Guestbook

My name is Jon Baker. I live in Wiltshire, England with my wife and teenage daughter and work as a Software Development Project Manager in the telecoms industry. I am a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and a qualified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Prince2TM Practitioner.

Here are some of my interests and links to related sites. I hope you find something of relevance in these pages. Please take a few moments to sign my Guestbook, your feedback is appreciated. You can also contact me by email by clicking on the link to the right.

I was born on the Isle of Wight, but have now lived in Calne in Wiltshire, England for over 25 years. Calne is probably most famous for its links to the Bacon industry (Harris & Sons). For the latest local news visit the Calne page of the Gazette & Herald newspaper. For the latest Isle of Wight news visit the IW County Press.

 

Calne has been well served over the years by its own Leisure Centre, bought and paid for by the people of Calne. But now the White Horse Leisure Centre has been closed by North Wiltshire District Council - we are campaigning to reopen the facility for the continued use of the people of Calne - please visit my Calne Leisure pages for latest news and events connected with the campaign.

 

Since I moved to Calne I have regularly played skittles (nine pins) and I am a Vice President of the Calne & District Skittles League. You will find regularly updated details of the League, including results and tables on the Skittles pages. I play for The Millers, who I co-founded about 20 years ago, who play at Calne Liberal Club.  My previous team The Floppers, the most successful team in the history of the League (no thanks to me as I only played for them for 2 years), folded at the end of the 2001 season. Like the Leisure Centre, the game of skittles is under threat in Calne, with the Conservative Club closing, meaning 3 more teams now without a home. There are threats to close more alleys, soon the game will be lost to the town if we are not careful.

 

I have been researching the various branches of my family now for about 10 years, and you will find some details of my research in the Family History pages. The main surnames that I am researching are RYALL (Isle of Wight), KEEN (Gloucester), DOWNTON (Dorset), WALKER (Oxford), HAYTER (Hampshire), BAKER (Middlesex, London), STEWART & HUGHES (N. Ireland). I also have direct links to the DOWNER, PITTIS, BROWN and CLARKE names, and many others in the Wessex area of England. I also act as Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for two parishes in Dorset with which I have strong family links, Wootton Glanville and Buckland Newton.

 

My musical tastes vary considerably, but as a child of the 60s and living in the same road as the 2nd Isle of Wight Pop Festival was held, the music of that era remains a huge influence. Probably my all-time favourite band are The Strawbs - click on the strawberry to go the official Strawbs page, still touring and producing new music over 40 years since they formed. My other favourites include Yes, Clannad,  Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen, Al Stewart, Level 42, Santana, The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Horslips, Vangelis and more recent likes such as Coldplay, Keane, Muse, The Corrs and the Kaiser Chiefs. I used to play bass guitar, but gave up because I was not very good. I used to supply the kit for a band called Greyflood at school, two members of which Boon (Roland) and Phil Gould, went on to form Level 42 with bass guitarist Mark King. So I became a DJ instead and formed a successful mobile discotheque business on the Isle of Wight when I left school, "Island Music & Sound". Our transport often consisted of a converted ambulance, the Wootton Parish Bus as my business partner was the son of the Rector. I later had another "musical" career as a folk singer in a duo with a guitar-playing friend, with me bizarrely playing autoharp and belting out Australian folk songs in Wiltshire - weird!! It was, needless to say, short-lived. I also played piano, flute and clarinet and achieved Grade 5 Practical and Grade 7 Theory while I was at school. Nowadays, I still occasionally play my old bass, but have recently taken up playing the saxophone.

 

I am a qualified Level 1 Football Coach and until recently managed the Derry Hill Phoenix girls teams who are part of the Derry Hill United Football Club. My association with the local girls football scene arose when my daughter played for the Phoenix has continued since she "retired" as I am now the Results and Fixtures Secretary of the Wiltshire Women's and Girl's League. My other interests include motor racing, classic cars (well Lancias, anyway) and football. I have supported Southampton for 40 years through good and (lots of) bad. I am also a member of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. I spend several weekends helping my god-son who has recently taken up karting, and in his first season finished 8th in the NKRA Junior Blue Championship - for more information visit Planet Karting.

 

This is the badge of my old school, Sandown Grammar (later High) School on the Isle of Wight. I was a pupil from 1966-1973. Click on the badge to view old photographs of pupils and staff and other memorabilia for the School. You can even view the programme of "1066 and all That" the school play where I appeared alongside the now famous late film director Anthony Minghella (he had the lead role, the Common Man in every scene, I am listed simply as Baker, playing Monk No 1 in Scene 8 !!). My acting career went no further, Anthony went on to direct "Truly Madly Deeply", "The English Patient", "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain", c'est la vie. Still it was a good way to avoid a few lessons!! My previous school, Wootton County Primary, is shown below. Below is a picture of the old school in New Road, a modern replacement was built a couple of years after I moved to Sandown Grammar.

 

9 years ago we moved to a new house and I kept a photographic record of the building so that other members of my family could view progress - see HOUSE pages. Now that its finished I'll have to consider removing the pictures, but that can wait a while yet.

 

 

          

Wootton School, Isle of Wight     

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"

(John Lennon, 1980)

In Memory of Anthony Minghella (6 Jan 1954- 18 Mar 2008)

 

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