Oscar

A couple of quick 5 minute sketches of grandson Oscar. I did these in water soluble graphite pencils, a medium I shall explore in more depth later.

Pilot Street

Yet another pen & Ink drawing. This time a modern view of Pilot Street in the old Northend of King's Lynn. I decided on this unusual view from St Nicholas Chapel yard because I also love drawing tree's, especially bare branches.

Millfleet.

I love re-working old photos of Lynn and this one is a pen & ink of the old Millfleet....when it had a river or 'fleet' running through it. I exhibited the drawing at the annual West Norfolk Artists summer exhibition this year and it is now in a private collection.



Across the Northend

I thought I would add a few recent drawings and sketches....just to make a point that I don't just do cartoons.

This is a pen & ink drawing, using a very old photograph as reference, which looked across the Northend of King's Lynn. The photographer must have been standing on the roof of St Nicholas Chapel, pointing his camera towards the Loke. North street runs diagonally across the view and there is a gap between houses on the middle left  through which you can make out a sign on a flat roofed building. The sign said 'Frank Castleton & sons', my grandfather.

Almost all of the building you see are gone now....corporation vandalism in the 1960's.

Cllr Gaddafi?

Poisoning the population by intent......Denying people a right to democracy.....Threatening the population with retribution for opposing the regime.....Familiar descriptions when talking about the likes of Gaddafi and Saddam Hussain but a bit more disturbing when you can use the same descriptive terms to offer a narrative on our own 'home grown' dictator, Cllr Murphy and his deluded rantings.

The latest threats to withdraw support and funding from much needed social housing projects in King's Lynn and Thetford in order to fund his 'private' incinerator project (private because he's the only one who wants it and is allegedly the only one to gain anything from it) came about as retribution for us wanting a slice of democracy and a poison free future.

Murphy and his equally small minded minions clearly have no connection between their mouth's and brains and like all self deluded dictators they will continue to act out their fantasy oblivious to public opinion right up to the bitter end....lets hope their end comes on December 5th.

Monkey business

Caroline Spelman's decision (at last) to make Norfolk County Council jump through a few more hoops to get their hands on that £169 million has been greeted favourably by us minions in West Norfolk and less than gracefully by the burn it brigade at County Hall.

Apparently they're not really bothered though because they say they'll go ahead and do what we don't want them to anyway, so there......I swear I'm not making that up...Not only do they reiterate that they care not for our opinions but they proffer the opinion (through their latest sacrificial mouthpiece, Bill-monkey see,monkey do-Borrett) that they never thought they had to listen to us and apparently Bill is furious at Spelman for hinting otherwise.

Well on the upside (yes there is an upside) Wild Bill cockup's rantings are easily the best thing that's happened for John Martin's petition to force NCC into holding a full debate and here's why....

The anti incinerator campaigners KLWIN have been manning a stall in King's Lynn's Broad street on Friday's and Saturday's (and will continue to do so up till Christmas) with the aim of raising fighting funds through the sale of the KLWIN 2012 Calendar and raffle tickets...and to get West Norfolk people to sign John Martin's petition. Now, I have been manning that stall and doing my bit for the cause which has been great because there is no better way to get feedback and public opinion than to meet and talk to the public, and whilst last weekend we had a lot of people wanting to sign the petition and that was fantastic...this weekend it went mad with people not only wanting to sign up but wanting to with an anger and passion that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

All this anger has come forth because of NCC's response and their insistence that they are going to press on regardless, and Wild Bill's ranting in particular has earned a good few hundred signatures alone.

So, well done Murphy....Keep you a troshin Bill....you are doing our campaign proud with your opinionated, jaw dropping arrogance. The more you pair open your mouths the more signatures we will get, the more calendars and raffle tickets we will sell.

Just a word of advise to you both....when you eventually get the heave-ho, don't waste your time looking for a job in PR.

KLWIN stall

Two stalwarts from the KLWIN against the incinerator team man the stall in King's Lynn's Broad street. The stall will be there every Friday and Saturday up to Christmas, from 10am to 4pm and I have the honour to stand shoulder to shoulder with them for much of the time when I will be signing calendars for anyone kind enough to purchase one....a bargain at a mere £5.
It is very heartwarming to see such a lot of support for the cause and from such a wide spectrum of people young and old. Everyone has a reason, it may be because they are an asthma sufferer, or are frightened for the health of future generations. Some cannot abide the thought of burning anything when what we should be doing is recycling, and rather tellingly, there are a great many people who are simply outraged at the way Norfolk County Council are trying to bully this incinerator onto us and their complete disregard for our democratic opinion....If ever a Council got it wrong it's NCC, the hatred towards them is palpable.

So, rather pleasingly, I can tell you that John Martin's petition, which seeks to elicit 5000 signatures to force NCC into a full debate (you may remember back in September, that fiasco of a clumsy, stage managed refusal by NCC to enter into a full Council debate) is receiving much support and in the first two days the stall has gathered hundreds of signatures from people who are determined to remind the undemocratic members of Norfolk County Council who they are there to serve.

But we need more signatures....as many as we can get so that we can send a resounding message to Murphy and Co and bring them to heel. So, if you happen to be wandering up Broad street in next few Friday's and Saturday's, please, please pause to sign the petition, it'll only take half a minute.

You also might be tempted to buy a raffle ticket which has some fantastic prizes on offer (see above).
There are also car stickers at £1 each and of course the unique and humorous KLWIN 2012 calendar which features 13 anti NCC, Incinerator cartoons at just £5.
All funds are needed to finance the fight for our democratic rights here in West Norfolk and for a West Norfolk free of a very expensive and toxic incinerator.

What a Pickle

The EDP did an exclusive last week.....it interviewed one of the more pointless cabinet ministers, Eric Pickles, and the resulting waffle could have been piped to the nearest gasometer and fueled a small town.

2012 KLWIN Calendar

We said NO...and we're going to keep saying it, all through 2012 with the official KLWIN Calendar, 13 pages of glossy, fun poking cartoons aimed at the Democratically challenged leaders of Norfolk County Council, in who's name the proposed idiocy of a mass burn incinerator are being fostered on the peoples of West Norfolk.

KLWIN are fighting the good fight but they need our help in raising much needed fighting funds especially with the case for a Judicial Review looming in December, and at £5 the calendar represents excellent value because not only do you get a functional time table for the whole of 2012, and a good laugh every month but also you will have done your bit to stand up for YOUR democratic rights.

And what a great Christmas pressy for friends and family.....I'll be in the town centre on occasion to personally sign your copy...keep your eye on the local press for details.....it'll be the best £5 you'll spend this Christmas.

The calendar is also available on E-BAY http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KLWIN-2012-Cartoon-Calendar-Alan-Castleton-/290625256857?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D1%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D3814470387836785263

Tug-o-War

In older times Tug-o-war contests were popular events in the town and the Northend fishermen were unbeatable, even against strapping young policemen and after all, they were horny handed, hardened professional rope pullers back in the days of sail.

Young fishermen were not allowed to take part in the contests which meant that the Northend teams were made up of the elder members of that community and they would have spent many hours drinking before taking the field and even then the anchor man would have found all the time in the world to neatly coil the rope as his 'crew' reeled in the opposition.

Eventually they were beaten by a professional team (who illegally wore studs in their shoes) but only after the fishermen had been drinking for many hours and even then it took the professionals three tries to achieve a victory.

The race home

At the end of a tide it was all about getting back to the King's Lynn fleet before anyone else could hog an inner berth....Sometimes the tide would not be quite high enough to get more than one vessel into the mouth of the fleet and a 'log jam' would ensue with much subsequent pushing, shoving and various bits of skulduggery.

Off below

Another Northender illustration featuring the ritual of provisioning for the coming tide. This was as simple as it could be...Tea, Sugar, evaporated milk and fuel, in that order.

Dangerous sands

These two illustrations demonstrate what a dangerous place the Wash could be. What with unexploded WWII bombs and the combined efforts of both the RAF and USAF, who use the Wash as a bombing and target range. The clink of rake on bomb casing was not unfamiliar to the Northend fishermen scratching for cockles and the odd strafing kept them on their toes.         

Shopping in the Northend

Shopping in the Northend of King's Lynn for much of the 20th century meant one name, 'Harry Southgates'. I would be dispatched to Harry's on a Friday night complete with shopping list and trade bike. Here I would stand in a queue of mostly women and be prepared for a long, boring wait until it was my turn to be served. Nothing was hurried and because everyone knew everyone, each customer would digest their lives in a blow by blow monologue whilst their shopping list was compiled into goods....do I miss it? Heck no, life's too short as it is.



String theory

In the Northend fishing community of King's Lynn 'string' was a universal panacea....a veritable 'solution looking for a problem'.

Who's Norfolk?

This magazine always manages to rattle my cage.....if it's our Norfolk why aren't our opinions taken into consideration?

Northenders, gossip by the gallon

This illustration from my Northenders series harks back to my 50's/60's recollections of the ladies who would beaver away at a large marble slab peeling shrimps into pint pots made of wood bound with brass hoops. The speed of their nimble fingers would be a blur and would only be matched in speed by their tongues...Apologies to my Aunt Elaine in who's possession this illustration now resides, and who is still peeling shrimps in her late 60's.

Northender's, Hard sand - soft sand

Another of my 'Northender' series of humorous drawings. The Wash is home to several sand banks which generally 'shift around a bit' and they vary a great deal from being very hard to work on to being very soft to work in.. As cockling in my day was a manual task which required raking the wee beasts out of the sand with a short handled rake, the type of sand was going to determine whether it was your arms or your legs that were going to ache by the end of the tide.

This image is available in card form at True's Yard Fisherfolk Museum, King's Lynn. It also features in their 2012 calendar.

The original framed illustration is also available for sale. Please contact me for details.

Democracy vs County Council

The following is but a sample of my personal take on the truth's behind the great Incinerator debate....or at least it would be a debate if Norfolk County Council understood the meaning of democracy.

If you live in West Norfolk and someone mentions 'democracy' I think you'd be entitled to raise a cynical eyebrow at least. The battle for that most cherished of values (won through centuries of trial and sacrifice) between the 65,000 or so people of West Norfolk who demand it, and the Leadership of Norfolk County Council who dishonorably withholds it, continues apace.
It seems NCC will stoop as low as it takes to hang on to their blinkered insistence that Norfolk should adopt a waste strategy that is so contentiously outdated, anti-environmental and hideously expensive that it begs the question WHY?
Surely they must have realised that at some point people were also going to question their choice of incinerator operator. Cory Environmental and Wheelabrator Technologies, who operate under the umbrella of Waste Management Inc, haven't exactly got a history as a 'safe pair of hands', an attribute you would expect as the bare minimum for a company in an industry with such potential for environmental catastrophe.
This might be especially puzzling when you realise that checking the operational pedigree of Cory Wheelabrator is no more difficult than a fairly simple Google search.
It's there for all to see...the multitude of lawsuits, fines, out of court settlements, allegations, writs, convictions and even proven links to organised crime stretching all the way back to the 1980's with a clear message that this was/is an organisation whose only consistency is the  failure to conduct its operations safely, cleanly and efficiently.
It is very good at one thing though....making money, and lots of it. It seems that fines and settlements totalling hundreds of $m are inconsequential compared to earnings.
The fact that they are 'over here' scouting for new 'money harvesting' pastures should come as no surprise either. It would seem the good ole US of A has learnt the hard way since an incinerator hasn't been built there since 1995 and many towns and cities are now examining the fallout around their incinerator plants (For a touch of irony check out cancer rates in Lynn & Boston Mass.) which doesn't bode well for Waste Management Inc and their litigious horizons....I reckon they're going to needs lots more money and it has to come from somewhere.
And it is on the question of cost that NCC 's stance becomes all the more incredulous....Burning waste is hugely expensive, appox £120 a tonne MORE expensive than landfill. Why then, when there are so many better, greener, and cheaper alternatives out there, are we in West Norfolk staring hell in the face.
Could it be.....MONEY. It is no coincidence that the only potential winners in this environmental debacle will be Cory Wheelabrator and good old, undemocratic, Norfolk County Council who will stand to 'clean up' to the tune of £125m in grants and subsidies over the next 2 decades.
None of this is new of course. It's all out there in the public domain, but going back to the question of democracy, or lack of it in this context, just how far will NCC stoop to bludgeon this monstrous strategy upon us? I suspect as low as it takes or until someone...the people, throws these little dictator wannabes out of office but the question is, will it be before the damage is done?
If the 65,000 people that voted against an incinerator in West Norfolk were to get off their bums and march on County Hall it would all be over in a trice, of that I'm certain.

Xmas dinner

A really good Norfolk turkey will sell itself.

Plucked

Plucking turkey's is a fine art and if you've ever wondered what they did with old cow's udders.....

Bath time

A certain amount of subterfuge is needed to entice turkey's into a hot bath on a warm summers day. 

Boxing day

Only in the turkey industry would 'boxing' day precede Christmas day.

Catch me if you can



Catching turkey's calls for a well planned, co-ordinated strategy.

Travelling turkey's

Transporting turkey's from farm to farm in the Norfolk countryside has its hazards. 

Cornered



Turkey's aren't renown for their smart thinking.....has this one cornered himself?

Cunning fox

A day's golfing for the turkey's and a day's cunning for sly fox's.

Feeding time

Only the best dining for Norfolk turkey's.

Vets

No one likes a jab...even the farmer's squeamish.

Sexing chicks

The simple science of sexing chicks.

A day in the life of a Norfolk turkey

In 1999 I was commissioned by the British Turkey Federation to produce a calendar for the Millennium in support of The Peter Aliss, Powered Wheelchairs for Severely Disabled Children's Charity.

I elected to depict the life cycle of a commercial turkey, the prospect of which terrified the life out of them. Trust me, I said. People will love it....and they did, raising 10's of thousands with the sale of the originals raising £26k alone.  One of the better thing's I've done with my life.

This image was titled 'Hatching' and as you can see, the principle is quite simple...and entirely feasible...bootiful bor.

I'm back...

Wow...what a year I've had. If I told you everything you'd think I made it all up...Let's just say I got to tango with the grim reaper himself a time or three....and he was found wanting. What else can I say....I'M ALIVE so let's KBO as Winston Churchill would say.