Romsley and Hunnington History Society
Chairman's Annual Report 2011-2012.
The Annual Dinner was held on 24th June 2011 at Churchill and Blakedown Golf Club, the speaker was John Weston from The Bromsgrove Society. Julian Hunt presented a book to Clive Davies and John Wankling the retiring Chairman and Treasurer on behalf of the Society in appreciation of all their hard work for the Society. It was a most enjoyable evening.
The Annual Trip in July was to Avoncroft in Bromsgrove, the weather was kind and the guide gave us a very informative tour, we even managed to get up into the windmill. The afternoon ended with a delicious cream tea.
- September 27th saw our first meeting, when Chris Jackson gave us an informative talk on the History of the Postal System.
- October 25th our President, Julian Hunt, spoke in detail, with some amazing photographs on the topic of Methodism in Romsley over the last 200 years. There were a record number of visitors and members attending.
- November 22nd Matt Tompkins talked on the subject of Parchment Peasants and Plagues. Matt is transposing the Court Rolls for Halesowen, on behalf of the History Society.
- January 24th 2012. John Billingham availed us with his illustrated talk on images of Worcestershire.
- February 28th Robin Hill gave his most interesting illustrated talk on the working countryside.
- March 27th Derek Clarke the Architect responsible gave us an in depth and humorous look at the restoration of the Perseus and Andromeda Fountain at Witley Court.
- April 24th Paul Harding and Helen Lee gave an enthusiastic talk on Romans in Worcestershire, with lots of "hands on" artefacts.
The Society has undertaken a Wills project, a small group meet and transpose the Wills of Romsley, the transposed wills have been placed on our web site. Our thanks to those involved. The Group was actually filmed as part of Michael Wood's BBC Programme "The Great British Story: A People's History" which was shown on the television starting 25th May 2012 on BBC2.
The Website updating has been taken over by Mike Sharpe, a local web designer and author, and appears to be working well.
Jean Cockin has been busy starting our Oral History Project talking to the villagers and recording their comments and memories on a new digital recorder purchased by the R.H.H.S. The Society will be funding a laptop and software to enable the recordings to be edited and saved. Our thanks to Jean for all her work on this project.
Romsley and Hunnington 20th Century Project requesting householders to complete questionnaires and if possible provide Deed details and photographs of houses, is underway in Hunnington. Julian is collating all the information, this is an on going project. Thanks go to all those involved.
My personal thanks to June, Ruth, the tea makers and biscuit servers, those that do the washing up and positioning of the chairs and to all others that help towards the success of the society.
Paul Share, Chairman 22nd May 2012.