Bernard Reminds Us About the Discworld Contribution

Written in stone. Well not actually 'stone' as such but a bloody great lump of concrete.

You may not have heard, what with all the election stuff, but Terry Pratchett - Knight of the Realm, author of the Discworld Books and all round good bloke, was here in Wincanton last Saturday putting his hand in a slab of concrete at the Kingswell Rise housing complex.

Why?

Well, this town is twinned with the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork, and the housing developers, Taylor-Wimpey, asked the Discworld Community to suggest suitable names for some of the streets in the new development. Thus Hen and Chicken Fields, Treacle Mine Road and others have now become part of the town's history.

So as the first phase of development was finished Taylor-Wimpey thought it a good idea to have the occasion marked with a stone-laying ceremony.

We at the Artificers had one of our weekend gatherings as well so a goodly bunch of fans in costume were guaranteed to attend.

Now I know that there will be a number of readers of this organ who don't read the books and think that the whole Discworld thing is all a bit silly. When we started the whole twinning thing about five years ago there were people, including some town councillors, who were horrified. We even had some locals accusing Discworld fans of being 'Devil Worshippers'.

Devil worshippers I ask you! What a load of rubbish - the only thing some of them 'worship' is having a good time, meeting friends, being part of a community.

Well, over the years our Discworld folk have trickled in to the town in their thousands from all over the world.

Teachers, administrators, bus conductors, doctors, nurses, lorry drivers, lawyers, university professors, housewives, husbands, wives, lovers, friends, friends of friends and assorted children and pets.

That they have spent serious amounts of money in the pubs and shops goes without saying.

That they have donated money to a lot of local charities is less well known and that includes The Balsam Centre, Church Tower, Health Centre, Football Club, Cricket Club and skateboard park.

It makes a difference. Like it or not our town is reliant for some of its income on tourism.

Thank heavens we don't suffer the 'weekender' syndrome that Castle Cary and other 'pretty' towns and villages are prone to, but we do need to catch the odd falling shilling from the pockets of strangers.

And its not just about the High Street and shops.

If we can keep a viable High Street, if we can keep independent retailers then we have an environment that small business can thrive and prosper in - and that my friends means jobs.

Jobs for the young so that they do not have to travel miles to work. Jobs for people who wish to work part time in order to shore up the family budget. Jobs = opportunity = a better life.

OK I sound like a man on the stump on behalf of 'Wincanton Businesses Together' - yeah I'll admit it, I'm on the committee, but it really is something very important to the prosperity of our town.

So when you see a bunch of oddly dressed people wandering up or down the High Street, please give them a merry wave, because they are here for all our benefits and are mostly harmless.

Oh and what THEY don't know, but you now do is...

Hopefully I am going to land the job of re-evaluating and writing up the Wincanton People's Plan.

If the Town Council agrees then I shall need all the help I can get - with no money to spend on it. There are going to have to be statistical models, graphs, population formulas and all sorts of clever stuff that cost the last People's Plan thousands of pounds.

Now I know there is not going to be anything in the way of a meaningful budget, certainly nothing like what was available the last time this was done in 2007- so - I'm going to be calling in favours from experts and scholars and those whose skills can be called in to help.

And dear reader, some aspects will be done for free.

As one very clever statistician from Montreal said to me, 'I don't suppose I'll ever be able to visit Wincanton, but that doesn't mean I can't help, it will be my privilege.'

Now that really should be written in stone

Bernard Pearson

Comments

johnsmith
Posts: 1

Discworld
Reply #1 on : Fri May 14, 2010, 16:46:11

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I speak as one who hasn't read any of the Discworld books, and I confess to being one who has ocassionally recoiled at the site of wizzards and odd looking characters wandering the streets of our great town. I think this is really an automatic reaction when you don't know how to deal with issues that confront us.

This is an excellent example of just how great Wincanton is. We may be a rural market town in the sticks, but there is an amazing amount of interesting stuff that goes on here. A lot of other small towns would give their eye teeth for half of what we have.

Discworld brings huge benefits to this town. It adds a new and interesting bit of character to Wincanton. Discworld brings business income and opportunities to Wincanton. Discworld must surely be one of our prime tourist attractions. Long may it continue.

In the matter of the Wincanton peoples Plan, I hope that everyone who can jhelp put this together, will step up to the plate. We need all areas of our community to work together for the greater good of all.

Keep up the great work Bernard.

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