning authorities. The office building was also the home of the first computer installed by the Building Society in 1965 and continued to be known as the “computer building”

A Meander Through Halifax Richard B

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until all such equipment was moved down to the Copley Data Centre in 1988. Moving further down Trinity Road we come to the diamond shaped ex Head Office building of the Building Society built on the old site of Ramsdens Brewery.

Ramsdens brewery was a fine stone-built structure, built in the latter part of the 19th century and demolished in 1968 after the takeover by Tetleys brewery of Leeds. The first purpose of the building was to provide a prestigious and impressive Head Office building with appropriate facilities for the board and executive. The second requirement was to accommodate the huge mortgage offer and repayment process that was based in Halifax. Central to this later requirement was the need for a strong room for the storage of all the Society’s mortgage deeds and traditionally such rooms had always been located underground in a safe basement. This same thinking was applied to the design specification for the new building necessitating the blasting out of rock going down to a depth of 50 feet. The deeds and associated correspondence files were to be transported by automatic conveyors to the working departments in the general office on the third floor, which was elevated and supported by four pylons situated at the corners of the site. Above the third floor was to be a fourth that would accommodate the board and executive. The cost of the building with fittings was around £10 million, and staff occupied it in 1973 with the automated deed safe being commissioned a year later. The Queen made a visit in the same year on 13th November 1974. Today the building is still an impressive sight as viewed from afar but on closer inspection is somewhat tatty and internally the impressive 4th floor has been desecrated and converted into standard office space. One final point of interest is the rusty steel sculpture outside the main entrance. It has two main uses, one to act as a windbreak with the second being to exhaust any carbon dioxide from the basement should that have been used to extinguish a fire in the deed safe.

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Within 200 yards of the Waterhouse Homes much has changed in the last century and many would argue not necessarily for the better. When you are next allowed out just take time to look at the buildings you pass and think of the changes that have occurred. And here’s hoping that it won’t be too long before we can play cards again in the community room!

The Diary of Roger the Beekeeper: Part 2

Hello again! The warm weather this week has allowed the bees to get out and forage in earnest. The first dandelions have appeared which provide abundant pollen and nectar. Inside the hive big changes are taking place. At this time of year all the bees in the colony are female. The male bees (drones) are not raised until late May and June.

The hive contains one queen who can live for three or four years. She only time she left the hive was a week after hatching in order to mate. For the rest of her life she stays in the hive laying eggs and being fed by the worker bees. During the winter she had a break from laying but now her laying rate is increasing and will reach 2000 eggs per day in the summer. It is important that the hive builds up a quickly as possible now to ensure that the bees are ready for the arrival of the flowers that will soon be in bloom. The queen is not, in any sense, ‘in charge’ of the hive. The worker bees sense the amount of food being brought into the hive and the amount they feed the queen controls her laying rate. A small number of bees act as the queens retinue. They constantly tend her and lick her body. The scent that is licked off is passed on to other bees who then pass it on to yet more bees. By this means the whole colony knows that the queen is present and in good health. If the queen is removed from the hive the whole colony can sense her loss within thirty minutes and the hive

These bees are arriving back at the hive laden with dandelion pollen

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the hive becomes agitated.

The workers build the wax comb in an exact hexagonal pattern of cells. Each cell is cleaned and polished by the workers before the queen lays one egg in it. Before laying the queen checks the size of the cell by measuring it with her antennae and front legs. Next time we will look at all the jobs that the workers do in their busy lives of only six weeks.

In this picture the queen can be seen surrounded by her retinue.

The blue spot on her back has been put there by the beekeeper to make her easier to find. when inspecting the colony

Meet a Waterhouse and Mackintosh Charities Trustee

Lucy

Hello everyone, I hope you are all keeping safe and well at this very strange time. I have been a trustee for almost two years now but for most of my first year, I was President of the Rotary Club of Halifax too and so I feel like I am only just starting to find my feet.

I am looking forward to joining you at some of the social events when things get back to normal but I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself in our new newsletter. My ancestors owned the quarry at what is now Delph Hill and then back in the 1970s my grandfather and his brother built the two bungalows directly next door to Mackintosh Homes, above what used to be the quarry. I remember chatting to people at Mackintosh over the wall when I was a little girl and never imagined that one day I would be involved as a trustee.

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I am now (a little!) older and live locally with my partner and he has two grown up daughters who are both at university. We enjoy spending time with them when they find a gap in their very busy lives for their Dad and me! I am a Director of a firm of Insurance Brokers in Huddersfield and enjoy my job very much. Unless you have worked in the insurance industry, you will not realise this, but hardly anyone ever makes a conscious decision to pursue a career in insurance; apart from me and even more unusual is that I made this decision when I was only eight years old! My Dad was an Insurance Broker and he used to tell me stories about the people he used to visit and what they did. In my vivid imagination I pictured everything from solicitors with serious faces and glasses on the tips of their noses sitting behind their desks, to engineers in their factories with sparks flying everywhere and I decided that when I was a grown up, I wanted to go and visit people like this too. I have many and varied responsibilities as part of my job but one of the things I still enjoy the most is walking around a factory, watching the people and the machinery in action and seeing what they produce so I can properly understand and therefore insure the risks that they face. I enjoyed my year as President of Halifax Rotary very much. I was also proud to be the first female President since their foundation in 1922. I have been followed by three more ladies taking us up to our Centenary celebrations in 2022. We are very active in the Halifax and Calderdale area and Rotary gives people such a great opportunity to be involved in their communities. I have recently re-discovered my love of music and singing and belong to a choir called “Inspiration” with my Mum. We have to learn our music off my heart which is definitely worth the strange looks I receive when I’m singing at the top of my voice in the car every day! I am looking forward to meeting many of you when normal life resumes, Best wishes, Lucy

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QUIZZES

Easy Answer Week 1 Harder Answer Week1

Week 2 Week 2

Each row and block must contain the numbers 1-9 without repeating any number (see the centre block of the Easy puzzle) When added together each row and block must add up to 45.

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Word Plays

Answers: Week 1

Word chain: warm, worm, word, wood, wool, cool

1. bone 2. done 3. gone

1. river-rider 2. short-sport 3. rumble-tumble

Jumbled word: GRASSHOPPER 1. horse 2. shoes 3. grape

The Trumpet alerted them - petal Word Hub

Follow the maze from top to bottom

Find as many words as possible using the letters in the Hub and the 9 letter word using all the

letters

Remember:

• continue to observe strict handwashing

especially on entering or leaving your own

home

• Do not have visitors to your home unless they

are needed to bring food, social visiting should

not take place

• Unless you need to do your own shopping stay

at home.

Stay Safe and Stay Well from all the Trustees and

staff of Waterhouse and Mackintosh Charities

Did You Know? This week’s Trivia

Neil Armstrong claims he actually said “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”