ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
27th MAY 2014
SECRETARY'S REPORT
Our member support continues to be good and we are attracting a variety of visitors to our Speakers meetings. I am sure this will continue with the programme which has been arranged for our next season, as several of those talks relate particularly to Romsley and Hunnington.
However, we have three events still to come this summer. We have our annual dinner at Blakedown Golf Club on Friday, 13th June. On June 24 we have a talk on 'The English Civil War in Bewdley, Kidderminster and Worcester' by Max Keen , and we have our visit to Wightwick Manor on 3rd July. Max says he likes his talks to be controversial at times, to stimulate historical thought and debate! They are lively and animated, all with costume of the period and multimedia projections!
Moving on now to our first talk of the Autumn, on 23rd September our speaker will be Andy Shepherd, who has been connected with 'Guiding and Scouting in Romsley and Hunnington' for a number of years.
Julian Hunt will be giving us a talk on 28th October on a well known 'Poet and Landscape Gardener, William Shenstone'.
On 25th November we shall hear some memories of the First World War.'Meet at Dawn - Unarmed'. This talk will be given by Andrew Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton retired in 1989 from teaching History at schools in Hereford and Worcester. He was responsible for the restoration of a water mill to full working order in Warwickshire and managed it as a popular tourist attraction. However, since 2008 he has been writing and lecturing on the Great War and started Dene House Publishers in 2009 with the publication of 'Meet at Dawn, Unarmed'. This is a commentary on his grandfather, Robert Hamilton's diary of his experiences with the Royal Warwickshires in 1914 and his part in the Christmas Truce at St. Yvon in Belgium. I am sure that in view of the 100 years anniversary of the First World War this year this will attract a wide audience.
Turning now to 24th February 2015 and hoping that the weather will not be inclement, we shall hear Julian Hunt talking about 'Romsley Schools and Schoolteachers - 1684 to 1950'.
Members will remember that in February of this year Dr. Chris Upton, Senior Lecturer at Newman University, came to talk to us about the Priestley Riots which took place in Birmingham. On 24th March next year, he will visit us again, this time telling us about the 'Peaky Blinders - The Gangs of Birmingham'. Dr. Upton was appointed as Historical Consultant when this six part period drama, set in Birmingham at the start of the 1920s, was being made, and which appeared on our screens last September. He worked with the production team, writers and actors, to ensure that the series was as accurate as possible. He said while the series itself was not based on a true story, the types of events, times and environment in which the drama took place were real. He was particularly keen to make sure that the actors' accents were as accurate as possible and not confused with Black Country accents. So another talk not to be missed!
On 28th April next Dr. Michael Hall will be giving us a progress report on 'What the Court Rolls Tell Us'. Following Matt Tompkins' translation from Latin into English of some of the Court Rolls relating to this area, a small research group has been meeting monthly in the church hall, analysing the names of people and places that have been mentioned in the Rolls. Some of these individuals came before the Court time and time again and were fined for not clearing their ditches or for allowing their animals to wander where they should not be, or for stealing a goose. People never seem to learn!
Our Annual General Meeting will be on May 26 2015 and this will be followed by a selection of local photographs from the collection of Brian Green.
Our final talk next year will be on 23rd June, when Ruth Harper and Others will be giving us their memories of 'Soggy Cabbage and Ink Stained Fingers'. Well that is what Ruth says it is about, so who am I to argue. For this talk we will meet not in the Church Hall but in the School Hall and I am sure it will be a very successful evening, very well attended. Another date for your diary.
June Humphreys
Secretary