![Pump](gif/pump4.gif)
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Dear Members,
As you will be aware we have just had our 6th AGM and are now into our 7th year.. We had a goodly attendance fifteen members and one guest.. With apologies from three members.
Your committee has not changed and was re-voted in en-bloc. To refresh your memory Norman, Pearl, Sheila, Kay and Mark.
We shall be running another Scarecrow Competition this year, this will be left largely in the hands of Philip and will be run the week previous to the Flower Festival, that will be the 24th and 25th of June. Probably the judging will be done on Friday 23rd of June.
Anita was thanked for her services in the kitchen over the past many years, and Kay (Sec) presented her with a lovely potted plant.
Pearl presented the accounts, audited by Mark. Our accounts are in an extremely healthy situation, well over £2,000 – due in part to the sales at Christmas of Caroline’s extremely excellent cards and Enid’s notelets. We will be having two styles of ‘Thank you’ notelets for sale soon, at least by the 1st of May, but no doubt well before then.
Following the very successful visit of North Crawley and Emberton we have been invited back to Emberton Pavilion for a return visit on the 26th April. But space is limited so please let a member of the committee know if you would wish to come to this meeting, it is a Wednesday evening.
Ella has presented the society with some photos of Sherington places, some, of the building of Field Close and one, of the fire at Sherington Place, neither of these were in our archives, although we have records of both of these events, it is invaluable to receive actual ‘Live’ photos. They are now safely loaded onto our PC.
A little bit of history from Philip, that the Knoll pump was supplied with water pumped by a windmill up by the Old Rectory garden and stored in a sisten underneath the pump, from where it was pumped by hand. Also that the pump handle could never be stopped from squeaking and groaning, no matter how much lard or fat was put on it. This could be quite embarrassing late at night.The large cast iron decorative ball on the top was knocked off by some “Gentlemen” from Lathbury and the whereabouts of this are now unknown.
Our visitor to the AGM was Valerie Bates, a very sprightly lady, who took great pleasure in bringing us to view some early Crump pictures. These were viewed with great interest as they must date from the 1920s and had never been seen by the members before. The pictures being so old and well looked at were in a very fragile state. Valerie has since decided to donate these pictures to SHS Thank you Valerie. So we shall be able to copy these and, show them at our September 30th show. We are very grateful for donations like this because we had no idea that they existed and undoubtedly they would have been lost in time. Now they will be copied and saved. Valerie is a member of the West family who lived and worked in Virginia House Stores at the turn of the century, 1900.
The meeting closed at 10pm after refreshments and a glass of wine had been served.
Gail has been putting in some sterling work on the Village Affairs Archives, it is going to be long job for her as there are seven volumes, but she is determined, thank you Gail. Kay and I are still doing our bit.
We are still in the same position, that is third in the Web Site hit parade, thanks to Ian’s dogged determination. I can’t see that we will ever overtake Cowper & Newton and Hanslope., they have much more world wide interest, which makes us top of the village web-sites.
The next meeting will be a talk by Lesley Williams of Bucks Family History fame. She will be talking about researching your family history and answering your many questions. As usual this will be in the Village Hall at 8pm on Tuesday 11th April. Bring your friends, all will be welcome.
We still need your comments etc.
N.A. & K.T.