20 September 2019

This was our 16th and final meeting at Hebden – twenty three people attended the first in March 2004 and there were 24 this year, many enjoying yet another chance to catch up with long-standing friends. Sadly, our curtain raisers Dorothy and Brian Burrows were incapacitated, although now well on the way to recovery. Keynote guest speaker Edgar Holroyd-Doveton filled in some of the gaps in our knowledge about Turnpike Roads, then David Garside showed a wide selection of interesting bridges from around the country. New member Annie Lloyd filmed the sessions and posted the results in our facebook group afterwards.

There was cake aplenty to sample over lunchtime conversations, mostly courtesy of Terry Witham who has booked the hall for us each year. Yorkshire member Ian Thompson (no relation to the Cornish one) introduced us to an Ordnance Survey mapping project, then I did a round-up of events that had happened in the past decade, our Yorkshire projects (Beyond Graffiti, Crossing the Pennines, Teach the Highwayman), the Repository and the happy outcome for Uncle Frank’s Archive.

However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find enough willing speakers on relevant topics and the accessibility of Hebden is not ideal for those of limited mobility. But it has been great fun meeting up with so many members over the years and I would like to thank everyone for their input, as speakers, running displays, catering or being an attentive audience.

The Maserati  parked outside didn’t belong to any of our members…

Jan Scrine