Study Group
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Newsletter
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The Annual General Meeting was held on 5th April 2023.
The members of the committee are: Chairman John Branson, Secretary /Treasurer Alan Gould, Membership Secretary Wendy Warren, Committee Isabella Ladigus (Talks Organiser), Shirley Dunwell, Peter Barnes and Anne Richards.
Peter Barnes would like to hand over looking after our archive of photographs and we are still waiting for somebody to volunteer to replace him. Please contact us if you are interested.
Bilton Historical Society Annual Report 2022/23
The society exists to contribute towards an understanding of local history and heritage, to provide and preserve memories of the past for local people, which would otherwise be lost. It has three principal areas of activity: a study group, a programme of talks and a newsletter.
The study group reduced its meetings from weekly to alternate Tuesday mornings during Covid and due to falling attendance. The study group numbers have increased during the year from 5 to 9 but, for now, we are still keeping fortnightly meetings so that the study group can cover increasing costs and be self financing. The society has generated and collected much information relevant to Bilton history, and the study group is progressing slowly on the long-term project to index, scan and store this information in digital form with the ultimate objective of making available a usable comprehensive database. We still need help in typing up documents, and anybody with knowledge of the use of spreadsheets would be particularly welcome.
Our evening talks started in October with low attendance which later improved as a result of increased promotion and advertising. We have used television screens at the start of each meeting to keep you informed of activities and to remind you that we would like you to become involved in keeping the Timeline up to date by suggesting additional entries.
We must give many thanks to Keith Burton who has continued to produce newsletters throughout the year. He points out that he is very reliant on input from members and welcomes any contributions, and is always looking for new snippets of information and articles on local history to include in the coming issues.
In July we were present at Bilton Library and the Community Centre’s open days.
We had 68 members this year. Thank you for your continuing support. Life membership was awarded to Cedric Wilkinson, Bill Williams and Agnes Farrar.
We are very grateful to Studio Harrogate for hosting the society’s website, and thanks are due to Alan Gould for his work as secretary and acting as treasurer until we find someone else to take over – any volunteers! Wendy Warren as Membership Secretary, Isabella for organising the talks, Shirley as committee member and Peter who is continuing to look after archiving our photographic records until we are able to find a replacement.
We are still looking for younger people to join the society as the committee is ageing and some members of the Committee are now over 86. We hope that recording the history of Bilton will be of interest to those who have recently retired and are looking for a mentally stimulating interest.
John Branson, Chairman
