Dear Members.
There were many apologies for absence at our last meeting as it clashed with a local flower festival & some other arrangements. Thank you to the seven members who were able to attend. We welcome a new member Gillian Skinner, & thank you for your donation.
Our meeting turned into a very interesting evening in which the role of the church in Sherington was discussed at length, its importance as a building , how it may evolve & perhaps its spiritual role as far as the members see it. It proved to be a little bit controversial, but the sort of discussion that we do not, as a village, have half enough of.
The most important item, I feel, is that the Village Enclosure Documents are now safely on CD, & we have one full sized coloured copy of the enclosure map. All thanks to the endeavours of Roger Drage, from MK Heritage. This all done at no expense to ourselves, the coloured copy of the map alone would have been £25-00, so we shudder to think what the complicated work on the documents would have cost…….The documents themselves will in due course be transcribed into readable English, the first has been done, but the rest will take a considerable amount of time, "Lawyer Speke" from 1796 is not very easy to decipher. Any volunteers ?
The SHS calendars have been costed out by SAQ & this, to have done commercially is a bit expensive, in the low numbers that we would require, so the committee have decided to do a trial run 'In House'. These will be shown to you all in December for your comments. Please do let us have your comments.
Your committee decided to purchase a 'Comb Binding machine' for our own use, this because the censuses that have been transcribed were not very convenient to uses by the villagers on our open days. Comb binding allows the booklet to open flat. It will also allow us to bind other small & large booklets. Already some 20 have been done & look very satisfactory. The Machine was on special offer at Staples costing £49-95 instead of £64-45.
While on this subject we also purchased a 'Laminating machine' this again was on special offer at John Lewis's for £20-0 with a year's guarantee, normally a £60 -0 job, well spotted SAQ.
Volumes 1 & 2 of the school log books have now been transcribed & printed, the index to Vol. 1 has been completed both alphabetically & as a dateline index. Volume 2 index, which is the 500 page document has yet to be started. I AM NOT DOING ANY MORE. But I have found out a lot about village life from doing this transcription & I now appreciate more, how hard but enjoyable village life, must have been.
We recently had an E-mail from a Bernard Sharp, who thinks he may be a relation of the Infamous David Sharp, he of the Sherington murder fame. I will keep you posted on any further developments on this, as Bernard Sharp has promised to do more research on his own behalf.
We have ordered 50 more 'Murder' books, I have received requests for them over the past months, & hopefully in the new year Dianne Sutton will come to give us a talk on this subject, with slides etc.
Mark & I went to a meeting at the Manor, held by Mrs Stewart, about next years village fete. The church committee feel that the old style "Small" village fete had got very dated. They felt that it was time to upgrade this to something grander & more extensive, it could also make a lot more money for the church & of course the organisations taking part.
The format decided upon was more on the lines of an inter-village, inter-team, inter-corporate, with sports, quizzes, competitions, side shows, children's games & competitions bingo, balloon races, etc. etc. etc. With SHS somewhere in the middle as a haven of tranquillity. somewhere comfortable for folk to sit & reminisce. Whether this will work or not depends on the hard work of the groups involved, but the two dozen villagers who turned out on that dirty evening, to take part & offer their suggestions, did seem very determined. The Manor grounds will be the venue, now that the moat has been cleaned out & the trees thinned, they think there will be enough room to hold most of these events, but some will obviously be held elsewhere, like archery or shooting competitions. This is a very ambitious event, & corporate sponsorship will have to play a large part in the run-up to the event. Which is I believe to be held on 21st June.
Christmas Party evening on Tuesday 10th December, 8pm.
You are all welcome, there will be very little formal preamble, but as last year there will be some food & drink to help you to get into the Christmas spirit. Feel free to bring some contribution to this spread & also bring your partner. It will only be a party if you come.The first meeting in 2003 will be on 14th January, just a general meeting with nothing planned as yet.
N.A.
PS.
Please let your feelings known to the committee, on how you would like this Society run. Are we doing things right as far as you are concerned? Write or talk, to us.!!