May 29, 2019|Reports
Wickham History Society: Annual Report 2018-2019
Chair’s Introduction:
It’s been a busy year for the Society. We hope you have had a look at the village history boards and our new look website and have enjoyed this year’s talks. Have you got your copy of the second edition of the Guide to Historic Wickham, published in 2018? Copies on sale at our meetings or at Pages for £2.50.
2020 is our 60th anniversary – we need your help with our proposed village exhibition and other activities.
Membership, Talks, Walks and Summer Visits
Last summer we visited Salisbury with Andrew Negus and had two Titchfield village walks, one led by Andrew and one by Brian Barrett. These were joint activities with the Wickham Society. We led two Wickham Village History walks (free for WHS members). As well as three History Walks for other societies we also organised two for Wickham Music Festival.
This was our first year when all the meetings were on the 4th Tuesday of the month and as a result of the change members now have an additional two meetings included in their subscriptions. Our joint Christmas meeting with the Wickham Society “A Butler’s Christmas” proved very popular helped by Brian Edgworth’s Christmas cocktails.The three Wickham talks included new material on local mills and water meadows. We were lucky to have Dr Sophie Ambler from Lancaster University talking on Simon De Montfort and his Hampshire connections, while other talks included how we remember and commemorate those who fought in the Great War, changes in causes of death since the seventeenth century and “virtual” historical tours around Southampton and Salisbury.
407 people have attended our eight meetings (excluding the AGM) and paid membership rose from 81 last year to 84 with 22 new members. We had 74 visitors and our busiest meeting was the talk on the archaeological excavations in the South Glebe with 70.
Thanks again to Olive Hathaway and our tea and coffee volunteers for our refreshments.
Exhibition and Archive Space
Exhibitions have included Wickham Drama Society, ‘Women of Wickham’ and ‘Remembrance”. We mounted exhibitions at the Parish Assembly, Wickham Fete (Women of Wickham) and a Taste of Wickham (Wickham Pubs)
Exciting new donations included many old photographs from Norman Haydock – the village chemist; loan of material on William Wheatley Ltd, Wickham’s iron founders and agricultural suppliers, the rediscovery of several thousand slides on Hampshire pubs and Wickham events belonging to Stan Woodford, Swanmore College Oral History project 1961 to 2018 and an article on Percy Durant from Hundred Acres. We are grateful to Celia Haydock, James Wheatley, Crawford Wright and Helen Talbot among others for their donations and loans.
Wickham History Boards
January 2019 saw the formal “opening” of our 12 village history boards at key locations round the village and the launch of our revamped website and QR trail. The 8k joint project with the Parish Council , funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a dedicated band of volunteers. Thank you to Geoff Phillpotts, Jane Painter, Barrie Marson, Mike Hollis, Georgina Hutber, Ann Sadler Foster, Paul and Vanessa Burlingham and Brian Barrett, and also to the Parish Council (and Nicki Oliver in particular) for their support.
Latin Transcription
Jim Coleman continued to lead our Latin Transcription project which met three times to complete translations of a thirteenth century deed of Quob Farm, Wickham Manorial Court records and a legal bond. The final transcriptions will be added to the website with copies of the original Latin documents.
Wickham History Society on the web
In order to meet Heritage Lottery Fund requirements we undertook a major upgrade of the website led by our website editor Jane Painter. This was launched in January 2019 and we will now be adding more material to the website. We are also dealing with an increasing number of enquiries through the website and advertising our meeting programme online and the QR Trail are attracting visitors to Wickham and to our meetings.
The Committee
Chair: Geoff Phillpotts; Secretary: Vanessa Burlingham; Treasurer: Jane Soulsby; Website Editor (and Talks Programme): Jane Painter; Brian Barrett, Barrie Marson, Doug Copeland and Mike Hollis
