Chairman's Report

The year has been a good, steady one, with once more a full programme of events. The Society continues to hold up reasonably well in terms of attendance and membership numbers. Eight meetings have been held with speakers, and it has been a pleasure to welcome new faces to our meetings.

Once again Dorothy Williams has put together a programme reflecting a wide range of topics that are relevant to our locality. You have received the programme for the first half of next year, and we thank Dorothy most sincerely for all the work she does to set up all our events for us. Dorothy has also recently up-dated the website for us, which continues to attract contact from people with queries about Smethwick, literally from around the world.

I thank Yvonne Hadley for keeping the books balanced, and for looking after the membership records during the past year. We are so pleased to see John Mawditt back amongst us and to have him able once more to participate as a committee member and to produce the write-ups of our meetings, which make the newsletter so valuable to those members who cannot regularly be with us. Yvonne’s work in putting it all together, both on the page and into the envelopes, is very much appreciated.

Our visit to Moseley Old Hall was set up in conjunction with a presentation beforehand by one of the National Trust guides. Those who were able to go had an enjoyable visit – may I say, particularly to the tea room? – and found the Hall a remarkable rural survival so close to the urban sprawl of Wolverhampton.

I had thought that after the awful weather last June when we walked the canal towpaths in murk and mist that surely the odds were with us for a pleasant summer evening looking at the history along part of Bearwood Road. Alas, I was wrong, and we had to splash our way through the puddles, and I had raise my voice over the sound of the rain drumming on our umbrellas. We must live in hope for 2009 being third time lucky!

David Yates has once again produced a picture for our Society Christmas Card, and I thank Brenda Burrett once more for handling the sales for us. We were able to provide stands at three of the Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust’s Roadshows. In July we also had a stand at the Warley Woods Community Trust’s annual Picnic in the Park and this proved to be a very successful event in terms of publication sales. Sandra Tyrell is working on some new ideas to supplement our sales tables at these events.

We were more than surprised, and gratified, at the completely unexpected legacy of £5000 left to the Society by former member Mrs Muriel Harper. This allowed us to discharge, without any concern for the loss to our capital, the £400 that we had pledged several years ago to the Warley Woods Community Trust towards their re-planting of the Woods. Not only has Mrs Harper’s legacy meant that we have been able to absorb rising costs without raising the membership fees, but it puts us in a position to consider making other donations to such causes that relate to Smethwick’s history, and continue to justify our existence as a registered charity.

The committee has met twice, and I thank Dorothy Williams and John and Mary Mawditt for their hospitality on those occasions. On behalf of all of you, I want to express my appreciation of the work of the committee members for their work in all the necessary tasks for keeping the Society going. It is their work that provides the opportunity for like-minded people to meet, and explore, so many fascinating aspects of the history that is all around us. We always wish that there were more of us on the committee; we know that there is more that we could do if there were. But I am so grateful for the work they have done in maintaining the standards that this society has set for itself.