As from Thursday 16th March 2023 – at every Coffee Morning in the future, at the Senior Citizens Centre we will have a table top sale dedicated to genuine handcrafted items. Members & non-Members are welcome to come along to our coffee morning and table top sale. There will also be the opportunity to learn about Great Wyrley and it’s amazing history.

We would like to hear from crafters in Great Wyrley, Cheslyn Hay, Bridgtown and the surrounding areas who would be prepared to donate an item of their craft to the Society, whether it be a one off or something you would consider doing on a regular basis. We in the society, rely on donations from generous individuals and organisations to maintain our independence and carry on bringing you information and stories from the past. All money made from the Table Top Sale will go back into the society to assist in funding for expenses, research and our Open Days.

If anyone out there feels they can assist us, please get in touch with a member of the committee. It is also a great way to get your chosen craft noticed and brought to the attention of the public. Many thanks in advance to anyone that can assist us.

It’s been a chilly start to the year in Great Wyrley and the surrounding areas, with temperatures dropping to minus 8 in the area before Christmas. Hope everyone is managing to keep warm and protect pets from the low temperatures.

We had a very successful auction at the Christmas Social. We made nearly £200, the committee decided to make it up to £200 from funds. This is being presented to Landywood Voluntary, hopefully at the January meeting. Kath Perry kindly came and led us in a few Christmas carols.

The annual subscriptions are due this month, that is £10 for a single and £12 for a double. We hope to keep the subscriptions at this level for at least the next two years.

If you have any photo’s we can copy them and return them, or you can send them to diane@mstolley.plus.com or winsongary@aol.com

Have you heard an interesting speaker recently? We are always interested in different speakers. Please tell Diane if you know of anyone.

Don’t forget we are not doing the “Open Mornings” that we did on the forth Thursday anymore. We are going to do an “Open Evening” every three months, as a trial next year, starting 16th March 2023.

Hope you enjoyed our ‘Open Day’ on 22nd October 2022, at our Centre, The Senior Citizens Centre, Broadmeadow Lane. Previous years, before Covid, we held our open days in join with Cheslyn Hay & District Local History Society’s Open Day. This year we decided to branch out on our own and held our own History Open Day. We find now we can’t put on a big show like we used to do. We’d like to, but there isn’t enough of us to do it. So we choose to minimised the day to something we could manage.

It was a great success and every one that came loved it. We met new and old friends, people near and far came to join in on our day. On display at our Open Day we showed photos from the Jubilee parties, that were held across the village. The burial records and photo cupboard were also opened up for viewing, it proved a great success.

I hope you all had a good time with the Jubilee, that weekend was great and then Queen Elizabeth II passed away. It is hard really to think she’s gone, she’s always been with us. But now we have a new monarch, King Charles III. Will be great to see what he brings to the throne. We can now look forward to his Coronation next May, but it still remains a funny old sort of a year. We had some bad news at the beginning of October with the passing of John Palmer. He gave talks to us on the ‘History of Punch & Judy’ and ‘The Art of Marionettes from Abroad.’ John was in his 70’s when he died, our condolences to his family. (His story will be in the spring edition of our magazine).

Hopefully our heating bills won’t be too crippling in 2023, so on behalf of the Committee we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

We shall be having an outing 2023. so we’ll keep everyone informed.

Latest magazine available to buy for non-members. Members get 4 magazines per year with their subscription. Please contact Gary Smith for your copy or to be come a member. winsongary@aol.com

It’s lovely to see the village getting into the festive spirit with the land post hanging decorations. If the others villages have them, we can have them too. It is only the second years that this as been done. The villages loved the lights so much last year, they choose to bring the lights out again. Give us 20 years and we could be bigger than Blackpool haha.

With the rapidly growing energy costs, it’s nice that we can still have Christmas lights around the village. Let’s hope it will continue for many years to come, as we love the bit of sparkle in the village.