CStory

Published at 01:00, Friday, 21 April 2006

A STAINED-GLASS window design team from Brampton have just completed their most challenging commission – hand delivering and installing a window 5,150 miles away in India.

DREW LANDSBOROUGH and MARA EAGLE, of Winged Heart Stained Glass, swapped making hand-printed stained-glass in their small studio for 10 days working in a sweltering 40ºC heat, 40-ft up rickety bamboo scaffolding with no safety equipment.

Such was the magnitude of the task that Drew even had to created a new type of window that could last 700 years – then the couple provided their labour free of charge.

The husband and wife partnership’s unusual commission came from the American branch of religious group the Meher Baba Foundation.

The window was for a meeting hall of a new pilgrim centre being constructed in Ahmednagar.

It took 10 months to create and was hand-painted with symbols of all the major world religions.

Drew said: “I received an e-mail explaining the request and giving me time to consider it. My first thought was I can’t do this because of the distance. I thought it impractical. We don’t normally do anything on this scale. We normally just do small gifts.

“After some reflection I thought it would be great and unique to participate in this, creating a work of art that would unify the religions of the world. I took it on as a challenge.”

The 4ft-wide window is made up of a gold-painted stainless steel frame and 56 individual glass segments.

The steel frame was constructed in Gateshead, the glass was cut in the United States and delivered to Brampton.

The individual components for the window were then transported in specially-constructed crates to Mumbai, where it was met by Drew and Mara in February. They then returned home last month.

Drew said: “The glass was floating in a sea of supporting padding. We crossed our fingers that it would arrive safely and it did.”

Creating the window was an international effort, involving three artists who had to communicate over the telephone and on the internet.

The Meher Baba Foundation asked for Drew because of a smaller job he did for them 25 years ago.

FORMER Learning and Skills Council boss MICK FARLEY has been named as the University of Central Lancashire’s new director for Cumbria.

He has taken up the post after UCLan’s previous county director, Dr Graham Baldwin, was appointed Dean of Academic Development at the university’s campus in Preston.

He said Mr Farley’s experience would be ‘invaluable’ to UCLan.

Mr Farley, who was executive director of the LSC in Cumbria until December, said he was looking forward to working for the university.

He said: “It gives me a further opportunity to promote and develop education and training in the county, to which I have a personal and professional commitment.

“The University of Central Lancashire has shown a long-term and serious commitment to Cumbria.

“There is no doubt that without UCLan, Cumbria would not have the comprehensive curriculum and qualification provision in Further and Higher Education that it has.

“It has invested heavily in its Penrith campus and taken over the campus in Carlisle which previously belonged to the University of Northumbria.

“In addition, by taking over the West Lakes Research Institute, the university has shown its commitment to the west of the county, especially around the nuclear industry.”

Mr Farley, 63, believes the university’s close links with the county’s colleges of further education will benefit young people and adults.

He has been replaced at the LSC, which funds education and training for over 16-year-olds, by RUTH BULLEN, currently at the LSC’s national office in Coventry.

CUMBRIA’S conversion to digital television is to be spearheaded by a former county road safety education officer.

JOHN ASKEW, 51, has been named as regional manager for Digital UK and will be responsible for co-ordinating the switchover in the ITV Border region, starting in 2008.

The area will be the first in the country to turn off its analogue signal and go completely digital, starting in 2008.

Mr Askew, who was born in Cumbria and went to school in Kendal, is currently head of corporate communications at the Scottish Borders Council and will start his new job on May 1.

He will be in charge of leading the regional advisory committee of Digital UK, the organisation responsible for leading the country’s switchover to digital TV, taking a leading role in working with local authorities, voluntary groups and charities, so everyone is prepared for the change.

Mr Askew said: “As Border has been chosen as the first region to switch to digital, I’m conscious that the rest of the UK will be watching the process with interest.

“Many households have already switched to digital on at least one set, but there is still a great deal of work to do to make sure that, when switchover begins in 2008, Border viewers have converted all of their television sets.”

The new manager, a father of two, is a veteran of local government affairs, having joined the Scottish Borders Council in 1996 as its first public relations officer.

He originally trained as a teacher and youth worker before joining Cumbria County Council as a road safety education officer, going on to hold similar posts in other local authorities and becoming secretary of the County Road Safety Officers’ Association.

ANDY TOWNEND, Digital UK’s director of operations, said: “John’s affinity with Cumbria and the Scottish Borders, together with his track record in local government, makes him ideally placed to involve local groups and authorities and make the switchover happen.”

ITV Border’s conversion is expected to be completed by early 2009 when the Caldbeck transmitter is upgraded.

Half of Cumbrian homes cannot currently receive a digital signal, but all will be able to after the switch.

A CRITICALLY-acclaimed Brampton-based author has completed his seventh book, a story of love and family rivalry set in North Cumbria.

JOHN MURRAY hopes A Gentleman’s Relish will follow the success of his previous novels. John Dory won a Lakeland Book of the Year Award in 2002 and Jazz Etc was longlisted for the Man-Booker Prize in 2003. His 2004 novel, Murphy’s Favourite Channels, was a Novel of the Week in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

His latest novel centres around notorious satirical cartoonist George Geraghty, who ought to be enjoying his retirement in North Cumbria but who cannot shake off the legacy of his long dead father Bill, who spoke some 55 languages and had at least 55 mistresses.

Mr Murray, 55, will be speaking about the novel at Tullie House in Carlisle on May 19, and it will be available in bookshops from June.

MICK NORTH, of Tullie House said: “It’s very funny, with characters who are much larger than life. He’s on absolutely top form.”

Mr Murray was born in Maryport and now lives with his wife and daughter in Brampton. He has previously worked on a project on Cumbrian dialects in Workington.

A YOUNG bodybuilder from Carlisle is the pin-up boy for this year’s Cumbria Life Food & Drink Festival.

JONATHAN SCOTT, a fitness trainer with Living Well, features in a series of cheeky posters with saucy captions.

KEITH RICHARDSON, editor of Cumbria Life magazine, said Jonathan was the perfect choice to front the nine-day food festival which involves a series of events around the county.

He added: “Jonathan is a picture of health and fitness and shows what can be achieved by eating top-quality food and exercising regularly.’’

The annual food festival, which includes a two-day fayre at Rheged near Penrith on April 30 and May 1, is a showcase for Cumbrian produce.

One of the posters for the event features Jonathan wearing only a butcher’s apron and hoisting a side of lamb over his shoulder. The caption reads: ‘Tasty, tender and our dish of the day’.

Other posters promote flour, beer and cheese, reflecting some of the sponsors of the festival.

l Ready for festival: Page 22

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk