Newsletter & Coffee Morning – November 2023

Talk by Mistress Valerie Campbell on Tutor Times

Mistress Valerie Campbell gave us a very interesting talk about the Tudor times. She was in authentic Tudor  dress, for a housewife of that time.

She told us of the origins of some common sayings:- Straight laced, was how ladies laced up their tunics.

Rule of thumb, dates from when it was legal to beat your wife with a stick, as long as the stick was no thicker than your thumb. A frog in the throat was thought to be a cure for a sore throat.


November 16th – Coffee Morning | Alan Pugh – Battle of the Alamo

On the 16th November at our Coffee Morning we welcomed Mr Alan Pugh as our speaker, who gave us a very detailed speech on the battle of the Alamo which occurred in 1836.

We heard from a comprehensive build up from the years before 1836 to explain how this battle came to fruition, and how the armies of both sides were gathered, the battle itself lasted for only 13 days, while the battle of the Alamo, (a church) lasted for only 90 minutes, resulting in the deaths of Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie to name but two. A fascinating fact was that there were 22 british fighting in that battle while only 11 were actually from Texas. Mr Pugh had lived in Texas for ten years he told us, close by to where these events occurred, he gave a detailed professional and knowledgeable account which everyone enjoyed, all in all a great experience.


Geoff Nixon laid a wreath on behalf of the Society at the Memorial Gates on Armistice Day, Sunday 12th November.


On the Open Day last month we had some great photos lent to us by Kath Cadman, and Dean and Tracey lent us the indenture of their house which was built in the 1700’s, and changed hands in 1795. Gary has had this copied. 

We are always on the look out for old photos taken around the village (pre-millennium), from people to buildings, or weddings to school photos, and more. We would love to see them all, and if possible, lend them to copy and add to our archives. They will be looked after and retuned back to you, or you can email them to photos@greatwyrleylocalhistorysociety.co.uk


Have you heard an interesting speaker recently? We are always interested in different speakers, or is there a topic you are interested in? We will try to find a speaker on that topic. Please see Diane if you have any ideas. Please email: photos@greatwyrleylocalhistorysociety.co.uk

Annual Exhibition Saturday 21st October 2023

Our annual event went down well, with many people coming from near and far. We saw many familiar and new faces from the village and surrounding towns. We even had people that had travelled some distance to come to the event, with new members joining. Photographs on display shows days gone by of the Walsall Road. There was burial records, maps and other ephemera on display.

We had a board with wedding photographs on display, most of which we know, but here are two wedding photos yet to be identified. The original photographs are in black & white, but with technology now we have the ability to transform them into colour. Please either leave a comment or email: diane@mstolley.plus.com or winsongary@aol.com if you can name any of the people in either of the photos. Or If you have any photo’s we can copy them and return them to you. We would be very gratefully for you loaning them to the society so we can add a copy to our archives.

Have you heard an interesting speaker recently? We are always interested in different speakers, or is there a topic you are interested in? We will try to find a speaker on that topic. Please email Diane if you have any ideas. diane@mstolley.plus.com

Gallery photos taking on the day