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BARKING AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2010/11
It has been another busy and successful year for the society and the coach outings organised by Richard Chapman have greatly helped to raise our profile. In June members and friends visited Purfleet Heritage Centre and Coalhouse Fort – this was our first coach outing in years! In September there was the hugely enjoyable trip to the Salute to the 1940s event at the Chatham Historic Dockyard. Then, despite the snow and ice, we had a great day out at the Dickens Christmas Festival in Rochester. The Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in March was also a resounding success and Richard was being asked to repeat it before we had even reached home! This has given Richard, our hard working treasurer, a lot of extra work and I offer my sincere thanks to him.
Pat Manley organised a very successful London walk for us in June. The proceeds were shared between the Society and the Friends of the Ilford Hospital Chapel, of which Pat is Chairman.
On a sad note, we lost two of our Vice-
The death of Mary Blake came so soon after her election in May. Mary had been a member of the society for about eighteen years and I greatly value the help she gave me when I became chairman. Mary had also held a number of posts, but I guess she will be mostly remembered for the memorable outings she organised with her great friend, Hilary Brunt.
This March saw the sad death of one of our more recent members, Maureen Rollingson.
Along with other members of the society, I attended the funerals of all three ladies.
As chairman I represented the society at Essex Congress meetings, the Dagenham Girl Pipers 80 birthday celebrations in September, the Ilford Hospital Chapel Christmas Fair (together with Richard Chapman), the Working Lives of the Thames Gateway book launch at the Guildhall in January, Excursions 2011 at Alexandra Palace also in January. Yet another January event was the private preview of the Famous for all the wrong reasons photographic exhibition at the Broadway Theatre. February saw a visit to Destinations 2011 at Earls Court. As a result of that visit, I was invited, along with members of the CHHS, to be the guest of Nick Charrington (of the brewing family) at his home in Layer Marney.
The same month came a visit to the Tourism and Leisure Show at the Five Lakes Resort near Maldon.
Richard and I braved the rain at the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Fair in May 2010-
As usual, I have a number of other people to thank for their help with the smooth running of the Society over the past year including our hard-
We are now only handful of years away from our 80 anniversary in 2014 so we will have to get our thinking caps on as to how we can celebrate this momentous milestone.
John Blake, Chairman