NEWSLETTER NO. 4- Sep 2004

In October last year, a meeting in the Commemoration Hall—attended by some 60 people—decided that Wadhurst should have a History Society. By November this year, there were 150 subscriptions, of which 62 are family memberships, giving us at least 212 members. Such has been the appeal of the Society’s programme of talks that the original intention to meet at the FTA had to be abandoned in May in favour of the Commemoration Hall; as a result of this confusion some members have missed some of the subsequent talks—for which we can only apologise. All of the talks have been written up in summary in the quarterly newsletters and on the Society’s website at www.wadhurst.info/whs

The summer barbecue and the visit to the Weald and Downland Museum at Singleton were also well attended and both made useful profits for the Society’s funds. At 30 September, the end of our financial year, the Society had a balance of £1750.30; this is a very encouraging start and will allow the Committee to consider the acquisition of a decent projection screen for the Commemoration Hall. Membership renewals for 2005 have been very encouraging and the Committee sees no need to increase the rate for 2005.

Working groups have beavered away: the original structure of 6 groups has been modified to give us 5—details inside—and the focus of attention has mainly been limited to the Victorian era for the moment. Reports, given at the Annual General Meeting, will appear in the March newsletter. Oral History [OH] and Industry & Agriculture [IA] have interviewed 20 people who have lived in Wadhurst either all their lives or for a long time: most of these have been recorded on mini-disk for transfer to CD and eventual transcription on to paper for future research use. This is proving a major bottleneck so offers of help to type these recordings would be gratefully received! IA has done sterling work on several topics, including farming at Whiligh, ironworks and brickmaking in Wadhurst, and brewing. Family History [FH] is a small group, which has completed transcribing the gravestone inscriptions in the churchyard and is now looking at how to make the information more easily available. Development of Wadhurst [DW] has studied the Victorian High Street in detail, using the 1840 tithe map and census records as source material. Estates and Buildings [EB], formed by merging the groups looking at the Great Estates and Medieval Buildings, has started work on the church, has had a rewarding visit to Wadhurst Park, crawled over Snape Barn and made repeated, as yet unsuccessful, efforts to get into Wadhurst College before it is re-developed.

The Society is steadily collecting research material and books for its library. We are most grateful to all those who have given items for our collection; until we can find a permanent home, members are welcome to make use of any of it by contacting any member of the Committee.

Progress—albeit slow—is also being made in building up an index of the material acquired with keywords being maintained to enable easier searching. In time, it is hoped that much of this will be available on cards and on the website but more input would be appreciated.

The Annual General Meeting on December 8 will, hopefully, approve a constitution and elect a Committee to take the Society forward with confidence into 2005. Thought is also being given to establishing the Wadhurst History Society as a charity to gain tax benefits—more of that anon.

To conclude—thanks to the membership for its support and to all the Committee for their work in running the Society and getting it ready for 2005. And a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year to all our members        MJH