Year: 2021

With additional precautions in place including mask-wearing, social distancing and good airflow we have managed to hold two face-to-face meetings this year.

Dunkirk

Our October speaker meeting, the first face-to-face speaker meeting held since February 2020, was presented by Sue Ellis on the topic of Dunkirk. It was noted that although everyone says Dunkirk the actual evacuation covered a wider area. The evacuation of soldiers used a range of vessels including 17 from the RNLI. Others included the Sundowner, a yacht formerly owned by Charles Lightoller, the second officer of RMS Titanic. The Sundowner alone brought back 120 soldiers. The SS Clan Macalister was the largest vessel to be involved although sank in shallow waters. The operation managed to rescue 98,780 soldiers from the beaches and a further 239,446 from the harbour areas with some 70,000 soldiers left behind, many becoming prisoners of war.

History of Cold Ash

Our final face-to-face meeting of the year, saw local historian Tony Higgott present the history of Cold Ash. Tony started the talk by showing the parish boundaries. There has been human activity within Cold Ash going back thousands of years. Evidence of this can be seen in Ramsbury Corner, a Hill Fort along with Bronze Age finds near the Castle Pub. Activity from the Roman period has also been recorded.

Cold Ash itself was within the Thatcham Parish boundary and was served by Thatcham Parish Church. Although it is known people were in the area the first known mention of Cold Ash itself is from the 16th century. One of those records is in the Thatcham parish records where it notes the burial of Richard Brown, Gent of Cold Ash, on 13th June 1594. At the time settlement in the area was sparse.

The Rev. Bacon and his daughter Gertrude were discussed, both science pioneers often taking dangerous adventures in gas balloons. Collaroy Road was shown to appear in the 1841 Tithe map but then was simply labelled New Road. Photographs from around Cold Ash were shown including Northcroft Farm, perhaps a mistranslation as it was once Northway’s Farm. The Children’s hospital, used for those with respiratory problems was shown and Hill House which became a children’s home.

We are delighted to be able to tell you that we are able to start back with face-to-face meetings starting with the next speaker meeting on 18 October 2021. There will be some minor changes, see below, but first our lineup for the remainder of the year, to the AGM is:

• 18th October, The Long Term Impact of the First World War, Professor Gary Sheffield
• 29th November, History of Cold Ash, Tony Higgott
• 31st January 2022, Annual General Meeting

Please note talks may change and if the Covid situation and/or national guidelines change we may have to postpone talks. For all the latest events and news please keep an eye on our website, www.thatchamhistoricalsociety.org.uk.

In order to resume face-to-face meetings there are a few changes we need to make, which we hope will only be for the short term. For the October and November meetings the library will not be opened and we will not have refreshments. There are changes to the times we meet and guidelines we ask you to follow.

New times

To allow the venue to clean the room before we start and after we have finished we have had to alter our times for the short term. New times are:

• Arrive between 6.50pm and 7.15pm, please DO NOT arrive earlier.
• The meeting will start at 7.15pm and the speaker will present until 8.15pm.
• You will then have a chance, 5 or 10 minutes, to ask questions before the meeting closes.

Guidelines

To keep everyone as safe as we can, both our members, visitors and other users of the venue we ask that you follow these guidelines:

• Once in the room please sit down.
• Please wear a mask/protection when entering the building. We ask that you keep it on, at least until you are seated.
• Chairs will be spaced out, we ask that you maintain that distance between seating.
• Please use hand sanitizer that will be provided in the room.
• We will have windows open to ensure airflow through the room.
• Please ensure you use the lift if needed.

The times and guidelines are being reviewed regularly and we hope in the not too distant future to be able to reintroduce the library and refreshments.

Due to various things beyond our control we are unable to hold a face-to-face speaker meeting for September, instead we will continue with an online talk for this month. We do hope to be able to arrange with all parties to be able to start again with face-to-face meetings in October. We will of course let you all know as soon as possible.

A theatrical re-enactment of Henry 2nd granting Thatcham the right to host a weekly Friday market will take place at midday on Friday September 17th, 2021, The Broadway, Thatcham. See the Heritage Open Days website for more details.

Welcome to 2021. Our plans for 2021 have already been altered due to Covid-19, an update of our programme is given later. For all the latest events and news please keep checking in regularly to the website, www.thatchamhistoricalsociety.org.uk.

From the chair

Firstly I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! I hope that you have had a good Christmas and New Year, as far as was possible. The last year has certainly been historic and started as we normally would, an AGM followed by our first and only face-to-face speaker meeting of the year with Mr Brown talking about the history of the Brown family.

Although we were aware of Covid-19 at the time I don’t think any of us expected what was to come. We saw all events cancelled and the society made its own history with our very first online talks which have included a History of Thatcham pubs; a brief history of Thatcham; and the historic buildings of Thatcham.

The society was able to manage limited guided tour(s) around St Mary’s Church during Thatcham Festival and we hope to be able to deliver similar in the future and do plan on creating a audio / video version too.

Sadly, we have seen members pass away and our condolences and thoughts go out to their families and friends.

I would like to end by saying a huge thank you to the members that continue to support the society and to the committee who have worked hard behind the scenes.

AGM 2021

For the first time in our history we held our AGM online. The committee was re-elected as-is. In light of recent events the committee has decided to cancel all face-to-face meetings until after the summer. We know that many of you were looking forward to face-to-face meetings resuming but we must ensure we everyone is safe. This has meant a change to the programme that was sent out, an updated programme is shown below:

• 22nd February, Newbury: Then and Now, Nick Young
• 29th March, Newbury and Thatcham, an historical comparison, Nick Young
• 26th April, RAF Welford (TBC), Alan Bovingdon
• 24th May, Healthcare in Thatcham & District (TBC), Nick Young
• 28th June, The last days of Charles I, Alan Turton
• 27th September, Dunkirk, a miracle of deliverance, Sue Ellis
• 18th October, The Long Term Impact of the First World War, Professor Gary Sheffield
• 29th November, History of Cold Ash, Tony Higgott

All talks up to the summer are online. A decision will be made over the summer about the remainder of the year, if we can meet safely face-to-face or if those talks will also go online.