May 31, 2018|Reports
Wickham History Society: Annual Report 2017 – 2018
Chair’s Introduction:
We hope that you might want to get involved with some of the projects listed below and contribute to or use our archives and website. Do encourage others to join the Society too. We are pleased with our new logo and hope you are too !
Membership, Talks, Walks and Summer Visits
Last summer’s visits to Bursledon Brickworks and Little Woodham Living History Village (part of the 2016/7 programme) were well supported by WHS and Wickham Society Members. We continued our Wickham Village History walks for residents (free for WHS members) and continued to have good attendances. As well as History Walks for other societies this year we also provided two for Wickham Music Festival which again proved very popular. This provided useful additional income for the Society and we thank all the volunteers leading and supporting the walks. If you know any groups that would be interested in a Wickham History Walk do encourage them to get in touch.
This year we changed our meeting date from the second Tuesday of the month to the fourth Tuesday. The talks programme, concluding tonight at the AGM, was well supported and four of the eight speakers were from Wickham. Among others we celebrated the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote, heard about Daniel Draper: Wickham’s famous Methodist “down under” and the Beverley Babes. Over 400 people attended our meetings and paid membership rose to 81 with 29 new members. We had 105 visitors and our busiest talk was “Outshuts and Catslides” with 75.
Exhibition and Archive Space
Exhibitions have included Beating the Bounds, Remembrance Day and Suffragettes.
We have added the records of the Ancient Order of Foresters – a Wickham based Friendly Society Branch, a DVD of the 1725 estate map, a DVD of the 1839 Wickham Tithe Map and paper copies of the apportionment, photos of 1st edition Ordnance Survey maps and other manor estate maps not available online. We have new information on Knowle Manor and the Asylum. We now have a history of Wickham Methodist Church, photos and a sketch. We are grateful to Brian Barrett, Therese Evans, Dennis Gamblin, Angela Shales, Di Hemingway Rice and Sue Roger Jones for donations to the archives this year.
Guide to Historic Wickham
The Second Edition of the Guide to Historic Wickham is out today. This builds on the 1st edition, now sold out, with additional material on people and new photos and research. Thanks to Parish Council support with the 1st Edition we have been able to keep the price to a very reasonable £2.50.
Events and Projects
Wickham Parish Assembly ……Wickham Fete … …Taste of Wickham…. Advent Fair. We are actively involved in village life and our Exhibitions featured Beverley Babes, Butchers of Wickham and the 12 Days of Christmas. Our Latin Transcription project continues, 3 members attended a title deeds workshop at the Hampshire Record Office and 5 members met in April and will meet again in June to complete translations.
We were successful in our joint application with the Parish Council to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £8300 for a Village History Information Boards Project.. This will fund the design and installation of 11 History Boards at key locations in the village and 20+ “QR” points where scanning a bar code will take you to further information on our website. The project began in January 2018 and we have now appointed professional designers and begun the process of drafting text and selecting photos.
Wickham History Society on the web
Thanks to a grant from County Councillor Patricia Stallard we have been able to ensure the website is able to meet the access requirements for the History Information Boards project and are now “migrating” information across from the existing website (which is still live to publicise events and activities) to the new one. We plan to have the new site up and running for the beginning of the 2018-2019 year and it will also host additional information supporting the Information Boards project. The website address will remain the same.
Thanks
To all the Committee for their active involvement in the work of the Society. Special mentions to Mike Hollis for his generous donation of speakers fees to the Society, and to him and to Jane Painter for their work on the second edition of the Guide to Historic Wickham. Jane’s work in organising the programme and designing our exhibitions also deserves a special mention. Maggie and David Smith both made an important and valued contribution that we celebrated at our December joint meeting.
The Committee
Chair: Geoff Phillpotts; Secretary: Jane Painter; Treasurer: Maggie Smith (to Feb 2018), Jane Soulsby (from March 2018); Website Editor : Mike Hollis (to June 2017), David Smith (to Jan 2018), Jane Painter (from Feb 2018); Brian Barrett, Barrie Marson, Doug Copeland, Mike Hollis (to June 2017), Vanessa Burlingham (from Jan 2018).
