Lockdown Easing but Still on Zoom

The High Country History Group continues to meet monthly but on Zoom pending the ending of the current and unusual situation.  To become a member of the Group please and to receive links to meeting please contact us via the link. 

High Country History Group on Zoom

Keeping contact with our Members is a priority during these unprecedented times.  We will continue to produce the Journal quarterly, making it available by email to those who have this facility and in printed form to those members who are not online.

We experimented with a forty-minute informal meeting on Zoom on the day of our last scheduled meeting, 23 April, with some success.

This coming Thursday, 28 May, in a change to the originally advertised programme, Andrew Smith will talk about 'Rogationtide around Stondon Massey' showing a short film in Zoom and talking about Revd. Reeve's day of reenacting the beating of the bounds in 1909 using a document from 1828.

Members have received an invitation.  To join the High Country History Group please contact via this page.

High Country History Group. Meetings Suspended Until Further Notice

19 March 2020

Dear members

Suspension of meetings of

High Country History Group due to coronavirus outbreak

You will all be aware by now of the need for social distancing in light of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent a peak in demand from our health service.  We have seen within the last couple of days the closure of public buildings, including museums, and postponement of events such as Concerts.  Church buildings are also closed for Public Worship (although many church communities are being creative and doing things differently).

So sadly, you will not be surprised to learn that for the time being the High Country History Group will not be meeting.   Our AGM and talk for next week, 26 March, is therefore postponed.  Our meetings are therefore suspended “for the duration”, referencing the words used in 1939.

I will remain Secretary and Acting Treasurer until we hold an AGM, and Martyn will remain Chairman.  Our Committee will meet online by email as necessary.

We will continue to produce The Journal quarterly.  The March edition will be posted to you.

I therefore invite you to pay your membership fee for 2020/21 to help with this expense.  If you can do this online that would be appreciated otherwise a payment by cheque is acceptable and will be cleared when I next go to town and visit the Bank.  The membership form was attached to the AGM Papers, although I emphasise again the postponement of the AGM.

Although we meet only eight times a year, I am very conscious of the loss of social contact this will bring to many.  One of the strengths of these social groups is the opportunity to get together and share the things that we have in common, which might not only be an interest in history.  Doing things together is something most human beings do very well.

So I am going to ask you to do something. 

Next Thursday, when we will not be able to meet, would you mind sitting down and writing something for the Journal?    

Some ideas.   

Writing of your childhood memories. 

Boris Johnson says the country is on a wartime footing with government intervention in the economy as well as restrictions of movement. To what extent is that true? 

Did you live through the Second World War. What was it like?  Did people panic buy and hoard toilet rolls?

Or, are there any historic parallels with the Covid-19 outbreak?  I am thinking about ‘Foot and Mouth’ (2001); ‘Spanish Flu’ (1919), ‘Great Plague’ in London (1665) and Eyam Derbyshire (1665), the ‘Black Death’ (1348/49), not that many of you will remember the latter.

These are not essays, but just ideas.

Please send them all by email (or post to me). We can publish anonymously if you wish.  I know many of you are not writers but doing this together would be a lovely thing to do, and help us stay connected to one another.

My intention is to keep in contact with you as a Group.  If you do have a need please contact me.

With kind regards

Andrew Smith

Secretary

High Country History Group

High Country History Group Programme 2020

Update: 19 March 2020.  Due to the coronavirus outbreak our meetings are regrettably suspended until further notice.

Talks/Events – High Country History Group

2020

Date	Topic	Speaker
27 February	Tudor Education in Essex	Tony Tuckwell
26 March	Annual General Meeting	Committee
23  April	The Inns of Court	Rosemary Tiffen
28 May	The Plant Hunters	Maggie Piper
25 June	The Home Guard	Neil Wiffen
23 July	Life and Death in  the Workhouse	Dr. Mark Carroll
22 October	William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement.	Mark Lewis
26 November