30th Anniversary Conference Annual General Meeting
10th May 2003, St. Mary's Chambers, Haslingden Road, Rawtenstall, Lancashire
MEETING REPORT
To celebrate 30 years of our society, this year the AGM went back to our roots and was held in Rawtenstall, in the heart of the Rossendale valley.
There were many old- sorry- long standing society members present, and our first president, John Macky, stood up to share a few memories of those early days with us. He remembered fondly a visit to Downham Hall, a Heraldic treat.
The 30th anniversary however was not the only celebration on the day. Our serving president, Mr. A. Derrick Walkden, was celebrating too. We were honoured to have Mr. David Krause ACA Hon. FHS of the Heraldry Society Council with us, to present Derrick with an honorary fellowship. This is the highest accolade the society can award to a layman. It was to recognise Derrick's services to heraldry over many years and especially the work on the Priory and Parish Church of St.Mary's, Lancaster. (The book of which is still available, please contact Derrick for further details) Derrick, in his modest way, said it was an honour to the whole heraldry group for all their hard work. Hubert Cheshire, Clarenceux, and M.J.Davis, Chairman of the council signed the scroll, and there was also a nice medal too. Time for a photo call! It didn't end there however, as Derrick has also been elected a lay Deacon of Blackburn Cathedral. "His cup runneth over".
This year it was apposite that all our speakers were also members of the society. Firstly we were taken on a whirlwind tour of armigerous family houses that are now re-used as hotels, Buddhist temples and housing developments. It was aptly titled "Heraldry in re-cycled country houses" and was given by Mr. Peter Marshall. Our tour actually started in West Yorkshire, but soon slipped back the right side of the border. The best part for me was when Mr. Marshall explained how arms are inherited, and why they become halved and quartered and even into lozenges instead of the shields one generally would expect to see. It was beautifully illustrated with slides of photographs and diagrams.
The second speaker, Mr. Melvyn Hirst, fascinated us all with his researches into the Greenway family of Darwen in a talk entitled "Searching for the origins of an early Lancashire calico printer; James Greenway of Over Darwen". James Greenway was known to be particularly silent on his origins in his lifetime and like any good genealogist scenting a mystery Mr. Hirst rose to the challenge. James was not only a calico printer he was an astute businessman who rose to become a leading figure in Darwen at that time. There was a public house in the town named after him until the recent fashion for changing all good old names into rather ridiculous modern ones. James was connected to a good number of other calico printing businesses in Lancashire and even as far away as Scotland. His business in Darwen eventually turned from printing calico to printing wallpaper, a tradition that has continued to the present day. The question still remained; where did he come from? Mr. Hirst picked up his scanty clues from old books and records and did find from whence he came but there were other mysteries as yet unsolved. A gripping talk with maps, photographs and books in illustration. For those of you with an interest in this area Mr.
Hirst gave the titles of some useful books-" A history of print works in the Manchester district 1760- " by John Graham, "The cotton masters, 1830-1860" by Anthony Howe and "Lancashire memories" by Louisa Potter. A real treat.
After lunch we welcomed Mr. Thomas Woodcock, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, to speak to us about "Some Lancashire and West Riding of Yorkshire Heraldry in the records of the Royal College of Arms". Mr. Woodcock told us about the history of heraldry starting from around 1125-1170 when known hereditary arms really began. About 1150 came the earliest use of heraldry decoratively. Many early scrolls showing grants of arms survive, for which we have to be grateful to the Heralds of the 17th century who saved them from the great fire of London. The present college at 130, Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4 BT, was built in the 1670's and is open daily from 10-4. Entry is free, there is an exhibition and there is a herald on duty. Mr. Woodcock showed us arms of prominent local families some of whom are now defunct. This speaker was so well received that we were in danger of cancelling the AGM through lack of time.
On then to the main business of the day. We opened with a minutes silence in remembrance of those members who had died during the past year, lead by our chairman Mr. Tony Foster. We read the minutes of last years AGM and agreed them. Ditto the reports and accounts. We then debated a proposal to increase the membership subscriptions. After a lively debate the proposal was carried by a healthy majority. So from 1st January 2004 the rates will be; family membership £13, ordinary membership £12, overseas membership £14, pensioners and student membership £9.50. Good value for money in this day and age.
We are lucky in that most of our executive committee decided to stand for re-election; however there are some posts vacant both at executive and local level. If you have some spare time it would be a wonderful way to use it. Please contact your local branch or Mr. Tony Foster for more details.
The president in his closing address made special mention of the families of the officers for their contribution and friendly support over the years. The AGM closed with an address from our chairman.
There are a few things in the reports to which I would like to draw your attention, which hopefully will attract new society members.
We are collaborating with the Lancashire and Manchester FHS to develop the Lancashire BMD website
(www.lancashirebmd.org.uk). It will contain indices of births marriages and deaths from the local registry offices. These are much more accurate than the GRO index which lost at least 10% of all returns sent, for some places much more was lost than at others. Work began at the end of 2002 in Rochdale and Blackburn, and started at Bury in the spring of this year. Your help would be appreciated with this mammoth task; you need to be on-line and able to use a spreadsheet. Living near to the offices is not necessary, as the work will be sent to you. It will be so much easier than pouring over those appalling early fiches from the GRO. A blessing to future researchers.
As I am sure you have read in "Lancashire" Fiona Hall is co-ordinating our new look-up service "Helping Hands" for out of county members. If you live in Lancashire, perhaps you could look something up in your area when you are doing your own research. Some one may have a query about a register you are already studying. Get in touch with Fiona and let her know what you can do. It will be a valuable selling point in attracting new members.
Please take time to visit our website www.lfhhs.org.uk. Fred Moor, our new Webmaster, has given it an update and makeover. There are links to the branch sites and a wonderful 'shop'. There is also a section to help visitors understand family history research; Fred would appreciate contributions from members of fact sheets on a subject of interest to themselves, A4 or less in size.
If you have your own family history website you can also have it linked via an on-screen form. The site is growing everyday, have a look regularly because he is planning additional material including count maps of genealogical interest.
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