Three excellent speakers this quarter – Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star, Nigel Wiggin from Olde Hall Tableware and Robert Bifield certainly maintained our standards and appearances at the Great Wyrley Carnival, the Cheslyn Hay Primary School Fete and the Great Wyrley Townswomen’s Guild made for a busy summer.
This year’s book ‘Cheslyn Hay – Those Fleeting Years’ has now been completed at the same price of £5 and will be launched at our Annual Exhibition in October. Also available is Frank Allen’s book on local railways ‘The Cannock Line – 14 Miles of History’ at £4.99.
More and more information and documentation are being added to our archives by the week. Recently we have had the Log Books from Pinfold Lane School and they make absorbing and fascinating reading and include all pupils from 1882 to the early 1900s showing addresses, father’s names, DoB, etc – ideal for family historians, as are the early records of the Salem including attendance records from the pre Salem Sunday School in the 1830s. Other items donated are two aerial maps of the topside of Cheslyn Hay in 1946 and 1952 together with a report of what was assumed to be a Roman site, which will be on show at the Exhibition. Plus a tape made in the 1990s of an interview with a Mrs Corfield who was a nurse recalling the routine, conditions and food etc. at the Isolation Hospital before the war. We also have recorded the memories of an 87 year old lady from Jacobs Hall Lane on her early life in Cheslyn Hay. Also for anyone who went on the holiday trips from the Pinfold Lane School to Coombe Martin in the 1960s, click on to 1zaac.com to see the 8 minutes of original cinefilm by John Cartwright.
Bridgtown & DLHS are also going well with well over 100 attending their August Coffee Morning and are now approaching 80 paid members. Their book ‘Memories of Bridgtown’ has also been completed and will be on sale at their November exhibition. Anyone wishing to have more details of the Bridgtown Programme please contact me.
A piece of Cheslyn Hay history ended recently with the passing of Miss Jean Hawkins aged 95. She lived all of her life on the village and was the last connection on the village with the Joseph Hawkins family – a link stretching back almost 200 years.
And finally another very sad announcement is the demise of the popular Gordon Illidge. He was always seen about the village and we will all miss him. Not because of his local knowledge and his willingness to help, which was always appreciated, but above all we will miss the man himself – a true Cheslyn Hay man through and through who took a real pride in the village. People like Gordon are impossible to replace.
Trevor McFarlane

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