“I had a great time at Silverstone yesterday driving the brand new Grand Prix track for the first time. I had the chance to spend a couple of hours in a Radical, a really quick two-seater sports car with tremendous grip and aerodynamics.
It was brilliant fun, especially as I got some expert advice alongside my mate Craig Dolby who’s a great driver. He’s currently leading the international Super League Formula series, beating quite a few ex-Formula One drivers including Sebastien Bourdais who was driving for Toro Rosso last year. I loved the Radical, it was so quick through the corners, and the new Grand Prix circuit is great. I reckon the F1 guys are going to really enjoy the new look Silverstone this year. We’re hoping to get out on track again soon before the next round of the Formula Renault BARC championship at Croft on the 3rd / 4th July”.
Please keep an eye out on the Blog as we continue to follow Jacks development this season and report on the very latest action from the next race in Croft.
Anglian Home Improvements, formerly known as Anglian Windows has been supporting communities since 1966.
Hot off the press! I have some more behind the scenes photos from last weeks filming at Hedingham Castle.
The horse, knight and castle images look really good and I cannot wait to see the Anglian adverts when Channel 4’s latest daytime hit “The 5 O’Clock Show” is aired end of this month.
According to Channel 4’s website the chat show consists of various famous people hosting the new tea time series and involves lots of fun, stunts and other famous guests.
The first two weeks will be presented by Peter Andre and includes star guest Louis Walsh.
On Tuesday 27th April Norwich City Football Club held their annual end of season dinner. The evening had an extra feel of celebration following a season where the mighty Canaries were crowned Division One Champions therefore achieved promotion next season.
The Dinner, hosted by Kevin Piper and sponsored by Anglian Home Improvements rewarded players for their effort’s during a hard fought but very successful campaign.
Goal Keeper Fraser Forster was presented the Players’ Player of the Season Trophy and the Goal of The Season went to Michael Spillane.
Fraser Forster winning player of the season
Mark Hazlewood, Group Commercial Director for Anglian and as sponsors of the event was interviewed by the evening’s host Kevin Piper:
A big well done to Norwich City and I for one hope that England can also have a very successful campaign at this years World Cup!
Anglian Home Improvements, formerly known as Anglian Windows. Supporting local communities since 1966.
My name is Clint Randall and I’ve recently gone freelance after 23 years as a Press Photographer. My work now is a 50/50 split between Public Relations Photography, usually supplying pics for the papers I used to work for and Documentary Style Weddings. I live in the Cotswolds with my wife Claire and 3 kids.
I had a very interesting shoot for Anglian Home Improvements yesterday. The job was out in the Cotswolds at a beautiful little village called Elkstone 7 miles west of Cheltenham, where I met Tomorrow’s World Presenter Philippa Forrester who was making a film for Anglian. She was interviewing Christine Shine who lives in Elkstone Manor, a Victorian stone house in the middle of the village, about her invisible renewable energy scheme.
Philippa Forrester with Christine Shine
Sure enough as I approached the Victorian Manor House there wasn’t anything to suggest that she has her own solar power station in the garden. At the top of a long slope leading away from the house stood Philippa chatting with the film crew. I’m always a little apprehensive when I approach TV celebs with my camera, sometimes they’re not keen to strike up conversation with a Photographer. No need to worry this time though, she was super friendly and at once made me feel like a welcome part of the crew.
Philippa Forrester up close with the 390 photovoltaic panels
Once up close to the edge of the slope I could see a sea of 390 photovoltaic panels stretching over the area of 2 tennis courts, apparently the panels produce so much electricity that Christine can power up her land, that she rents out as a wedding venue, and still have enough left over to sell back to the National Grid. I live in the Cotswolds myself and I know from bitter experience that the price to pay for all this lush green landscape is that it rains, a lot, so how can solar energy work here? Well apparently the photovoltaic cells don’t need sunshine, just light, so they’re always working, and if you sink them into the ground like Christine has done, you can’t see them. I reckon that beats a windmill. Perhaps it’s the future for everyone with a bit of land.
Anglian was represented at a very special event recently at Sandringham House in the presence of HRH, The Princess Royal. HRH is Patron of Livabiity an organisation dedicated to working with disabled and disadvantaged people and enabling them to have choices, opportunities and a degree of independence in their lives.
Anglian’s Chief Executive Mr. Peter Mottershead and Melanie McDonald from the Marketing department were introduced to HRH and were able to explain directly to the Princess how Anglian are installing a conservatory into Livability’s latest project at John Grooms Court in Norwich. Livability is hoping to raise almost £700,000 to embark on a major building initiative to enable the 20 young adults at John Grooms Court to have their own flatlet within the complex which will allow for individual kitchens and bathrooms. Unlike most other accommodation in the area for disabled young people, residents have the opportunity to live independently and acquire new skills within a supportive environment. The Anglian conservatory will create a year round communal relaxation area which can be used for indoor gardening and other hobbies.
After spending much of Sunday watching the fantastic Monaco Grand Prix I thought today would be the perfect opportunity to give you a little update on Anglian sponsored racing star Jack Piper.
Following his two top ten finishes at Silverstone in round 3 and 4, Jack has started to move up the league standings following an unfortunate crash in round 1.
Rounds 5 and 6 takes place in Croft followed by Snetterton on 31st July. I, along with the Blog team are very excited about this one as we will be reporting directly to you from amongst the action ”trackside”. If you’re out and about near Snetterton then why not pop along and lend your support to Jack and the BARC series.
Below is an up to date table of the current driver standings in the BARC Formula Renault Championships:
Anglian goes Hollywood! Ok, I might be exaggerating a little bit but we did do some filming at a very different type of location.
Myself, accompanied by colleagues and camera crew found ourselves at Hedingham Castle in Halstead which is situated about 60 miles from London in North Essex.
Hedingham Castle in Halstead
The Castle, no stranger to stardom has previously featured in the popular BBC drama “Ivanhoe” and cult classic film “The Reckoning” starring none other than Willem Dafoe.
The plan was to film a series of TV bumpers for the new daytime programme “The 5 o’clock Show” which is to be aired at the end of this month – 31st May on Channel 4. All the filming was based around the iconic Anglian Knight, yes you’ve guessed it I got up close (not that close) to what I can only describe as Sir Lancelot!
The Anglian Knight
The weather, a standard English cloudy day proved only cold as filming for the bumpers was completed within time with some very amusing out-takes. Without giving too much away all I can say is that it is a classic moment seeing a knight in full armour drinking tea!
Anglian’s new sponsorship bumpers will feature for 8 weeks. Please keep an eye out on the blog for a full video clip of the advert which I should hopefully have after it’s initial national broadcast.
Anglian Home Improvements, formerly known as Anglian Windows. Providing home improvements in the UK since 1966.
The explosion of technological advancements within the industry has been incredible over the last number of years. Everything from customers service to maufacturing has changed due to new efficient technologies which all contributes to an improving service.
Today, I’m slightly more excited than normal. I’m a bit of an I-phone fan and could quite happily spend hours in the App-store downloading everything from mine sweep to a good cook book. It’s brilliant, so many useful programs on what is an extremely user friendly and portal device.
Anglian has launched their first (hopefully of many) I-phone applications. The “Angliancompass” application gives both customer and salesman a use friendly program that helps you make the correct decision when installing Anglian energy efficient windows.
By placing your iPhone against a window the application will show you whether an A or B rated Anglian window would be best suited for that placement. The direction that the window faces impacts on how much solar gain it can achieve:
If the window is situated on a north facing wall it won’t receive any direct sunlight. A-rated windows don’t provide a solar advantage in this location.
If it’s a south facing window then installing A-rated windows would enable the property to gain most benefit from solar gain and help heat the property by capturing “free energy”.
On east or west facing windows you will still benefit from solar gain but could install either A or B-rated glass.
When considering A & B rated windows please also take into consideration the amount of shade cast over the window and what the room is used for. In summary this app will make sure that you don’t spend unnecessarily money on replacement windows that are higher rated than needed.
The application is available to download today from the Apple Apps Store.
Anglian Home Improvements sponsored driver Jack Piper reports on an improving race weekend as he starts making ”inroads” into the top ten:
“My first race weekend at Silverstone went pretty well all things considered, following up our first top ten finish at Brands last month with another 10th place in race one followed by a ninth, which is another improvement and means we are continuing to head in the right direction.
After having to qualify in challenging conditions on Saturday, the weather was much better for race day on Sunday.
I struggled to get enough heat into my tyres at the start of the first race and didn’t make the best of starts but managed to find some pace after that and was chasing down two cars in front of me only for them to take each other out in a spectacular shunt at Copse.
I just managed to swerve past them and keep out of trouble. It left me pretty much on my own for the rest of the race with a big gap in front and behind me.
As rescue trucks collected two wrecked cars at Copse the rest of the race was run under double waved yellows at that point so my only option was to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid through the first corner and I went on to finish10th.
Race two was much more eventful. Having qualified 12th I made a good start and managed to move up to seventh within the first three of four laps. For a while I was in the middle of a scrap for places with two or three other cars which was good fun, but I made a slight mistake at turn two and lost some ground.
I then had a real fight in the closing stages to hang on for ninth. The other guy nipped alongside me as went through Copse and got his nose in front but I held my line and got straight back past him to stay in front and clinch my best result so far. All in all it was a great experience to race on the track where the F1 boys will be in a couple of months, or at least part of it. We’re hoping to get out for some testing before the next round at Croft to keep the momentum going and give us the best chance of continuing the improvement next time out”.
Jack
Next race weekend is the 3rd and 4th of July at Croft.
Anglian Home Improvements sponsored driver Jack Piper reports on qualifying at Silverstone;
“Not ideal conditions for qualifying at Silverstone but it all worked out well because we managed to achieve our aim of breaking into the top ten. The track was very damp from overnight rain which meant we were on wet tyres.
I talked thru our strategy with team chief Dan and my driver coach Craig. If it didn’t rain again we knew the track would get quicker towards the end of the 25 minute session as it developed a dry line. I also knew it was important to be reasonably carefully early in the session because it would be very slippery and therefore easy to lose it and go off.
Things went pretty much to plan. There was a little light drizzle and lots of spray in the first few laps but the track gradually developed more grip as expected and we went quicker with each lap.
With a couple of minutes left I put in my quickest lap which put me up to eighth out of the 15 drivers in the field, but I got pipped by three hundreths of a second so ended up ninth. It’s our best qualifying since joining the BARC series which the team are happy with because it means we’re continuing to make progress and head in the right direction.
The forecast suggests it could be wet again for todays race which is sure to make things very interesting. I’m looking forward to it and will be in touch again to let you know how it goes”.
Jack Piper
Please keep an eye out on the blog for a full race report from Jack on todays race.
I struggled to get enough heat into my tyres at the start of the first race and didn’t make the best of starts but managed to find some pace after that and was chasing down two cars in front of me only for them to take each other out in a spectacular shunt at Copse.
