Stanford Hall in the newspapers

The wonderful donation by The Duke of Westminster of Stanford Hall to the nation has hit the mainstream media. Yesterday, The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sunday covered the story. Today it was picked up by The Express.

It’s a little depressing how the papers get their facts wrong. Obviously I can only comment on the points they wrote about Sir Julien Cahn or Stanford Hall. The Mail printed a picture of the wrong Stanford Hall… The Sunday Times commented that Sir Julien was the son of a greengrocer. Incorrect. Albert Cahn was a furniture retailer. Sir Julien did not amass a fabulous art collection. The pictures that hung on the walls of Stanford Hall were rented from the Earl of Harrington and were returned on Sir Julien’s death! All the same, the coverage was great, and I for one, am thrilled that Stanford Hall has such a noble future.

BBC Inside Out – East Midlands this Monday

BBC Inside Out have recorded a programme about the future of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire’s stately homes. As they were featuring Newstead Abbey and the City Councils dogged refusal to care for it, they interviewed me. The programme is due to be aired on Monday 12 December at 7.30pm. Needless to say, I won’t be watching….!

Stanford Hall bought by Duke of Westminster

It is thrilling news that Stanford Hall has been bought by the Duke of Westminster. He intends to turn it into a new national rehabilitation centre for wounded British troops. The aim is to turn the hall into a modern clinical rehabilitation centre to replace the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey. Both military personnel and civilians will be treated there.

The Duke of Westminster has been funding a feasibility study for the last couple of years. If the plans go ahead, he will then donate Stanford Hall to the nation.

This would be music to Sir Julien’s ears. He would have been thrilled that his home, Stanford Hall, was to be used for such a worthy cause. In fact history is repeating itself. Stanford Hall was used as a rehabilitation centre during WW2. And of course, Sir Julien bought a historic house and gave it to the nation. Sadly, the future of Newstead Abbey isn’t looking as promising as Stanford Hall.

The Ashes at Nottingham Playhouse

We were excited to learn about a new play starting on 2 September 2011 at Nottingham Playhouse. It’s called The Ashes and is about the infamous Larwood Bodyline affair of 1932. The play has been described as, ‘A dramatic tale of conflict between two countries, two classes and two men played out on the pitch and in the pavilion’.

As Sir Julien Cahn was the President of Nottingham County Cricket Club during that time, he was the official go-between and had to deliver the bad news to Harold Larwood. Cahn is a character in the play, being played by actor Damien Warren-Smith. I can’t wait to see the play especially as this will be the nearest I’ll get to seeing my grandfather being brought to life!!

For further information on The Ashes, click here.

Stanford Hall’s Revival

Stanford Hall has come alive again. This weekend 800 guests, aged between 18 – 35 attended the Cupid’s Ball. This was the fourth event organised by The Secret Party Project. They put on grand affairs and ship in the world’s leading DJs to play music that I’ve never heard of! I’m writing an article about them, so watch this space.

The Nottingham Evening Post ran a delightful spread last week about the Upstairs, Downstairs life at Stanford Hall in the Cahn’s era. The only problem was, their archive threw up a picture of the wrong Stanford Hall! Needless to say the paper was inundated by readers keen to point out the error. It’s not the first time this has been done, and probably won’t be the last.

Saving Newstead Abbey

‘BETRAYAL – Grandad gave his abbey to the city..how can council shut people out?‘ screamed the front page headline of yesterday’s Nottingham Evening Post. Indeed. Sir Julien Cahn would have roared with laughter at the headline – at the thought of the well brought up Jewish boy owning an Abbey and being called Grandad. But he wouldn’t have laughed at the message. He would have been livid.

But then again, if Sir Julien were alive today, it’s unlikely Newstead Abbey would find itself in such a mess. The far-sighted business man would never have allowed Nottingham Council to run it into the ground, without a long-term strategy to fund it for the future. And that’s the real problem here. Newstead has become a poisoned chalice for the Council. It doesn’t bring them votes; it’s outside the city boundary; it’s an easy target for cost saving; and who really cares about it anyway? The Council may be rather surprised by the huge amount of emotion that their proposed cuts have provoked amongst the people of Nottingham.

Personally I don’t see the point in just laying into the Council. Yes, they’ve got to make drastic funding cuts and yes, it probably isn’t sensible for them to carry on funding the ‘burden’ that is Newstead Abbey. So now they should take a long and hard look as to how they can either give it to another body or business, or work with a partner to make it an economic success. It needs a business plan, a clear marketing strategy and some people with vision and foresight to make things happen. I wonder whether they can pull this off?

We’ve sold out of books!

I’ve just discovered that the publishers have sold out of The Eccentric Entrepreneur. Firstly, a big thank you if you have bought a copy of the book. Secondly, a big sorry if you’re looking to buy the book in the next couple of weeks. The publishers will be reprinting – either hardback or paperback – but it will take a few weeks. In the meantime, I do have a handful of copies left, so email me directly if you need to get hold of a copy in a hurry.

Global interest!

I was thrilled to receive correspondence from two cricket historians over the last couple of weeks. Both are planning to research and write booklets about Sir Julien Cahn’s cricketing tours in their respective countries – New Zealand and Sri Lanka. I wish them both well with their research and look forward to finding out more.

Where has my blog gone?

My blog has disappeared from the website… and I don’t know what to do about it?!

Indeed – my blog did vanish. However Peter from pchelpforyou.co.uk has worked his magic. If you need any help with your website, I thoroughly recommend him!  His website is: http://www.pchelpforyou.co.uk

Snow, snow, snow

Pictures speak louder than words….

snow wall

lunar snowscape

..and this is where I live!