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Gary Edwards
Gordon Findlay
It's really quite simple. If the Earth was round, all the oceans would fall off, surely? If the Earth was round, wouldn't aeroplanes have to be curved? All these questions are ones that 'round Earthers ' cannot answer. The Earth, we are told, spins at approximately one thousand miles per hour. If this were the case, transport would no longer be necessary. Anyone wishing to travel, for example, to the Scotch Corner from Wetherby, would simply have to establish the correct position at Turnpike services, jump 12 inches in the air, and upon landing the traveller would arrive at Scotch Corner. We will leave the facts for a moment and look at the Society in more detail.
There are about 801 members, coming from as far afield as Scandinavia to Scarborough. Each member, once accepted into the Society, receives a T' Shirt, badge and a life membership card. All members also receive the Society magazine - The Flat Weekly, which incidentally comes out every fortnight. Free gifts are available with the magazine, one of which, was a balloon stapled to the page. Once removed, the balloon, despite attempts to inflate, remains flat. One particular edition was printed entirely in Italian, for no apparent reason. The free gift with that edition was a tin of Italian tomatoes. The 'Flat Weekly' used to go on sale on Friday at the Royal Oak in Kippax. All proceeds go to the chosen charity at the time. Once purchasing the Italian edition, punters, reluctant to carry their free gift with them for the rest of the evening, were told 'no gift - no magazine'. This resulted in tins of Italian tomatoes, some open, some still in tact, being seen all over Kippax, Garforth, Great Preston, Allerton Bywater and Castleford.
Thales of Miletus, a Greek astrologer in 500BC, once said the Earth was flat. He is the Society's patron. Unfortunately, largely due to the fact that he is dead, he has been unable to attend any of our meetings up to date.
Especially in the eighties, the Society received much publicity through the media. Articles in newspapers were a regular occurrence. Peter Levy from BBC Radio Leeds is a big supporter of the Society and regularly receives his copy of the Flat Weekly.
The founder members were invited to talk about the Society on Alvin Blossom's daytime radio show on Radio Leeds, after which the Society's membership grew significantly. A personal appearance by Gary and Gordon at a special event, live on stage, at Castleford Civic Centre, was attended by, among other V.I.P's , the Lord mayor of Castleford. This appearance further increased the awareness of the Kippax Flat Earth Society.
During an in depth article in the Castleford & Pontefract Express, relevant points were put, by the Society, to Derek Houghton of the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society. He had no answer to questions such as : Why do round bales of hay not roll whilst in a field? ( The Society has rare, photographic evidence of this). - Why, when a flat object such as a ruler, is placed on a hill, it will not roll down. We also told him : When sat in any pub on the seafront, one can look our across the beach and towards the sea, everything appears perfectly flat. As the discussion came to a close, we told Mr Houghton, we were about to take part in a charity parachute jump. "Free falling has got nothing to do with gravity" he was told, "We only fall down because we weigh about 13 stone and can't fly"
Preparations are currently under way to celebrate 20 years for the Kippax Flat Earth Society this summer - watch this space for details.