OUR MEETING

ST.VALENTINE'S DAY, 2001

On this page we show some of the people who were there and some of the things which happened. There are lots of photos, so it might take a while to download!

Our meeting was held at the Baptist Church in Prouds Lane, Bilston.  We are very grateful to the Rev David Evans and everyone at the Church for letting us hold the meeting in their fine facilities and for all their help.

We are not sure how many people came - we lost count - but it must have been well over 100.  Anyway, our Secretary, Alma Darby, can be seen in red at the front of this group.

In keeping with St. Valentine's Day, members of the church's congregation provided a display of wedding photographs taken at the church.

Mary Mills, from Wolverhampton City Archives, put on a display of a few of their enormous collection of old photos of the city, answered all sorts of questions - and asked a lot too, as part of a survey to find out about people's interest in the Archives. To visit the Archives' web site, click here.

Somewhere in here is John Hughes, who displayed some of the large collection of photos of the old Black Country which he has collected, and carefully preserved and copied, over many years.  We hope to be able to put some of them on our web site in the future.

Kath Kiely brought along a remarkable collections of her family memorabilia.  We hope to get her story on this web site quite soon.

Copies of the Club's first book, Black Country Lives, compiled by Tom Larkin, were on sale at Eileen Morgan's table.  But we did not sell them all!  You can still get copies, at only £2.99, direct from Tom or from many local bookshops and newsagents.

Geoff Brown was showing his three books, which are wonderfully evocative of life in the last century.  Copies are still available - though very few of some of them, so buy now!

Derek Simpkiss, seen chatting to Bill Comer, put on a fascinating display about the old Black Country sport of cockfighting.  For more about it, click here.

Tom Larkin and Jim Speakman, two of the founding fathers of the Club.

Alf and Irene Coburn, two stalwarts who have attended from the very first meeting.

Following the St. Valentine's Day theme, Mrs. Speakman showed several christening robes, including this one, which has served five generations of her family. For more about it, click here.

For the story of this coat, seen here being elegantly modelled on the lawns outside the church, click here.

Our Treasurer, Derek Barratt (right) enrolled more than 40 members - and we very gratefully received more than £20 in donations.

Trevor Genge gave a laid back slide show, to packed houses in the both the morning and the afternoon, showing slides of old Bilston, Dudley and Wolverhampton.

And a lot of ladies from Edge (and one man) came along: to find out about them, click here.

And definitely not least, Elaine Gamston provided tea, coffee and snacks all through the day, keeping everyone going through long sessions of chatting. 

click here to return to the home page