Can’t wait to see you all at Harrisons Sports & Social Club on Saturday 20th April for St George’s Day. On our stall we will have special offers on our local Great Wyrley history books, £3.00 each or 2 for £5.00, a raffle for a variety of prizes and also some craft ideas for sale. Great Value & a Great Day out with lots more interesting stalls for all the family. Fete on field stalls and refreshments 12noon – 4pm.
It was great to see so many people attend our coffee morning and chat about old times in the village. There was old photographs & maps to look at and much more in our archives, available to look at on request. This morning we had a guest speaker Ray Sturdy talking about the ‘Real Dad’s Army,’ the talk was poorly delivered and in an un-professional manner,. The committee left very let down by today’s speaker andneedless to say this speaker will not be invited back in the future. Our April guest speaker is Andy French talking about ‘Morecombe and Wise’ and is going to be an interesting talk.
The guest speaker was Penny Wheat who gave a talk entitled Behind Bars, she gave an account of a journey she went on communicating with inmates in various prisons both in the UK and the U.S.A. She also displayed a table full of gifts sent to her from inmates, the art work of which was astounding.
First coffee morning of 2024, a happy New Year to all our members, future members and our committee.
This mornings speaker was Mr Ned Williams who gave a talk about prefabs, people of a certain age will remember the ones we had on the village before the new estates were built. He gave a comprehensive account about prefabs dating from 1910 up until the time they began to disappear in the 50’s & 60’s, the talk lasted for 1 hour and was very informative.
The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING was also held, Welcome to all, this was our 14th AGM, thank you all for coming, Unfortunately Pam Ball is not very well; she has spent 18 days in hospital. I’ll start with Trevor’s part of the meeting, he is unable to attend the meeting. due to a doctors appointment, and he has left me with a brief resume. The year has been good beneficially even though things have increased in price, but saying that the membership subscription is staying as it is. We have made a donation to Landywood Voluntary Help Centre of £100, we had decided this before they unfortunately had their mini-bus stolen.
The printing cost for the magazine as increased in price, as with the room hire of the centre. The diaries that we gave out at Christmas had gone up, but we think they were worth it. We are managing well with our funds and are awaiting printing and binding prices for Paul Ford’s book, which we have put on one side.
Diane Tolley gave an insight of the last year’s activities; we are in the final throws of the publication of Paul Ford’s book on the Great War and how it affected not only the fallen, but the areas of Cheslyn Hay and Great Wyrley. This we will talk of in the coming months.
I feel 2023 was a good year for the society, with lots of things going on and luckily, no sign of Covid to stop us. We will be having another day out this year, which we are in talks now about on what to do; we shall aim for May again.
I want to thank all of the committee for their help, not forgetting Soeli Thomas, our local Graphic Designer for the society, for designing the society’s magazine, also for her managing the website over past year and especially to our members for making our Society what it is.
To finish off, We are always asking for anybody to come and help out in anyway they can, either coming a committee member, helping on our Open Days, or helping at our Coffee Mornings when we need extra hands. We are a growing history society and appreciate any help we can get.
After Diane’s talk, the members were asked to vote for committee members, all were content with the existing committee members and a block vote with a show of hands carried it forward.
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.
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
