The weekend started off wet and windy but Saturday night went with a big bang and by Sunday the long shadows cast by a winter’s sun set the scene for Remembrance Day at Holy Trinity church, Nailsea.

Nailsea People heard that a town centre restaurant and a pub both had problems with leaking roofs on Friday night because of the rain.

And several homes on Trendlewood reported dipping electricity surges.

One of the biggest puddles discovered was under the railway by The George pub at Backwell, see photo.

Another casualty of the excess water was the engine of a Bristol taxi which attempted to drive through the deluge only to splutter and die the same evening.

On Saturday the showers continued although the FC cup game at Woodspring Park between Weston-super-Mare AFC versus Doncaster Rovers was postponed only 25 minutes before kick-off.

This had local fans and supporters who had travelled from Yorkshire stomping and the police were called to deal with the anger of the away crowd who were seen throwing half-filled plastic beer glasses.

Weston manager and former Bristol City professional Micky Bell, pictured below right courtesy of Paul Gillis, lives in Nailsea.

He was one of the many disappointed that the game didn't go ahead.

He said: “We are devastated.

“Everything was set for one of the biggest days in our club’s history and to see the scenes after the announcement was made was sickening.”

A statement from the club said: “We would like to apologise for the disappointment of the game being called off at such late notice.

“It was unfortunately it was out of our hands.

“It was called off so late because every effort was made by the referee and groundsman to get the pitch playable after so much rain.

“It is a disappointment for everyone involved at the club because we had recorded more than 2,700 ticket sales and it was all set to be a great day for the club.”

The game has been rescheduled for Tuesday, November 18, at 7:45pm, at Keepmoat Stadium.

Peace was restored on Saturday evening when Nailsea Choral Society performed Durufle's Requiem at Christ Church with a concert programme which included Durufle's Ubi Caritas and Douglas Guest's For The Fallen.

Music director Tom Williams conducted the choir and the organist was Paul Walton.

More than 3,000 people went to the Nailsea & Backwell Rugby Club at West End for the annual bonfire night on Saturday.

Club chairman Ross Parsons said: “It was one of the best ones we have ever had – at the end of the night everyone said as they were leaving how good it was.”

The major fundraiser for the sports club also made monies for the Children’s Hospice South West who manned a stall and the army cadets who went around the ground rattled charity tins.

Ross added: “We were told by the company organising our professional display – Firemagic – that they could go ahead despite the rain but it was only if it was too windy they would have to cancel.”

See the 2014 gallery for lots more pics.

By Sunday morning the weekend was put into perspective with the ever dwindling numbers of old soldiers on parade the annual Remembrance Day service at Holy Trinity church.

The Rev Jolyon Trickey talked of all those lost in conflict and his sadness that mankind hadn’t learned to live in harmony.

The parade leader was Ron Collins.

Everyone gulped when the elderly Normandy veteran stumbled as he went to lay his wreath and I am sure I saw Mr Trickey take out his white handerchief and wipe away a tear...

Other wreaths representing the uniformed services from soldiers, police and youth organisations were laid alongside one from Nailsea Town Council.

Our family casualties from WW1 were my paternal grandfather who died of mustard gas poisoning and my grandmother’s fiancé Arthur who was in the trenches in France.

My uncle Jack who was captured at Dunkirk died in a German prisoner of war camp just months before the end of the WW2 while three of my father’s brothers never returned from the conflict.

My maternal grandfather – a regular in the army – served his time in the far east and returned with tales of drunken monkey hunts and parrots taught to swear but my father, a flight sergeant in the Royal Air Force, who saw fighting in the Middle East; my uncle Arthur who returned partially deaf and with recurring malaria from his time in Burma; and my uncle John who was with the Merchant Navy Atlantic convoys all returned damaged and unable to speak of their experiences.

The lives of the women left behind were also forever changed...

People of all ages have been learning about what the village of Nailsea was like during WW1 with a special remembrance workshop at the library as part of the commemorations marking the centenary of the outbreak of war in 1914.

The Tithe Barn Trust commemorated the event on Sunday afternoon when it shared prose, poetry and music and the audience learned about the lives of the Nailsea men who went to war and the families they left behind.

This event also included writings from Nailsea School students who have been involved in a project linked to the commemorative anniversary.

A men's singing group introduced wartime songs and teenaged Florence Wadley, of Tickenham, added her beautiful voice to the occasion.

And at the end of the day Nailsea & Backwell Rugby Club invited its members to bring along a veteran and buy them a drink – more than a dozen old soldiers came along.

At 11am on Tuesday, November 11, at Crown Glass Shopping Centre former sailors, soldiers and airmen will meet to salute fallen comrades.  

 

Carol Deacon