106. Myddelton Rededication Service and Lunch 25 January 2024

We gathered together to acknowledge the life of Sir Hugh Myddelton, a clothmaker, entrepreneur, mine-owner, goldsmith, banker and self-taught engineer. He was the driving force behind the construction between 1608 and 1613 of the New River, to bring clean water 60 kilometres south from the River Lea, near Ware, in Hertfordshire, to the City of London.  We also commemorated the Granting of our Livery in 2000.

Our grateful thanks to the Revd Katherine Hedderly, Vicar of All Hallows by the Tower and our Chaplain, for organising the Myddelton Service for the Rededication of the Company Cross, and the Members of the Company. The Gospel reading was of the Samaritan women who goes to draw water and shares it.  Katherine shared personal experience of water, the damage caused by water, the power of water and the need for sharing.

Katherine has recently been appointed Archdeacon of Charing Cross for the Two Cities Area of the Diocese of London. This means that she will be leaving All Hallows in three months’ time. We send her our congratulations and best wishes.

As we processed from the Tower of London, our Beadle gave us a fascinating and gory description of the beheadings that had taken place at Tower Hill.  Even if you bribe the executioner there is no guarantee of a clean cut.  Mark’s knowledge and graphic tale showed the advantage of having a Yeoman Warder as our Beadle - they are renowned for their story-telling.  It was great preparation for lunch. 

I was very pleased to welcome Dr Tony Juniper, Chair, Natural England, who gave us a powerful presentation at our Myddelton Lunch in the historic setting of Trinity House.  Our connections go back a long way to his work for Friends of the Earth and his challenges to the Environment Agency and Government on acid rain. He described the natural cycle of water, the chemistry and physics behind water in the atmosphere, the influences on it and the need for more nature-based solutions.

It was also wonderful to welcome and congratulate eight Postgraduate Dissertation Prize Winners and present them with their prizes and certificates.  Thanks to their supporters as well.

2022-23	Queen Mary	Louise Ainslie	Nutrient Neutrality: how does land use change affect soil and water nutrient concentrations and soil health at the National Trust Hinton Ampner Estate, Hampshire, England?	MSc Water and Environmental Management
2022-23	Cambridge	Ishwar Gurung	The Impact of Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals on the Water - Land - Energy Nexus in the Isonzo/Soča River Basin	MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development
2020-21	Brunel	Christiana Tsimpouki-Malik	Current Textile Wastewater Treatment: A Critical Review Employing SOAR and PESTLE Analysis	MSc Environmental Management
2022-23	Plymouth	Rhianna Trim	Testing the cumulative effectiveness of physical, mycoremediation and chemical treatments of in-situ treated sewage water discharge using summer oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus pulmonarius)	MSc in Sustainable Environmental Management
2022-23	Birkbeck	Christopher Michael Birks	The effect of sewer overflow discharges on fluvial nutrient flux	MSc in Environment and Sustainability
2022-23	Brunel	Ross Elliot	Applying the Sustainability Policy of High-Speed Rail 2 (HS2) to the London Borough of Hillingdon	MSc Environmental Management
2022-23	UWE	Elliott Taylor	The impact of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) developments on moth diversity and abundance (Lepidoptera)	MSc in Environmental Management
2022-23	Imperial	Eguono Vanessa Omo-Aghoja	Prosumption Management of Solar Panels for Water Source Heat Pumps using Pump Storage Technology	MSc Environmental Engineering

 

We will be inviting the prize winners who could not make this lunch to a future event.

A superb day.  Thanks to our great Clerk for her organisation.