I was visiting relatives in Petts Wood last week. Actually carrying my mother's suitcases, being a good son, and that she can't lift heavy objects due to muscle tissue being removed through cancer operations ( a genetically hereditary form of cancer, more on that another time) and because my beloved sister Bernadette Bazzoni cannot do it as she was murdered (LOTS more on that at a later date). And was reminded of
I had a slightly unusual childhood in that much of it was divided into multiple concurrent locations:
Sidcup (home) which was above Kennards hairdressers on Main Road opposite Leslies freezer shop.
St Pauls Wood where my maternal grandfather lived, & where I would spend many a weekend
Wapping- where my sister and her mother lived & many of dad's fellow Cockney relatives. Here I would spend every other weekend
Peckham - maternal relatives lived & my mother & I would be in Peckham at least once a week outside of school terms
Norwich- maternal grandmother and her Spiritualist Church organ playing. Chunks of school holidays
Alfriston- One of the places my father was evacuated to & he maintained a close link, which was fantastic as it remains a fantastic rural idyll.
Algeria, Tunisia- repeatedly reminded my parents that I was too young to remember being there, which was very annoying in missing out on such a valuable cultural experience, more so as later the peace & beauty of Algeria was ripped asunder by a brutal and bloody civil war.
The point to all this reminiscing is that I have often wished I grew up in a more vibrant, artistic & spiritual environs. But of the ones I did experience, Sidcup does a special significance.
The town still had a throw back to an earlier time, probably still Edwardian, especially noticeable in the autumn and once the leaves had died, gathered into auburn piles starting to rot in the foggy autumnal air, Sidcup came into its own, it seemed suited to that season. Whereas summer time had a vitality which Sidcup couldn't match.
Sunday 31 January 2016
Friday 29 January 2016
St Josephs Convent- the nuns
Salvaged from a soon defunct website, these are some memories of my convent, St Joseph's Convent, from myself & other former pupils. It's far more than mere nostalgia. With it's closure in 1989 vanished the spiritual culture & ethics we experienced & some embraced and imbibed far more than others. Requiem in pace beloved convent & her nuns
St Josephs Convent - more salvaged from Friends Reunited
With the closure of Friends Reunited here are the Convent posts so that they will not be lost.
Right click & 'save as' to read clearerr images off line
Memories of teachers -
Right click & 'save as' to read clearerr images off line
Memories of teachers -
Thursday 21 January 2016
Storm Warrior TV Series photos
A still taken from a scene I filmed as Director of Photography on the Viking TV series Storm Warrior & a couple behind the scenes. Copyright notice splashed all over it as we are in the editing stage for the concept films & trailers.
Set photo- The night time one is an occult pagan scene where the Viking protagonists consult the Seer
Pitch black night filming in a snow covered forest
Set photo- wrap photo of myself at the front & obscured, with the cast for the final King scene we filmed at midnight. Around 70 cast had left earlier on completion of the other scenes. This is in a Viking long house as part of a working Viking village
Set photo- The night time one is an occult pagan scene where the Viking protagonists consult the Seer
Pitch black night filming in a snow covered forest
Set photo- wrap photo of myself at the front & obscured, with the cast for the final King scene we filmed at midnight. Around 70 cast had left earlier on completion of the other scenes. This is in a Viking long house as part of a working Viking village
Photo from St Joseph's Convent
First of a number of photos from the Convent. The introductory article for these posts is the 21 Jan 2016 'St Joseph's Convent salvaged from Friends Reunited'
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stjosephsconventsidcup/
Comments from pupils -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stjosephsconventsidcup/
Comments from pupils -
I think this was about 1974-1975 as some of these boys were in my class by the end. I recognise a few faces.
18th May 2009
I can name some of them:
Bottom row, left to right, Noel Burke, Unsure but might be Andrew Litchfield, Andrew Jeffries, Robert Styles(?), Micheal Sells, seems to recall Adrian something, Ian Hunt, Me (Nick Waddell), Andrew Boyle, no idea.
Back row, fourth from right is David Casey.
The rest escape my memory I'm afraid. Probably taken 1973, before Mrs Lyons took over the class.
Bottom row, left to right, Noel Burke, Unsure but might be Andrew Litchfield, Andrew Jeffries, Robert Styles(?), Micheal Sells, seems to recall Adrian something, Ian Hunt, Me (Nick Waddell), Andrew Boyle, no idea.
Back row, fourth from right is David Casey.
The rest escape my memory I'm afraid. Probably taken 1973, before Mrs Lyons took over the class.
By
Nick Waddell
23rd Jul 2013
Next to Andrew Jeffries is Chris Cox (rather than Robert
Styles). Back Row (from the left) 2nd is David Dillon, 4th is David
Casey, 5th is Richard Slater, 7th is Thomas Belsham and 8th is Anthony
Davies
23rd Jul 2013
Middle row 5th from left! Me I believe
By
Gary Cousins
16th Sep 2013
St Josephs Convent salvaged from Friends Reunited (multiple)
Friends Reunited announced last week that it will be closing down!
I was aware of this website a number of years ago due to all the reports about it breaking up marriages! People who were at school together were contacting each other after 20,30,40 years & declaring their love for each other, resulting in swift dumping of a spouse or partner.
After searching for information on my much loved convent & her nuns, I found the appropriate page. With the impending closure some valuable information was going to be lost irretrievably. The convent wasn't simply a school. It possessed aesthetics, spirituality, a vitality and ethics that would be hard to find anywhere outside of a large Italian abbey filled with religious art.
Like some other public schools St. Joseph's retained an ambiance of an early age. There was still a sense of Edwardian or late Victorian England present into the 1980s with the addition of whatever ethos a group of French nuns who were born 1870-1920 (a few around 1840) brought to this piece of France in England. It had something of P.G.Wodehouse, or Vivian Stanshall & his Sir Henry Rawlinson character to it.
I was part of the very last 'classic era' of the convent: half of the staff were nuns, the boys had the daily influence of Sister Theresa & Sister Denise, and I knew the founder and sister superior, Sister Marie.
By 1981 half of the nuns I knew were dead or retired to France. There was a shift in the atmosphere of the school as younger and lay teachers were recruited. I visited a couple of times during school hours and the headmistress Mrs Wren had me washing art brushes with her after an art class. But the Convent had become diminished by its lack of women who had taken Holy Orders.
There was a sense of optimism in the final years of St. Joseph's which by 1983 had embraced the Pope's popularity. This was the period when John Paul II was still seen as an internationalist, opposing Communist oppression and had brought vigour back to the Roman Catholic Church. Many bishops were already aware of the reactionary he was; Cardinal Franz Konig who had secured his elevation to the Bishop of Rome, regretted his efforts as former Cardinal Wojtyla removed any progressions obtained by the Vatican II Council.
In the few interviews I have conducted with former pupils, now dating back to the class of 1939, I have always wanted to discuss with the 1988-89 pupils. I have a fancy that St. Joseph's was akin to the last days of Saigon. The inevitable was coming and a very different atmosphere would have descended on a nunnery which will forever be part of me. It's ingrained, inculcated, my spiritual DNA.
On all the St. Joseph's pages right click & 'save as' to read a clearer version off line-
I was aware of this website a number of years ago due to all the reports about it breaking up marriages! People who were at school together were contacting each other after 20,30,40 years & declaring their love for each other, resulting in swift dumping of a spouse or partner.
After searching for information on my much loved convent & her nuns, I found the appropriate page. With the impending closure some valuable information was going to be lost irretrievably. The convent wasn't simply a school. It possessed aesthetics, spirituality, a vitality and ethics that would be hard to find anywhere outside of a large Italian abbey filled with religious art.
Like some other public schools St. Joseph's retained an ambiance of an early age. There was still a sense of Edwardian or late Victorian England present into the 1980s with the addition of whatever ethos a group of French nuns who were born 1870-1920 (a few around 1840) brought to this piece of France in England. It had something of P.G.Wodehouse, or Vivian Stanshall & his Sir Henry Rawlinson character to it.
I was part of the very last 'classic era' of the convent: half of the staff were nuns, the boys had the daily influence of Sister Theresa & Sister Denise, and I knew the founder and sister superior, Sister Marie.
By 1981 half of the nuns I knew were dead or retired to France. There was a shift in the atmosphere of the school as younger and lay teachers were recruited. I visited a couple of times during school hours and the headmistress Mrs Wren had me washing art brushes with her after an art class. But the Convent had become diminished by its lack of women who had taken Holy Orders.
There was a sense of optimism in the final years of St. Joseph's which by 1983 had embraced the Pope's popularity. This was the period when John Paul II was still seen as an internationalist, opposing Communist oppression and had brought vigour back to the Roman Catholic Church. Many bishops were already aware of the reactionary he was; Cardinal Franz Konig who had secured his elevation to the Bishop of Rome, regretted his efforts as former Cardinal Wojtyla removed any progressions obtained by the Vatican II Council.
In the few interviews I have conducted with former pupils, now dating back to the class of 1939, I have always wanted to discuss with the 1988-89 pupils. I have a fancy that St. Joseph's was akin to the last days of Saigon. The inevitable was coming and a very different atmosphere would have descended on a nunnery which will forever be part of me. It's ingrained, inculcated, my spiritual DNA.
On all the St. Joseph's pages right click & 'save as' to read a clearer version off line-
VIKING TV SERIES
Last Friday I was called up to Yorkshire at the last minute & at 5 am we were driving straight into a snow storm in the Yorkshire forest for 3 days of freezing but fantastic filming of the Dream Finder movie (adapted from the book) & the initial shoots of the Storm Warrior TV series which is set during the Viking era.
I was Director of Photography on both & most l;ikely be acting in future episodes of Storm Warrior.
In February I'm working on the new Wuthering Heights movie, and a film that I have the lead antagonist role in is finally moving forward.
I was Director of Photography on both & most l;ikely be acting in future episodes of Storm Warrior.
In February I'm working on the new Wuthering Heights movie, and a film that I have the lead antagonist role in is finally moving forward.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)