Treasurer of the Otterburn Society, Andrew “MQ” Jordan, decided that Otterburn XXXVI would be held among what is arguably some of the most dramatic scenery in England at The Otterburn Tower, Otterburn.
The morning of the last Friday in November 2017 started much like many others over the last thirty five or so years. Members of the Otterburn Society met at the railway station in the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne before visiting a Wallsend shipyard to see jackets being constructed for the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm.
For many years the purpose of meeting on the Friday of Otterburn has been to visit one of the most influential and respected members of staff at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne , Dr Dan Hettiaratchi, at his office in the Department of Agricultural Engineering.
Members were unable to meet with Dan in 2017 year but took the opportunity to stroll among the University buildings and remember their days as undergraduates.
It was agreed that the facilities available to the students these days are significantly different to those enjoyed by members of the Otterburn Society in the ‘80s. This is most regrettable as undergraduates are no longer able to meet each Thursday in the Cochrane Lounge for cigars before descending to the lower bun room to enjoy the sophistication of Agric night.
Members enjoyed a pleasant lunch in what used to be the library and is now the senior common room and then onto Mertz Court.
The undergraduates of today need no longer take their pack of punched cards, held together with a rubber band, to a punched card reader for uploading to the mainframe, only to return the following morning to find that their program hadn’t compiled because one line of Algol W code had a semi colon missing and it would be necessary to find a punch card machine to prepare another card and feed the modified pack again through the card reader and return 3-4 hours later with fingers crossed that the program had run.
With those fond memories, members then found themselves in the foyer of the Stephenson building in the faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University.
Many thousands of students will have walked through that foyer and passed the racing car that has been displayed there for at least the last 35 years. This year members’ of Dan’s design group were considering the various aspects of the design when they were approached by Dr Julian Happian-Smith, lecturer in automotive design. Dr Happian-Smith recognised our interest in the vehicle and very kindly invited us to see the 2017 version and meet members of the design and development team.
It soon became obvious that a very enthusiastic and technically astute group of engineers have been brought together to develop the vehicle for that year’s racing season.
Members of the team explained the rationale behind the components used in the power train, this being the first year that electrical drive has being used for the car.
As well as technical design and construction, the team are also responsible for raising sponsorship for the project. Members of the Otterburn Society were pleased to note that the foundation created by a founder of the Otterburn Society, The Reece Foundation, is a Gold Partner of the team.
At the time when members of the Otterburn Society were under graduates, the staff and students of the department of Agricultural Engineering participated in Otterburn Design Conferences. These were an opportunity for design groups to present the results of their efforts to other members of the department for departmental design review.
An agenda from those days shows how members were required to assemble at the Porter building at 9:30 am but curiously were not arrive at the village of Otterburn, less than an hour’s drive away, until 2:15 pm.
The reason for this would not become apparent until the coach took a detour off the route to Otterburn towards the Chreviots where, a short while later, the students were invited to disembark.
There then followed a hike, led by maverick lecturer of agricultural engineering Alan Reece.
Once we had struggled to the top of the hill, Alan explained that the purpose of this exercise was to run down the hillside through the forest, the first person arriving at the endpoint being rewarded with a small prize.
This was typically vague and as with many aspects of his way of his teaching, students were given the briefest outline of a problem and then left to their own devices to discover the way to solve it for themselves.
So Alan waved his students off, pointing down the hill saying “it’s sort of that way, towards the fence”. Without a fence in sight the majority of the students started to run down through the trees and snow, not knowing if they would eventually find a fence.
One of the most astute student of that group, Nick Jemmet, realised that there was probably only one person in that group of about 40 who knew the best way to go down that hill and that was Alan. Nick shrewdly decided to follow Alan. This was a good idea in theory, but Nick, as a young fit undergraduate, later admitted that he had difficulty in keeping up with him.
The first year that this was done nearly all members found the fence. Unfortunately Dave “Blexley-Heath” Smith was unable to find the fence and our arrival at the Hall was delayed by at least an hour looking for Dave in the deep snow covered hills.
The last Saturday of November 2017 was a typical Otterburn morning, cold but crisp. Members climbed the path in the Cheviots to enjoy the magnificent views and observe the flag stone laid in Alan’s memory.
Alan Reece was responsible for introducing literally thousands of Undergraduates to the pleasures of the Cheviot Hills and this will have led to lifelong enjoyment of the countryside for many of them.
The Members of the Otterburn Society did not run down the hill that day and all safely arrived in Otterburn in time for a traditional lunch of soup & sandwiches at the Redesdale Arms.
Once at the Otterburn Tower, recently renamed The Otterburn Castle, the society Colour was raised and members proceeded to the Green room for their annual conference.
The Otterburn Society Lectern is used by the Chairman to keep order during proceedings. It is customary for the Chairman to commission one addition during his year in office.
Members were delighted to see good use being put to a mine roller control box apparently found discarded close to the Hurn Proving Ground.
This modification proved to be very effective and was approved by Mr Beck, inventor of the Otterburn Chairman’s Lectern.
Presentations were warmly received and there was predictably some healthy discussion.
AT the AGM, Mr Featherstone was elected Treasurer,
Dr Cooper was elected Secretary and
Andy Jordan was elected Chairman
Regrettably it was not possible to enjoy the fireworks as there a re a number of horses in training at Girsonfield yard owned by Susan Corbett.
Members were optimistic about Satis House‘s chances at Wetherby. Unfortunately there was a strong field that day and Satis House failed to be placed.
