Down your way

IPSTONES HISTORICAL SOCIETY

IPSTONES Historical Society hosted its AGM on April 28 in the Blore Suite of the Memorial Hall.

President Richardson thanked everyone for their continued support of the society and acknowledged that the pandemic had continued to affect our meetings during the spring of 2021.

He gave the report of the last meetings we had during 2021-2022 and thanked the committee for its hard work and loyalty.

The previous year’s meetings consisted of a varied bag of topics from, ‘Food, glorious Food to the lost treasures of Stone’ and from Joseph Paxton to Leek Changes.

The society heard the treasurer’s report and agreed to increase the subscription and meeting fees to cover the growing cost of speakers and the venue (£3.50 for members and £4.50 for non-members).

Further suggestions were made for possible future meetings.

The following list of meetings for 2022/23 was issued to the group: 26th May – Mr G Browne, a talk to be notified; 30th June

– S Booth, a talk on Dr William Palmer of Rugeley; 28th July – Our annual summer outing, details to follow; 25th August – B Andrews, a talk on Vera Brittain.

Meetings for the rest of the year will be issued at a later date by our new booking secretaries.

Mrs Cartledge advised the society that we have received a donation of The Ipstones Silver Band minute books and some local maps from Ms J Barks after the death of our former member Mr Reg Barks last year. These will be held in our society archive. The meeting elected its new committee for the forthcoming year and Mr P Richardson agreed to continue as president with Mr Ken Ridgway as vice president.

Mr and Mrs Tony Cookson have jointly taken on the role of booking secretary.

The evening was rounded off with cheese and wine. The next meeting of the society takes place back in the Memorial Hall’s

Blore Room on May 26 at 7.30pm, with a talk by Mr G. Browne.

Everyone is welcome, members £3.50 and non-members £4.50 on the door.

CHEDDLETON WI

MAL welcomed everyone to the May meeting of Cheddleton WI.

Birthday greetings were given to Mary.

The honey sold at the April meeting raised £30 for the Ukraine appeal.

Lunch at the Three Horseshoes had been enjoyed.

There was a list to sign to order calendars and diaries. Mal felt that we should have a preview of the pictures included in the calendar, and members agreed; Mary will write to Staffordshire Federation to suggest this.

Mary gave details of a local history project; if anyone wanted more information she would forward the relevant email to them.

This was added to the list of events from SFWI, details of which could be emailed to interested members. The speaker was Anthony from the Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire Blood Bikes service.

Many members had not heard of this, but his interesting and enlightening talk soon made us all aware of the wonderful work that the volunteers do, providing a free service to the NHS, delivering blood samples, blood and platelets, as well as bone marrow and other samples and equipment quickly and safely all over the area, which covers 6,500 sq.km, often saving lives in the process.

The volunteers, who include several women, are all advanced riders who are keen bikers, and enjoy using their enjoyment of riding to help others.

There are other important roles such as controllers and fundraisers who are also part of the 365-days-a-year service.

The talk was much enjoyed, and is highly recommended. Contact talks@ssbbgroup. org.uk.

After refreshments, the resolution for the WI Annual Meeting in Liverpool next month was considered, with members voting for more funding and research into the female presentation of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which are going undiagnosed.

Members are asked to raise awareness of these issues in their WIS and communities.

After refreshments, lifts were arranged for next month’s visit to Notty Hornblower’s Costume Museum, and a walk in Cheddleton was arranged for the evening of May 24.

Lots of plants and other items were sold on the bring and buy stall.

The competition for a fridge magnet was won by Fiona, with Mal second, and raffle prizes were won. An interesting and enjoyable evening was had by all.

LEEK & DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MONDAY evening saw the AGM back in its usual April spot. Thank you to all who attended, there was a larger than expected turnout which is a positive indication for the continuation of the Society.

It began with a short review from the chairman, John White, of the society since we opened up in November following COVID.

He reflected that we have had an ‘uphill struggle’ to restart with changes of venue to the Foxlowe as home for the archives and as somewhere to hold our monthly meetings.

Then the current members of the Committee were duly re-elected.

This was followed by a heartfelt tribute to Gerald Mee, a life member of the Society whose legacy will be the many hours of wonderful film footage he captured over the years.

The report from the Treasurer indicated that funds had steadily been reducing since the end of last year as costs have increased considerably due to the more up to date rental costs at the Foxlowe, fewer attendances in recent months and the fact that fees had not increased for over 10 years.

It was therefore proposed that when subscriptions are reinstated in September the annual cost for members will be £25 and the entry for non-members £5 per evening.

This was widely accepted by those present.

The ‘business’ out of the way, we welcomed our former Chairman, Joan Bennett, who had prepared a presentation for us entitled ‘Aspects of C18th Leek’.

This took the form of a journey form the end of C17th to 1800, highlighting the important changes and development that occurred with many photographs and interesting snippets along the way, a few of which I repeat here – to record them all would probably take up the whole newspaper!

The evening moved at a good pace, Joan had much information to share and only an hour to do so.

At the end of C17th Leek was a small town. The inhabitants were relatively poor, roads practically non-existent and dwellings simple.

History records it as ‘noted for its excellent ale, but poor thatched cottages. The weekly market was there with sheep & cattle being drive through the town.

This was the era before the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions.

The origins of Leek as a textile town began with the cottage industry of button making, with oak blanks being made in local cottages and then brought into the town to be covered with black thread, dyed using the water from the River Churnet on which much of the later textile industry in leek was to depend.

By the end of C18th this type of button was no longer popular but by then, and in part owing to a national ban on the import of silk goods, enterprising families such as the Badnalls had set up businesses, dyeing yarns or manufacturing narrow silk ribbons, making themselves rich enough to have elegant townhouses built – the Badnall’s home was what is now the Conservative Club on the Macclesfield Road.

Increased industry called for better access to import raw materials and to export finished goods.

As mentioned before, the roads were atrocious!

To begin with the Parish was responsible for their upkeep, but during C18th Turnpike roads appeared, charging tolls for those who wished to use them.

In 1754 the journey between London & Manchester took four days, by 1788 it could be done in 15 hours!

In 1765 a chain & toll gate was erected at the east end of Stockwell Street. Leek was in a fortunate position being a convenient stop off point on journeys between London, Derby & Manchester.

This in turn led to the building of coaching houses, further increasing the importance and prosperity of Leek.

The town was becoming less poor and more important commercially and gradually this was apparent in its infrastructure.

Our thanks go to Joan for her excellent presentation and also to those who supported the Society on Monday evening.

WETLEY ROCKS WI

APRIL is here along with the showers and true to form it rained the evening of the meeting.

We started the meeting with the minutes from last month, these were read by

Cynthia, approved by the members and signed by Pat.

Pat reminded us that the Homes and Gardens tickets were now available, and she confirmed the booking for the VE Day Afternoon Tea, fourteen of the members will be going so that is a good turn out.

In addition, activities from other local

WIS to which members were invited, were also mentioned. Pat then introduced the night’s speaker, which was a hand on demonstration for Card Making, by Sue Robinson.

There were four pre-planned that members could follow, or they could make their own arrangements with the pre prepared pieces.

There was a demonstration on card cutting too. It provided an opportunity for members to explore their creativity and how they would arrange shapes they were given.

There was also an additional social aspect as were we able to chat whilst we created. There was a cost of £1.50 per individual for materials.

It was a good to have a change and have a more activity-based meeting as it provided a contrast to the more usual speaker.

It was subs night so there was additional admin for both Cynthia and Pat, as well as the usual raffle draw and refreshments.

We look forwards to our AGM and a talk on Scarf Stying on May 10 at 7.30pm in Wetley Rocks Village Hall.

New members are welcome, and the first three meetings are free, for further details please contact Cynthia on 01782 551077.