Gown and mortar boards at York University are grey and the History Department s hood bright red. Newsletter 2003/2004

English Language Learn the Individual Way

Dear Friends

2003 was an excellent year in many ways, and 2004 promises to be even more interesting.

Kate obtained a further Master’s degree for her thesis submitted at York University (see above). Some publications are in the pipeline, which have been great fun. ‘Around Newport and Broomfleet’, a pictorial history of the canal village in Yorkshire which she studied is featured on the website www.englishinfo.biz along with HOMESTAY information.

Despite so much happening and Eileen no longer so active with our service, some interesting courses were run. Polina’s two weeks in St Albans were special. At eleven years old, she travelled from Siberia for a summer vacation in England. Her English was impressive, and her game playing skills and stamina more so. Polina loved Kate’s cats Jessie and Louis and revelled in the excitement of Willows Farm Village near St Albans. Philippe made good progress despite an inclination towards US vocabulary and institutions. We look forward to seeing more of him in 2004, together with other family members.

In May St Albans celebrated the 450th anniversary of the charter which created the Borough. Kate helped to produce a booklet describing this and other aspects of the Tudor (16th century) history of St Albans. Also in May were the local elections, and Kate was re-elected to the District Council once more.

Next year will be the St Albans Festival again and this time we will be welcoming a group of medieval visitors from Germany who will show us their skills at fire eating, sword fighting and spinning and weaving, as well as demonstrating medieval dances.

Most exciting is a plan to join with a local school to offer short courses for groups as well as our traditional individual tuition. St Albans School of Languages will offer a mixture of local and foreign students of all ages a variety of language courses within the one environment. We hope it will be up and running by summer 2004. Please let us know of anyone interested in group tuition, or requiring a private course for 6 to 10 students.

All good wishes for 2004 and do keep in touch
Kate

Highlights of the past year

St Albans Market Place today. The 1553 Charter established the right to hold Wednesday and Saturday markets here.

In Charter year there were many special markets. It is now a regular feature to see local produce – cheese, pies, meat, pickles, jams and cakes – at the Farmers’ Market on a Sunday each month in St Albans. We are also visited by a French market twice a year. This continues the tradition of St Albans as market town.

This year we resumed our visits to Shaw’s Corner, for what seemed to be an excellent performance of St Joan. Sadly, despite the amazingly hot summer we enjoyed in England this year – 40 degrees one day – our evening was, for the first time in our experience, destroyed by a downpour of rain. Our party left, very wet, at the interval. Virginia was sanguine, but I think she still believes sun can only be found in Spain!

St Albans Charter of 1877 in the time of Queen Victoria

In addition to the Charter of 1553 whose grant we celebrated this year, St Albans has another Charter which was granted by the Queen in 1877. This was the year in which the Abbey Parish Church was designated a cathedral. In consequence of the new status of the church and the arrival of a bishop, the Queen graciously bestowed on the town the right to call itself ‘city’. To thank the Queen for this honour, the new ‘City of St Albans’ renamed the street (Shropshire Lane) which led from the market to the new ‘City’ railway station ‘Victoria Street’ and it remains named so today.

Very welcome this year was a tour group from the United States. Since the troubles which have been with us ever since 9/11 we have had very few visitors from across the Atlantic. Whilst they may not sit down to two hours of individual language tuition, they are always very keen to learn about British culture and institutions and we always enjoyed their company as much as that of our foreign speaking guests. We look forward to seeing more of them, on their visits to the many gardens in the area, and on a new programme designed to show them castles and stately homes in the area.

A town in which a cathedral is found is usually known as a city, however small, although this name generally reflects the importance of the town or borough. The right to use the title ‘city’ is given by the King or Queen. A cathedral is the principal church of a diocese, where the bishop has his throne.

Back to HOMESTAY Main Page