MVP Newsletter June 2023

As we have just had our AGM, and this is our first contribution to the Newsletter, we thought it a good idea to have a rundown of some of our meetings over the previous 12 months. MLHG had a stall at the Jubilee celebrations, and in June the display boards from the Jubilee event and reminiscence notes left by people who visited the stand were discussed. In August, members and guests gathered for a very enjoyable afternoon tea party at The Jackdaw, formerly the Silchester Arms and were treated to tours of the house and an insight into its fascinating history. In September, Lorne Clarke gave the Group a very interesting talk and demonstrations on early recording equipment such as gramophones and wireless sets, in October Mike Newman gave an outline history of Mortimer Bowls Club from its earliest days and Phil Challis talked about the establishment of Mortimer Motorcycle Club, accompanied by a number of photographs and newspaper articles. November’s meeting was a “virtual pub crawl”, January saw our annual Christmas party, and in February John Miller and his guests talked about the local farms and the major changes that had occurred in agriculture and farming methods over the last few decades. For March’s meeting, Bob and Carolyn showed a number of very interesting aerial photographs of Mortimer going back many years, and these generated a lot of general discussion.

A regular MLHG post on the MVP Facebook page has generated much interest, and at our last meeting we had 26 present, including many new faces, and we know that between them they have a great deal to contribute to our records, so currently we are thinking about the best way to go about ‘exploiting’ this knowledge, for future generations!

Brewery Common, Mortimer, Circa 1904