During the spring and summer, the RHS takes advantage of the better weather to visit sites of historic interest. During the winter months, the RHS meets on the first Monday of the month (except for January, when it is the second) at the Village Hall, Uttoxeter Road, Hill Ridware.
When Ridware History Society was established in 1990, it met at the Chadwick Arms, Hill Ridware. Meetings then moved to the Bull & Spectacles in Blithbury, before going to the Coach & Horses in Abbots Bromley. We have now come full circle and meet in the village hall at Hill Ridware.
REVISED PROGRAMME
Spring meetings and summer visits for the 2020 - 2021 programme were cancelled owing to the Coronavirus pandemic.
It is now hoped to be able to resume some sort of 'normality' and tentatively plan a programme of speakers for the winter 2021 - 2022 season, starting in October 2021, when we hope to hold the cancelled A.G.M. followed by a speaker.
Winter Programme 2019/2020
Monday 7th October
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Robert Sharp: Lichfield and the Civil War
A fortified cathedral supporting the Royalist cause and most of Lichfield town feeling the Parliamentarian discontent, inevitably led to conflict. Three sieges resulted in a devastated Cathedral and Close, as well as, many houses in the town. This was a ferocious battle at the centre of the Civil War. Robert poses the question, where do your sympathies lie?
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The Military Service Act of 1916 introduced conscription for the first time and provided an appeal process for those claiming exemption. In 1921, the Government ordered the appeal tribunal papers to be destroyed, but in 2014, large quantities were found in the Stafford Record Office. Gerry was one of the volunteers who archived the collection and he and a colleague have written a book which includes many stories of local men that he will present to us.
Members of R H S Study Group will give brief talks on their individual research projects followed by the Christmas Buffet. Roy Fallows – “Nothing Ever Happens Round Here!” Marty and David Smith – From “Mavesyn Ridware to Shimla; searching for Mrs Montagu”. Phil White – “The Sherwood Family in Mavesyn Ridware”. Helen Sharp – “The Hamstall Ridware Cheese Factory”. Meryl Mattey – “The life of an Ironstone Miner”. Partaking of the buffet is optional, but if you do wish to partake, booking is essential AGM followed by
Gill Sykes: From Staffordshire to the Outback: Adventures of the Bonney family in the Colonisation of Australia
Gill is a member of Colton History Society and has researched members the Bonney Family who were originally from Rugeley.
Charles Bonney was one of the early explorers to open up Australia to settlement. Followed by his nephews Edward and Frederic who were two of the first European farmers in N.S.W. Frederic came to live in Colton on his return from Australia when his brother died and the Australian station was sold.
Chris Copp: Lasting Impressions: Boot & shoe Making and Allied Industries in Stafford & Stone. Chris is Senior Museums Officer at Staffordshire Archives & Heritage Stafford’s Lotus factory closed December 1998, marking the end of Stafford’s shoe industry, while Stone’s finished in the mid-1970s. But shoes were very important for Stafford, Stone and the surrounding area. The County Museum collection has over 900 shoes, tools, products, ephemera, photographs, art works and oral histories on the shoe industry; the Archive Service has thousands of documents. Chris will try to explain the story of the local shoe industry over 250 years. He’ll also look at related industries and the way it has shaped our towns.
Annette Rubery: A Postcard from LichfieldAnnette is a member of the Johnson Society. Her talk will be about her book, Lichfield Then & Now, which came out in 2013. She’ll talk about how she had become a postcard collector in order to find enough copyright-free images for the book, and about how her inherently ‘nerdy’ interest in postcards took her on journeys to Bloomsbury, Brighton, Hendon and other random places. She’ll show lots of examples of “then” postcards and how she paired them up with the scenes “now”, and how she photographed the scenes. There will be a bit about the history of the postcard and Lichfield’s industrial history – especially the canal – and also a section on curiosities, such as the moonlight postcard and the plain weird postcard. Membership £7.50 per annum. Non-members are welcome. £2 per visit Meet in Hill Ridware Village Hall, Uttoxeter Road WS`5 3RJ. For information on how to join, please contact Phil White: 01543 491407 or Meryl Mattey; 01543 490650
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