Never have I been more glad to see a year like this one go out, it started with slight trepidation of a new variety of Covid strain, but it wasn’t to be. The doomsayers were sure we were in for another lockdown, but thankfully it never happened and I hope this is the last time I shall write of that scourge. At least we have the Coffee Mornings back up to strength, what with our visit to the Iron Works at Oswestry, the Jubilee and the Carnival, we thought we would try having the Events Day at the Centre this year. I thought it would be better for the Society as a whole, small and compact, like us on the committee and to see what our members thought of it.

It always gives me deep sadness when I have to report the passing on of a member, Alan Horton, himself and his wife Jean had been staunch members for quite a few years, Alan had worked in the print trade all of his life and at one time worked at the Walsall Observer as a Compositor, when it was a real newspaper. We had lots of conversations about the newspaper industry, as I worked for the Evening Mail for many years. Alan had been unwell with that nasty complaint I don’t even like talking about. Sadly he passed away at the Manor Hospital, so all of our condolences to his wife Brenda. On a brighter note. didn’t we have a fantastic July and August, reminiscent of 1976, but hotter, hitting record levels of 40oC, 38oC in Great Wyrley.

The gardens for a time looked beautiful but they certainly needed watering. From all of us at Great Wyrley Local History Society, members and committee, in sorrow we announce the passing of Our Queen, Elizabeth ll on the 8th September 2022. She was liked and well respected across the world and be sadly missed. We now await King Charles the third.

The suns out, the flowers are blooming and a natural feel to the summer, this time last year we were slowly dragging our way out of the infection. I keep on telling myself to put the last two years to the back of my mind, but something always keeps nagging at me, we’ve had our fourth jab, or nearly all of us, those face flannels that we’ve had to wear are hopefully consigned to the dustbin, at least we’re getting back to normal, so let’s all enjoy the coming 70th Jubilee of our Queen.

There was a ‘Party in the Park’ in the village together with a huge screen relaying what was going on in Hyde Park, London, on Saturday 4th June on the Great Wyrley Academy school field, or better known at the rear of Old Wyrley Hall, followed with other celebrations that took place throughout the village, the Society was asked to put on a display at the Community Centre with photos and memorabilia from this present reign and others before it, we displayed a number of boards for the four days over the Jubilee weekend. Then came Carnival weekend, so June was shaping up to a good month to look forward to, all we wanted was decent weather.

We had a very interesting talk from Elaine Joyce about the life of Colonel William Careless, a loyal and courageous friend to King Charles Il. He was with the King during his escape after the battle of Worcester, when he hid in the oak tree at Boscobel.

I received this charming note from Elaine the next day

Hi Diane,
It was really good to meet your history group. I was very impressed by their responsiveness and their friendliness. I’m sorry the slides were not shown because of the technical problems but people seemed interested anyway. I think Charles 11 was impressed by the warm welcome that Staffordshire people gave him and I felt something of the same! Please pass on my thanks to them all and I wish you well with all future activities.

Best wishes,
Elaine Joyce

Ray Franks, good friend of the Society, has donated a great many photographs and documents, I am slowly going through them, some we already have on file, so far I have about 30 new ones. Thank you very much Ray.

Future Speakers
March 17th Steve Booth – Dukes and Duchesses of Sutherland
April 21st Sue Bray – Medicine in the 18th Century
May 19th Phil Griffiths – History of Coins
June 16th Kate Oakley – Planting for hope Uganda
July 21st Mary Bodfish – The Duchess of Windsor

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