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The Forfeit Feast, 2011

THE FORFEIT FEAST, 2011

The Forfeit Feast took place this year on Friday 29 July.  The principal guests were The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of the City of London together with the two London Sheriffs. 

The Lord Mayor, Alderman Michael Bear, the Lady Mayoress along with Sheriff, Fiona Woolf and her husband and Sheriff Richard Sermon and his wife were met by the Master Cutler at Doncaster Station and moved directly to two factory visits at Macalloy and at AESSEAL.  They expressed much interest in both businesses with the Lord Mayor making the point that, as a Civil Engineer, he is from the ‘real economy’

In the afternoon The Lord Mayor and the two Sheriffs met various business leaders in the Cutlers’ Hall.  The Lord Mayor, in his role as ambassador for UK financial services, addressed the meeting but being a Civil Engineer he had arranged for Chris Cummings, CEO of the CityUK, to deal with detailed financial issues.  A lively and useful session ensued and various questions were raised with the tone taking account of the fact that the Lord Mayor is an Engineer and Chris Cummings is a Yorkshireman.  Separately, the Mistress Cutler took the Lady Mayoress, Mr Woolfe and Mrs Sermon on a visit to the iconic Corrin Mellor, a silverware designer and manufacturer in Hathersage.  

In the evening the Lord Mayor and his party, together with Lieutenant Colonel Richard Martin, the Sword Bearer, attended the Forfeit Feast.  During the evening, the Master Cutler and the Lord Mayor spoke on the current economic situation and particularly the difficulties with finance.  They found a good deal of common ground and agreed on the increasing importance of manufacturing to the economic recovery  The Master Cutler presented the Lord Mayor with a sterling silver Sheffield hall-marked pen knife bearing a facsimile of the Lord Mayor’s signature.

The evening concluded with a musical interlude by the Fanfare and Drums of the South Yorkshire Police.  The lively performance provided a fitting finale to a very good feast.