Introduction

The Society, founded in July 1982, has now been in existence for 25 years. It originated after Canon Alan Haydock had led a successful Covenanting campaign for St. Peter’s Church. When the male visitors had finished their task, it was agreed that it would be a good idea to continue meeting. It was realised that, although there were several societies that women could join, none existed in the village for men only.

Alan continued to organise the meetings for the first eight years, followed by Tony Ford for the next twelve years, and Graham Lomax for another three years.  By this time the number of men attending meetings had diminished to the point when the very existence of the Society was put into question.

At a special meeting held early in 2007, when Graham Lomax announced that he wished to retire as the organiser, I volunteered to take over the role.  With the assistance of Nigel Lawrence, I canvassed support from a number of local men who we felt would be prepared to speak at our meetings.   the result is that I have managed to prepare a full programme of speakers for 2008/9 - and have a few potential speakers lined up already for 2009/10.

Membership of the Society is free. We only collect £1 from each member who attends a meeting to pay for the rent of the room. There is no committee or commitment.  

Meetings are held at 8pm on the 3rd Tuesday in the months of September, October, November, January, February, March and April.   The venue is a warm room in the Methodist Chapel on Main Street.   The meetings normally last for about one hour, with a question and answer session at the end.   The session then continues informally in the Royal Oak public house.

New members are always welcome.

Forthcoming events are included in our programme and are also publicised in the Parish magazine.

Contact

John Hill has now handed over the organisation of speakers to Francis Meylan, Keith Cottee and Nigel Lawrence.

If anyone has any suggestions for future guest speakers (or would like to volunteer themselves) please contact either Nigel Lawrence on (01949) 20619 or Francis Meylan on (01949) 20263. We are always looking for ideas for new speakers / subjects!

September 2009