THS Searchlight Feb 2007

Tewkesbury Historical Society

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  The Society Committee met on 16 January and spent a great deal of time in discussion about the unfortunate situation that the Society faces as a result of the nil response to the appeal for new blood to join the Committee. The resignation of Nigel Druce from the post of Treasurer has left the President, John Dixon, carrying the work of Research Co-ordinator, Acting Chairman, Treasurer. The Secretary, June Flude, has given notice of her intention to retire as Secretary at the Annual General Meeting on 26 March next after two noble years.

The Committee feel, that if the Society is to carry on its invaluable work of uncovering the very rich history of our ancient town, we must have people who are prepared to shoulder some of the burden. It is quite obvious that without volunteers coming forward to fill the all important posts of Secretary and Treasurer, then there can be no future for the Society in its present form.

A final appeal is to be made for Volunteers at the next Society meeting and, if by the March meeting no one has come forward, then the AGM will be discussing the possible winding up of the Society in its present form and the establishment of a Tewkesbury Research Group.

The Committee do not want this to happen, but can see no other alternative. It is your Society and its demise would be a tragedy.

WEBSITE. After the gloomy news, it is good to report that the Society’s website has a new format, thanks to the labours of Derek Benson. We hope that you will find the new format attractive and easy to use. The Committee were delighted that Derek has accepted the post of Webmaster.

The web address remains unchanged, so do visit www.ths.freeuk.com

 TEWKESBURY REGISTER  Work continues on the indexing of the Tewkesbury Register. The small group of indexers meet once a month in the Mayor’s Parlour at the Town Hall and spend about 3 hours poring over the hard copies and preparing input to be entered in the Woodard Database. The editions covering from 1858 to 1908, the World War I years and some of the World War II have been completed. More volunteers to help with this invaluable research tool would be very welcome. The group is led by David Willavoys,

NEW PUBLICATION: THS Briefing Document no 2: Spring Gardens. This booklet has been written by John, following HBDS1 on the Crescent. Its aim is to present the non-contentious historical context behind controversial issues in modern Tewkesbury. It is available to members at £2 from John.

TEWKESBURY MUSEUM The museum has been under scrutiny by the Borough Council over the past two or three months. The threat of the withdrawal of the annual grant of £8,000 has been debated at length both in the Council Chamber and in the Press. At the time of writing, it appears that common sense has prevailed and the grant will continue for the forthcoming financial year. That the withdrawal of grant from the Museum in an historic town like Tewkesbury was even contemplated is difficult to understand.

 FORTHCOMING EVENTS –

22 March 2007 – "Archives – Past, Present and Future" Speaker the County Archivist – Heather Forbes

26 April 2007 – Society Annual General Meeting followed by Members’ Memorabilia.

24 May 2007 – Cliff Burd to invite local oral historians to entertain the Society

VACANCY FOR SECRETARY

The Committee meets only 3 times a year in convivial circumstances. The Secretary, in the electronic era, is required to produce 3 sets of minutes + those of the AGM helped by the Society’s tape recorder and co-ordinates the Christmas Social arrangements.

LLOYDS BANK The bank advised the Secretary that they were clearing the basement at the Tewkesbury branch and had discovered a quantity of old deeds. Were we interested in having a look at them before they went to the County Archives. Needless to say, we were interested, and made arrangements to see them.

June and Ken Flude, Cliff Burd and David Willavoys were surprised to find that some of the deeds dated back to the 17^th century.

We anticipate that indexing the deeds and extracting relevant information will require many hours of fascinating (and dusty) work. We are grateful to the Bank for giving us the opportunity to look at this rich vein of Tewkesbury history

THE TEWKESBURY HERITAGE CENTRE

The restoration of the Hat House in Church Street is well under way and the Borough Council believe that it has reached the point when small parties can have an escorted visit to inspect what has been revealed in this historic building. The Society will have representatives looking at the building on 2 March, after which we may have a better understanding of how we can participate in this important venture.

Membership for this season

still only

£5 for individuals and £8 for couple

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