February 15th 2013.

Dear Members.

A very Happy New Year to you all, I do hope everyone has enjoyed the festive season and that we can all look forward to a prosperous and healthy 2013.

We don’t have a Society meeting in January but in February Bryan Seymore has agreed to visit us and talk about his life in the theatre, acting and directing in various amateur dramatic groups in and around Prestwich and Whitefield. Brian’s talks are sprinkled with anecdotes about his life in the theatre and his acting career. His talk will be on Wednesday February 27^th at 7.30 as usual in the Church Inn. Do come and enjoy the show.

March brings the opening of our Coronation Exhibition in the HeritageMuseum at Prestwich Library. Your committee have worked very hard to make this a truly memorable event and we hope that many schools and the general public will again take advantage of the effort we have put in. .As usual we have been supported by the staff of The Bury Art Gallery and Museum, in particular Susan Lord. Many thanks go to her. There are lots of photographs of street parties taken at the time and there is every chance that some of you will be on the walls for all to see. We are grateful to everyone who has lent items to display, which will be returned in November when the exhibition comes to an end.

The Coronation Exhibition launch will be on Saturday March 2nd  at 3.00pm when the Mayor Mrs Grimshaw will join us at the HeritageMuseum above the Library.

Our speaker for March will be Neil Long. Assistant Director (operations) at Bury Council.

Neil’s responsibilities are many and varied and include, Green spaces, Leisure, Highways, Parks, Civic Halls, plus Recycling and Waste Management.

His appointment has nothing to do with the politics of the council.   He has worked for Bury for 35 years, beginning in the Architects Department and progressing to Projects Manager and then as Head of Customer Services combining this with Parks. His talk will be about his current job and responsibilities. We all know that there are many changes taking  place in the budget of our council and Neil’s talent for juggling money must be really stretched at the moment. His talk will take place on         Wednesday, March 13^th. Usual time and place. Neil is happy to take questions, so please think about your queries and bring them on the night.

I intend to ask other Council employees to address us in the future. I personally have no idea what half of our employees do – we do pay them after all – with the current Plan for Change directive it would be a good thing for us all to understand where the money goes and who spends it.

April with its showers and hopefully, daffodils and sunshine, brings us a talk from another council employee. Richard Burns. Richard, is the Curator at the BuryMuseum and ArtGallery.

Currently pictures from the Gallery are being loaned to galleries world wide and Richard has been dealing with this, especially in China

He will give his talk on  Wednesday April 10th at our usual time of 7.30. I’m sure that there will be many questions for Richard and he is happy to tell of his travels and the various paintings he has been dealing with.

May of course, brings Clough Day and as usual the Society will be represented there with our usual stall and exhibits. Postcards – booklets and memorabilia will be on sale or display and we do hope that all of our  members will be able to visit us there. This year has been fraught with uncertainties  for David Stanley who organises the event. Usually he has a great deal of help from the local Countryside Rangers but as some of you may know this wonderful group of men and women have been disbanded by the Council because of the budget cuts. However we are told  that the majority of the Rangers will be in post until June, so this year Clough Day is safe. What will happen next year I wonder? Please support this wonderful event bring your neighbours, family and especially children.     It is great day out. Clough Day Sunday May 12^{th .}

 It will be obvious that there have been changes in the flower Park and that a great deal of work has been done to restore the flower beds to their former glory. Our once local Countryside Ranger Richard Lester has been a prime mover in this and we should all be grateful to him and his Ranger collegues for the help we have had for this project. Any of you who have a little time on Wednesday mornings from 10.00 am or on Saturdays from 10.00am do please phone me and join our merry band of helpers. You are all needed.

Our speaker for May will be George Heron from Incredible Edibles.

George is a founder member of this group and you will I am sure all have seen the boxes spread around the village with herbs and vegetables. Incredible edibles are a group of volunteers who are doing great work in PhilipsPark restoring the orchard and original veg. garden. George will speak to us on Wednesday May 22nd

His talk will form part of the Prestwich Festival which runs from Clough Day until Prestwich Carnival. A Programme will be available for all the events taking place during the Festival, please keep your eyes open and  join in or visit as many of the events as you can.

It has been proposed that the Society compile a book which will be published as Prestwich and Whitefield Through Time by Amberley Publishing. These books are produced for areas all over the country and  bring local changes in an historical context to the attention of everyone and seem to be a great success. They will sell at £14.99 and are a record of photographs and information showing the changes in a community over time. Please, if any of you have photographs taken in and around Prestwich and Whitefield over your lifetimes or further back in time we would be pleased to see them. The idea is to take a current picture of the same view and enhance it with a small explanation. I shall bring a sample copy of the book for Beverley in Yorkshire to our next meeting for you all to view. Hopefully these books will sell well on our website as well as in the village itself, bringing much needed funds to the society. We do not pay any printing costs.

Hopefully there is something in this Events Letter to interest every one in the Society.

Do please try to support our efforts we hope to see you on Feb 27^th for Bryan Seymore’s talk. Plans are going ahead to visit the BBC studios at MediaCity later in the year.

Cheers Amanda.