Catherine Beatty

Business Centre Manager

Biography

• What is your favourite Mill Memory?  There have been so many things going on since I started here in 1991, but one of the most memorable for me is the visit in 2015 from Gordon Brown.  Gordon opened Aizlewood's Mill in 1990 when he was merely the Opposition Spokesman for Trade and Industry.  So when we invited him back as ex-Prime Minister to celebrate 25 successful years of Aizlewood's Mill we really didn't think he'd have the time to come.  To our absolute delight he was keen to come back and see how we were doing and so, with just 4 days notice, we put together an event to be proud of.  Gordon is not everyone's favourite politician and so there were a huge amount of security protocols to pass, including visits from Security Services to discuss escape routes and safe rooms, all alongside the fun stuff of buying special gifts and creating invitations.  The day itself was wonderful but I must admit the pressure of putting on such a show at short notice was the exciting part for me.  How well the Reception Team came together to pull it off and especially the role of our 'new girl' Suzy Pierce who kept on top of everything and kept us all sane.  Whilst this was all going on, we also managed all our other standard reception duties!
• What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?  I have lived in Sheffield since 1989 when I came to University to study Zoology and Genetics and joined Sheffield University Sub Aqua Club.  I met my future husband there and we have been part of that club ever since.  Unfortunately in 1998 I suffered a bout of decompression sickness in my spinal cord which means I do not dive any more but still enjoy driving the boats as often as possible and help with training new divers in the University pool.  We have our own boat now, and we take it up to Scotland where my husband dives for fresh scallops, and in the summer we go south and water ski off the back in the sheltered waters of the Channel.  Both my children are also qualified divers so it's a real family passion.
• What is your greatest achievement?  When I walked to the top of Snowdon with my 2 children.  Dad was off diving with our friends in the Menai Street and so the kids and I planned our day somewhat differently.  We were all ready to go and parked up at Llanberis car park where the parking attendant told us that the top was closed as there had been 30,000 tons of snow overnight, the train was not running and there was no way we'd make it.  After a chat in the glorious May sunshine, the kids and I decided to set off up the track and get as far as we could before turning back.  So, along with hundreds of others we got the sticks out and set off.  We got to the cafe at the halfway point of the Llanberis track in about 2 hours and everything seemed fine.  the temperature was dropping so the jumpers came out of the backpacks and we topped up our water bottles.  About half an hour later we reached the snow line so the coats and hats came out and we attached the spikes to the bottom of our sticks and carried on.  I was amazed at the number of people still ascending so we carried on, as the snow got deeper and the path got icier.  We reached a point where the snow had fallen in the night, was blowing sideways and all the walkers on the path were looking rather forlorn when we started the 'shall we turn around now' discussion but the kids were still keen to press on.  Walkers had started appearing coming down towards us so we asked them about the conditions up ahead and they recommended  we continued as the top was only half an hour away and the conditions were better up there.  The snow was very deep and it was only the sheer volume of other walkers that was keeping the path open, albeit sheer ice.  For the next half hour we were walking alongside others, helping each other past the dicier parts and receiving words of motivation from the successful walkers on their way back down.  Without this camaraderie I am sure I would have stopped earlier but we made it together and the sense of achievement at the top was something I have never felt before.  We only stayed at the top for about half an hour in the shelter of the wall of the closed cafe, drinking our hot chocolate and eating lunch before starting the long walk down.  This was trickier than the way up because of the ice, until we realised it was far quicker to sit down and toboggan on your backside.  Four and a half hours slog up and 2 hours laughing going down made for a really eventful day.
• Your favourite concert?  At school I learned to play the trombone and used to play in the Lichfield Youth Wind Band.  One day we were approached by the Lichfield Sinfonia who were putting on a performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.  The trombones have a substantial part in this but trombone players are not easy to come by so they asked if they could borrow the youth players for this one performance.  We had to practice with the adults for a couple of weeks and then on the night dress in formal wear.  The main trombone part is played very loud and coincides with the cannon fire in the overture and so whilst we were all blowing our hearts out there were explosives in dustbins suspended over our heads replicating the noise of the canons.  I could hardly play for excitement and probably missed all my notes as the explosions were going off but it was certainly an experience never to be repeated.
• What would you put in Room 101?  People that put not-so-dirty pots in the washing up bowl, fill it with hot soapy water and then leave it 'to soak'.  They're not even dirty and someone else comes to the sink an hour later to find a bowl full of tepid water and wet plates, and cannot get the kettle under the tap to make a brew.  What do you have to do? -unload the bowl of cold, wet mugs and find somewhere to put them whilst you fill the kettle.  If you are going to load up the bowl and use hot water and washing up liquid then for goodness sake, just wash the chuffing stuff and be done with it!
•  What is your favourite food?  I love pastry, savoury, sweet, suet, puff, Danish, I'll never say no to pie.
• Describe your favourite heritage item in Aizlewood's Mill?  There are so many things, and when we open to the public for Heritage Open Days every September I talk with great passion about every one of our items on display.  There is, however one item that really catches my imagination.  We have a paternoster in the stairwell and recently I was digging around under the boilers in the boilerhouse and found a couple of objects that looked a bit like hay troughs for the horses but turned out to be the footplates for the paternoster.  I was so delighted to actually find one of the things I had only been able to describe before, that they come out every September for a full demonstration during the tours.

Email Catherine: cath@aizlewoodsmill.com

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