Barking and District Historical Society


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Chairman's Report 2009/2010

Chairman's Reports

BARKING AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT 2009/10

September marked the start of our 75 anniversary season with a presentation on the history of our society by our President, Bill George in the presence of the Mayor, Councillor Charles Fairbrass.

In November Mark Watson, the borough's Heritage Education Officer, delivered the 75 anniversary talk entitled
Barking in the 1930s.

Membership currently stands at 50, which is a slight increase on the previous year. Thanks to Nigel Harcombe for his hard work on this.

The Society's website created by Bill George is proving immensely popular - numerous enquiries have been dealt with during the year. Bill continues to produce our newsletter, which achieves a very high standard.

The Vice-Presidents continue to offer advice and support and I must thank Joy Lines for not only providing the committee with a meeting place, but also a very welcome supper!

Richard Chapman and I have attended various events during the year on behalf of the society - the East of London Family History Fair in January (Pat Manley also attended this event and was a star attraction with his unrivalled knowledge of Barking!), Open House at the Upminster Tithe Barn in September, the Ilford Hospital Chapel Christmas Bazaar, the Leyton and Leytonstone History Fair at St. John's Church, Leytonstone in April and finally, also this month, the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Spring Fair. I attended a number of Essex Congress events including the recent AGM in Southend.

We were also represented at meetings of the Abbey Green Project. My thanks go to Mary Blake and Irene Flitcroft for continuing to run the monthly raffles.

The refreshments team headed by June Johnson must also be thanked for their sterling efforts and, again, a small profit has been made.

I must also thank Richard Chapman for keeping a watchful eye on our accounts for us and for bringing the screen, projector and projector table to our meetings.

The absence of a Social Secretary to organise outings is a great shame, but we did manage a trip to the Christmas Dickens Festival in Rochester and to the Retirement Fair at Olympia in July. The Barking Photographic Society and Chadwell Heath Historical Society continue to invite our members to their outings for which we are very grateful.

Sadly, we lost one of great supporters in December with the death of Douglas Waters, one of our vice-presidents. A donation to the British Heart Foundation was sent on behalf of the society in Doug's memory. More recently former committee member George Smith lost his long battle against cancer. We will greatly miss them both.

John Blake - Chairman




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