Guest Speaker – Anthony Poulton Smith – Explores the History of Watling Street
Members of the Local History Society were pleased to welcome guest speaker Anthony Poulton Smith to our recent coffee morning meeting.
Anthony delivered an engaging and thought-provoking talk on the history of Watling Street — one of Britain’s most famous historic routes. Long believed to have been a Roman road, Watling Street has traditionally been associated with the Roman occupation of Britain and the network of straight, engineered roads for which they are well known.
However, during his talk, Anthony revealed evidence suggesting that the route may in fact have Anglo-Saxon origins, challenging the commonly held assumption of its purely Roman beginnings. His presentation offered fresh insights into how our understanding of early transport routes continues to evolve through ongoing research and historical interpretation.
The subject sparked great interest among those attending, and the talk was thoroughly enjoyed by all. As always, it was wonderful to see members gathered together for another informative and friendly morning of local history discussion.
We would like to thank Anthony Poulton Smith for sharing his knowledge and expertise with us.
AGM
We had a good AGM. Reports were given by the Secretary, Treasurer, Vice Chairperson and myself. We’d had a good year and felt there was no need to increase subscriptions. As the year goes on, we want to do more with open days and open evenings. Pam is looking into doing another trip, this time in the summer.
We lost some members last year I’m sorry to say, these wasn’t due to losing interest in the Society, but from illness and sorry to say death, who will be sadly missed in the Society. We are seeing new faces at different events, with more members joining each month. Coffee mornings with guest speakers are a big hit, with more members attending each month.
We’re now into a new year with the Society. We’ve been going now for 17 years and a few months into our reign. Pictured here, a photograph from local resident of Park Lane that build a 10-feet snowman. It became a great attraction in the village, back in January. With many people visiting the snowman to take a selfie with him.