Nearly 200 members of the Quantock Centre attended a reception at Hestercombe Gardens, Taunton, on 19 July to say farewell to David Bastable who is retiring as Chairman at the end of August before moving to London.
He has been the main driving force behind the success of the Quantock Centre – the most active in the Wessex Region and one of the country's five top fundraisers for the Trust.
The President of the Centre, Marjorie Jensen, presenting him with a “thank-you” cheque for more than £2,000 given by members, said the Centre's success was largely due to his “imaginative and inspirational leadership”.
Mr Joe Studholme, Chairman of the Wessex Regional Committee of the Trust, said that during the 18 years David Bastable served on the national Council he spoke for the ordinary members because he was so well known among them. He and the Centre had “done amazing things together and raised enormous sums of money for the Trust”.
Mr Bastable said he was “overwhelmed” by the generosity and kindness of members and friends. Although he was moving, he would be staying in the National Trust – “the finest organisation not only in this country but in the world”.
Among the guests at the reception were staff and volunteers from Barrington Court, near Ilminster, where Mr Bastable has been a volunteer steward since 1991.
Taking over from Mr Bastable will be the Vice-Chairman, Derek Spackman. He will be Acting Chairman pending the election of officers at the annual general meeting in February next year. The new Chairman of the Programme Sub-Committee, which devises the quarterly programmes for the Centre, will be Morley Sage.
David Bastable has (as he puts it) “lived and breathed” the National Trust since joining the Trust and the Quantock Centre in 1981. He was the Centre's first Recruitment and Publicity Secretary and was soon elected to the Committee. He was appointed Secretary in 1986 and Chairman in 1991.
He served on the national Council of the National Trust for 18 “wonderful” years. “It was what I'd wanted for a long time,” he recalls. “I was part of the National Trust. I was able to be involved in major issues and decision-making.”
One of the most contentious issues was the hunting of hounds on Trust land. “That rumbled on for about 12 years. It seemed to dominate all the agendas. Coming from Somerset, it was a tricky position for me to take. But I had always been against hunting, ever since I was a boy.”
A high-point of his time with the Council was the rescue of Tyntesfield, near Bristol. “Most people thought it just wasn't going to be possible to raise the money in time. But it was raised within 50 days – all £23 million. It was a terrific achievement. I may have been only a tiny cog in the very big wheel that helped to save that wonderful, secret house, but I feel very proud to have been part of it.”
David Bastable's experience at all levels of the National Trust has given him an encyclopaedic knowledge of its work and history, and he is on the Trust's panel of lecturers.
He has no doubt what he will miss when he moves to London “I will miss the Quantock Centre. It has been my life. I have thoroughly enjoyed giving people the chance to see places and things they might never otherwise have seen while at the same time supporting the National Trust.”
The Quantock Centre welcomes the news that the Bronze Age cairns on
Dunkery Beacon are to be given the urgent protection they need if they
are to survive erosion and other damage.
The cairns are located on the highest and most exposed point of the
Exmoor National Park and are one of the most visited places on the
Holnicote Estate.
The cairns are more than 3,000 years old and are important components
in a complex of Bronze Age settlements that existed around Dunkery.
The Quantock Centre takes a special interest in Holnicote. In 2004,
it gave £1,000 towards the cost of safeguarding the cairns and
went on to support the Estate's application to the Exmoor
National Park Authority's Planning Committee for permission to
take the necessary remedial action.
The application was turned down, and the National Trust appealed to
the Planning Inspectorate. This July, it learned that the appeal was
successful.
The Planning Inspector said: “I am in no doubt that this work is
essential for the preservation of the fabric and integrity of this
nationally important site.”
Nigel Hester, the National Trust Countryside Manager for the Holnicote
Estate, said: “We are delighted by this decision and will be
beginning work on the cairns over the coming months to protect them in
advance of the winter weather.”
The Quantock Centre shares Holnicote's delight.
Memories flooded back for nearly 80 members of the Quantock Centre at
a tea party in May as they re-lived the victory celebrations that
followed the end of World War II.
As the Vice-Chairman, Derek Spackman, observed, it was a joyous
celebration with nevertheless “a few tears shed on the outside
and probably more tears on the inside”. The Catering Committee,
together with helpers, excelled themselves with the table settings
reminiscent of the VE Day street parties of 1945 and a menu to match.
David Bastable and Robin Grigg set the mood by presenting a medley of
sounds from the war period – Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn, George
Formby, Arthur Askey, Glen Miller and more. And, of course, Winston
Churchill. There weren't many people at the party who'd
forgotten a single note or word from those days.
Members brought souvenirs of the time – nothing more evocative
than the winning display of memorabilia by Margaret Haig who as
Margaret Norman served with the Wrens during the war.
A new leaflet has been produced to promote the Quantock Centre –
“one of the leading supporters' groups of the National
Trust”.
The leaflet goes to potential Centre members, including new members of
the Trust or existing members who have moved to the area. It is also
distributed to Trust properties in Somerset and Devon.
The leaflet highlights one of the remarkable features of the Quantock
Centre's area – the three “firsts” represented by
Barrington Court, the first large house to be purchased by the Trust;
Coleridge Cottage, the first Trust-owned house associated with a
famous person; and Montacute House, the first large house given to the
Trust.
Centre Welcomes Dunkery Cairns Decision
VE Day Memories
New Leaflet to Promote the Quantock Centre
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