Shall we never get rid of this cursed corona virus? for the last two years we’ve
followed all the rules, wore the face masks, kept our distance, washed our hands
and purposely kept away from friends and family, we’ve had the first two jabs
then a booster and told to keep our distance once again. Last year after resuming
our Coffee Mornings in August we slowly built up our numbers till the Christmas
Bash when the new virus knocked us back again, though never mind we had a good
time with Tim Rooney giving us a selection of tunes, the Auction went well and
raised over a hundred pounds to the Meningitis Society even though there wasn’t many of us. Still this is a new year and hopefully we’ll see a light at the end of the tunnel. Like all things in life there are only two things that stay the same, death and taxes. We had to come to you members in January for a rise in the subscriptions, we didn’t want to do it but there was no other way, from hire of the room to printing everything over the previous year into this one has gone up and as far as we can see it will probably be for some time to come, as you see at home with increases in the price of food, the cost of living and energy prices, we have kept the subscriptions the same for the past four years but unfortunately we had to come back to you, with the increase that you allowed us to make, it puts us back on a level footing and enables us to go forward and to give all of you the best that we can offer, once again thank you. Last but not least we have lost another member sorry to say, Pat Strange, she had been with us for many years, God Bless.

Great Wyrley Local History Society Spring Magazine 2022 NOW AVAILABLE

Where did last year go? It seemed we all woke up from a horrible dream at the end of summer, we had our first meeting in August for the first time in 18 months, it was wonderful to see a good many of you. Since then we have slowly built ourselves back to a nearly normal gathering and with the booster jabs that were rolled out in the autumn, I think we all feel a lot more reassured. We hope you enjoyed your open evening with the unveiling of the map and Paul Fords talk, we’re going to have more of those in the future.

Next year is going to be back to where we were in 2019 with some sort of a trip out, which our dear Pam is arranging, and if we go in May/June we could get the same weather we have had these last few years, talking of the weather this year was one of many variables you were either getting soaked or baked, bring it on I’m enjoying wearing shorts.

This is our 50th edition of the magazine, tens of thousands of words have been written and hundreds of photos have been shown. We like to think you have enjoyed them and our thanks to Soeli Thomas for producing the pagination and artwork. So it rests to me to say a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us on the Committee.

Great Wyrley Local History Society Winter Magazine 2021 – NOW AVAILABLE

Put the flags out, it’s all over (I hope). It’s been 18 long months since we were able to resume any sort of a normal life. We were hoping to resume Coffee Mornings in July but that went by the board, in June, when Boris decided to add another month on the prescribed lifting of social distancing etc. It was a bit of a bummer at the time, but I think all of us oldies appreciated another month to be about right. I think we needed to get as many people vaccinated against these nasty strains. I felt sorry for people that were booked up to go abroad and had to cancel again, but in my eyes losing a holiday this year is small beer to having a third wave set upon us.
Now in September, we are set to have our booster jab, what a wonderful start to the winter. Last year a young man said to me well there’s always next Christmas to look forward too. My reaction was to say we should be the ones that should feel the most aggrieved, in that our years are getting more smaller than yours. Though I suppose we would have felt the same if it was us at that age. I said 12 months ago we should write that year off, I know I’m repeating my words but surely it won’t be the same as last year. It gets better; we have articles in the Chronicle on different subjects in Wyrley, with thanks to our Secretary in putting them in. A big thank you from me, to the Committee in standing together in these last horrible months. Anyway we’re up and running, on the fourth Thursday of July we held an open day and a few people attended, it was lovely, no more than August when we had over 20 members for our first Coffee Morning in 18 months. Smashing to have all of you wonderful people there. Thanks to Steve Geale in talking about Sit Coms, next month Kath Reynolds talks about Food Glorious Food.

Coffee mornings 10am – 12:30 noon
September 17th – Kath Reynolds; Food Glorious Food
October 21st – Barry Picken; Red flowers and a bag of old bones
November 18th – Kevin Reynolds; Love and War (changing attitude to birds)
December 16th – Christmas Bash
Held at the Senior Citizens Centre, Broadmeadow Lane.

EXCITING NEWS, we are re-opening the centre on July 22nd from 10:30-12 noon for members to view our photos, maps and records. Government guidelines will be followed and PPE will be used. We request members to wear face coverings, unless exempt.
Then on August 19th we will be having our first Coffee Morning in 18 months, we look forward to seeing you all there.

In a couple of weeks, we are hoping the all clear will sound, well I know that sounds fanciful and I know it sounds like the end of a war, even though, to be flippant, the bombs have stopped dropping but the virus is still out there, we still need to be careful, we have been locked down, opened up to be put on tiers, then after Christmas locked down again till April, when then the rest of the none essential shops opened up. Pubs with beer gardens or outside facilities came to life, together with cafe’s and restaurants on May 17th we could eat and drink inside and finally mix (to a degree). It all seemed like we were coming out of a nightmare that we were blindly led into. Rates of deaths through Covid-19 were worse the second time round and in the UK deaths
per million people were second only to the USA in total. Then the vaccine came on board and through the lockdown new admissions and deaths began to tumble, the virus touched every part of our area, whether through just illness or sadly deaths, the vaccine once rolled out there would be no way in stopping us, by March over 20 million doses were given, the most across Europe, while we immunised the EU were still prevaricating, by now all of us who had the first vaccination in January and February has had our second by the end of April and the rest of the population are getting it or going to get it, hopefully by the end of July the rest of the adult population.

Our last coffee morning was February last. Hopefully, with a strong wind behind us, our next Coffee Morning will be August. We shall open the Centre on the fourth Thursday for photos etc. It will be great to welcome each and every one of you and to carry on where we left off and my saying is onwards and upwards. Lastly, and very personally to me, my aunt, Alice Bamford, who was a member with her late sister Mary from the early days of the Society, has passed away peacefully at the grand old age of 99.