Did you enjoy the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations? The scenes from London were superb – patriotism, happiness and huge crowds. Members of the local community were among the throng along the Mall and near the River Thames. Did any members take any pictures? Could you please share them with us and let Sue Challenger have a copy for our archives?

The television had pictures of ex-pats in Sydney celebrating the jubilee? Did any of the Society members in outlying locations do likewise? Could you send us some messages of your events and any pictures you may have, please?

In Great Wyrley, we had typical English weather – incessant lashing rain on the day of the floating pageant along the Thames. Many volunteers braved the elements to install gazebos, tables and chairs before welcoming upwards of 400 people to the Community Centre for an afternoon of celebration before finishing with rousing renditions of Land of Hope and Glory and the National Anthem.

As a Society, we are embracing the joy of the nation. Look out for descriptions and pictures from the Coronation and other celebrations in our summer magazine.

The Olympic Torch is travelling through our community on June 30^th. We are the only community in South Staffordshire that is celebrating in this way and the Carnival is being held on the same day. If the weather is good, huge crowds are expected. The Society will be fully participating and has a manned stall at the Carnival.

Society members also kindly agreed to make a donation that has enabled a number of sporting events to be arranged in the community and neighbouring areas in celebration of the Olympic Torch passing through our community. They are being held at different venues in June and July and Society members will be at the head of a celebratory walk that will be formally led by our own Torch Bearer, Elaine Mills, on July 21^st.

One week earlier, (July 14^th) we are holding our annual Open Day at the Sports and Social Club situated on the A34. Last year’s event was very well supported and we are hoping members will come in large numbers to enjoy the vast library of items that will be on display.

We have many more scheduled events and others are being planned. More details will be forthcoming in the next update. Our book is on schedule to be published later in the year and we will be updating the members at our A.G.M. to be held on June 21^st.

Happy New Year to one & all. We’ve got an exciting year planned. At the moment the committee are working very hard on our new book, that will be launched later this year. The book will contain a variety of information about Great Wyrley.

If you have any stories, photos or articles etc. about Great Wyrley & would like to share them with us, for either the book, Magazine or website please email: Gary Smith

More than 80 people attended our launch of the ‘Great Wyrley Review’ on Thursday 4th August at Harrisons Sports and Social Club. Fred Pritchard our Hon. President was unable to attend due to business commitments, so the Editor (myself) launched the Review and thanked all those that had worked on the book. Paul Ford gave a talk and slide show on British coins. The evening was a great success and many copies of the Review were sold.

To order your copy of the Review, please contact Gary Smith, Chairman & Editor, on 01922 418546 or email: winsongary@aol.com

Dear all
It’s been a remarkable year for the Society, we seem to have gone from strength to strength, coffee mornings at the Centre have proved very popular and at the October one we nearly ran out of seating.

Membership now stands in excess of a 150 and growing steadily. We have held two evening talks in the past year, one at the Snooker Club and the other at the High School, it was a pleasure to see so many turn up to the venues, this won’t be the last as we are going to put more on in the coming year which will be advertised around the village and in your magazine well in advance.

Our Society Archive is very much up and running, information and collections have been coming to the Society over the past 12 months and now with the help of two very able people, Paul Ford, the Archivist from Walsall Archive Centre in Essex St. and Sue Challenger who diligently looks after the photo side for the Society, we now have the way and means to copy and protect all manner of history that comes to us, a procedure is in hand to verify where it came from and where it is stored. This has been made possible with funding from the Heritage Lottery, now we want the Archive at the Centre to be used not just by the members and committee but by others from either the village or beyond to research on the history of Great Wyrley. So let us share in your memorabilia and keep it for posterity. We are looking into making  a dedicated day in the week when people can drop into the Centre and bring any material for copying and possibly answer any queries.

Through our web page we are now getting replies from America and Australia, we want it to expand so we need your help in making it better, if any ex villagers have emigrated abroad or moved away from the area please let us know so we can contact them through the web page.

Cheslyn Hay and District Local History Society have been very helpful to our Society during the past twelve months, and has shared information with us. Trevor MacPharlane is, and will always be a good friend to our Society, whatever photos Cheslyn Hay have on Wyrley they have graciously given to us.

In the new year we are going to bring out a new publication, it is going to be called the ‘Great Wyrley Review’ it will be a publication that we hope to duplicate every year, and is to be a collection of varied photos that we have accumulated over the past 18 months, this is of course an extra publication to our new book that is coming out in 2012, the magazine will be unaffected and will still come out seasonally four times a year.

Looking ahead, plans are underway to support the Royal British Legion’s celebration of St, Georges Day in the village. We will provide further details nearer the time and we are looking forward to you joining us on this ‘special’ day.

Finally, on behalf of the Society, please enjoy a happy festive season and good wishes for the coming year.

Time passes quickly. It seems like yesterday that we were participating in the village carnival. Since then, we have

* continued to increase the audience sizes at our monthly coffee mornings,
* participated in the Cheslyn Hay annual exhibition day and, most significantly,
* an audience of more than 200 people attended an address given by Roger Oldfield at the Performing Arts High School on the horse-maiming scandal. Continue reading “Was it an ‘Outrage’?” →