Once again the Great Wyrley Carnival proved our most successful ‘outside’ event and Sue and Terry Challenger sold another 16 ‘Bygone Days’ books as well as other items and having endless enquiries.  Carol represented us in the parade but she had to walk the entire route, didn’t win a prize except some prize blisters!The filming of the Edalji case was completed in one day and will be appearing sometime in December/January on ITV3 under the title of ‘Forensic Cases’.  Following ITV’s interest in this case, we’ve been approached by Dr Alan Jones who has made an in depth study into horse maiming cases and he has some quite interesting ideas which have to be taken seriously.  He has also offered to address our Society with these cases, some dating back to Elizabethan times.
We’ve received several emails from around the country as well as one from Germany (the popular pub pianist Jackie Brown’s daughter who made a recent flying visit) and one from Canada (Derek Bullock who left Cheslyn Hay for Africa in 1960 and after a varied career became a Professor of Mining and retired from his company, Bullock Engineering in Canada, but still remaining on the board of three mining companies).
Other contacts have included three members of the Sayer family, photos from Jack’s coalyard in Bridgtown, a WW I Officer Cyril Brown from Coppice Lane and an invite from Ken Lees to visit his estate again, now that it has been developed.  Two enquiries where we were able to help people with and proved very rewarding for us were an appeal for the whereabouts of an address in the 1901 Census, which we were able to locate and photograph, plus a quest for a long lost and only remaining relative of a Cheslyn Hay lady, who moved here forty years ago, which we were able to contact and happily put them back in touch.
Two recent library displays at Perton and Cannock proved to be worthwhile but the highlight of this quarter was without doubt the speaker Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star who did not disappoint.

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