This year has been a very active one for the Local History Group. The Chairman, Tony Reeve, reports.
The Local History Group
The past summer has been a particularly active one for the Local History Group with a packed programme of walks, talks, workshops, lectures and visits.
Valery Beadle continued to organize an excellent programme of guided historic walks round Marlow. These were undertaken for members, non-members and visiting societies. They included not only the ever-popular town walks and river walks, but also walks around Victorian Marlow and ?Forgotten Marlow?, which produced up to 50 walkers on one occasion. A new walk has also been prepared and was added to the program for the first time. This was a ?River Ramble?, designed to give walkers an understanding the many historic features to be seen along both sides of the river between Marlow and Hurley. These walks cost the enormous sum of just ?2 per head, combining healthy fresh air and enjoyable exercise with mental stimulation. Where could you get better value than that? Walks will resume again in the Spring, so make a note of any you haven?t done yet. Meantime, if you fancy joining the team and spending a few afternoons conducting one of these walks, now is the time to contact Val Beadle on 01494 883686. Suggested scripts and training is given, so you will be fully prepared and confident before you go solo.
Val Beadle also conducted a very enjoyable visit round the historic town of Dorchester, including a fascinating guided tour of the Abbey and a sociable pub lunch. On such a warm August day, in such a lovely and historic spot, it made you proud to be British.
On 13th September, the History Group participated in National Heritage Week, with a team of ten led by Dr Rachel Brown organizing free conducted tours of the medieval chapel and crypt at Widmere Farm, just to the north of Marlow. We are grateful to the owner Mr John White for agreeing to make the chapel available to us. Over 300 members of the public attended on that afternoon. A leaflet on the long history of Widmere was specially prepared and published for the occasion. Other leaflets are now available from the Society on many other aspects of Marlow history, so take a look when you next attend a meeting or at the Marlow Museum.
Peter Bailey organized monthly workshops for the Group on the third Monday of every month at the Garden Room in Liston Hall, with a growing attendance. In August, our redoubtable colleague, John Evans, asked the historic question ?Why is Marlow where it is?? Then he gave us a well-studied presentation on the many possible answers that various authorities have proposed, some well thought out and some more contentious. It proved a stimulating and entertaining evening. In September, Pam Smith brought a small part of her vast collection of photographs, documents, family trees and other historic memorabilia as a background to her talk. The title was ?The Postmaster of High Wycombe? (her grandfather), but in fact she ranged over a long list of interesting local personalities and impressed us with her intimate knowledge of local history. Then in October, Barrie Lea kept us fully absorbed with another wonderful selection of photographs, many of which he had taken himself or collected since a very young man. These clearly showed him to be not only a very accomplished photographer with an eye for the unusual, but his typically laid-back commentary involved us in his cultural attachment to the history and environment of Marlow, its surrounding villages and countryside.
Already a programme of fresh workshops has been prepared for the New Year. All these take place at 7.30 pm in the Garden Room at Liston Hall on the second Monday of each month (except December and August) and are open to anyone to attend.
Three public lectures were organized in the autumn. The first was a little unusual in that the Society invited Michael Eagleton and Ray Evans to use the occasion to launch their new book. Although it is entitled ?A Fourth Look Back in Time? it is in fact their fifth book that shows historic postcards, photographs, documents and maps of Marlow, each with a full description. The duo screened and described a large number of the most interesting from the new book including many of Marlow Bottom. Some photos had previously appeared in Michael?s weekly column in the Marlow Free Press, but many we had never seen before. Marlow is very fortunate to have in its midst two such devoted collectors, who seem to be able to ferret out pictures on almost any local subject and describe them in such an enthusiastic and entertaining manner. The Marlow Society is also grateful for their making a generous donation to Society funds, based on a percentage of the price of the books they sold at the end of the talk. If you haven?t got yours yet, they are available at W H Smith in the High Street.
The two other public lectures were devoted to the current theme of ?transport?. On 27th October, Mike Walker spoke to a full Liston Hall on ?The History of Marlow?s Railways?, which is more fully reported elsewhere in this Newsletter. The second on 24th November was by Julian Hunt on ?The History of Water Transport?. This had not yet happened by the time this publication went to press, so will be fully reported in the next number. A further programme has been booked for 2010, commencing on 23rd February with John Leighfield illustrating and talking about old maps of Buckinghamshire.
In addition, members gave talks to several other organizations, including a group of distinguished Americans at Danesfield Hotel. Many interesting queries about aspects of Marlow history have been received (and mostly answered successfully) in recent months, including two from Hawaii and Porto de la Cruz in the Canary Islands. So we may concentrate on local history but we are beginning to spread our wings well beyond the local area. The internet is a wonderful thing!
Tony Reeve, Chairman of the Local History Group.
