Published: 18 March 2019
CLAYHIDON LOCAL HISTORY GROUP
Review of the year 2016 for Clayhidon Parish Meeting
JANUARY was the month for our annual Dinner. It was held out of Clayhidon on this occasion, and was a very good meal at the Catherine Wheel in neighbouring Hemyock. The twenty members enjoyed their celebration.
FEBRUARY was the month for our AGM with financial and administrative reviews. After coffee, members showed items which had special significance for them – including an ancient piece of dental equipment.
MARCH was nearly Easter time and appropriately we had Brian Wright giving us a fascinating talk about Easter Customs.
In APRIL David Rabsom gave an illustrated talk on Nynehead Church.
By MAY it was time for us to make a regular church visit. On this occasion we went to Broad Hembury which has a medieval church unfamiliar to all of us, but which we found most interesting.
In JUNE, our next visit was to Smeatharpe museum of WWII. We had a conducted tour and were surprised by some of the artefacts and the knowledge of what had taken place during WWII.
JULY was time for a repeat visit to Pitt Farm which many had been unable to visit a year ago. It is full of intriguing agricultural equipment and local history finds in pottery etc.
AUGUST was the annual exhibition. As our longest serving member and researcher died six months ago, the church was full of Joan Harris’s quilts and needlework. The Queen is 90 and so there was an extra display in the chancel of people and events which had taken place in Clayhidon during the last 90 years. (Our president visited us for the occasion.)
In SEPTEMBER we made a welcome return to Fenix Carriages where Prince Philip has just visited. Once more, members were enthralled by the spectacular display and Mark Broadbent’s commentary.
OCTOBER was when Peter Fisher gave us such an interesting talk on WWI and its very local effects on Clayhidon and its people; a talk which deserved a greater audience.
NOVEMBER was when Brendon Moorhouse came and told us more about WWI and the discovery of more human remains around Ypres and the identification of men from the 1st Somerset Regiment.
DECEMBER was a happy occasion for our party and annual quiz.
When Joan Harris died in February, her family gave me the opportunity to receive all Joan’s LHG documents and research. Peter Fisher is now reviewing it all systematically and recording all details which are relevant to Clayhidon. It is taking a lot of work but later will be available to any who are interested. If anyone has any documents which belong to the History Group, we would welcome them back and when they have been recorded it will be possible to borrow them again. Peter is also taking photographs which are of great interest to us. Later we will list all the numerous books which belong to the Group. We are establishing a large, documented quantity of material for future use among our members.
Thank you all for coming and together we look forward to another very interesting year to come.
-PAM REYNOLDS