Winter Talks in 2017-18
Tuesday 20 February 2018
A Botanical Tour of Salisbury Plain by Sharon Pilkington BSBI County Recorder (Wiltshire)
A Botanical Tour of Salisbury Plain by Sharon Pilkington BSBI County Recorder (Wiltshire)
Tuesday 16 January 2018
Loss of the Titanic and a Wiltshire Family by Geoffrey Carr: naval officer
Loss of the Titanic and a Wiltshire Family by Geoffrey Carr: naval officer
What links a Wiltshire family who travelled on the ill-fated Titanic, a retired Royal Navy Engineer and a lady who lives in Box?
It is a property, the address being 7 Canon Square, Melksham. When our speaker, Geoffrey Carr, moved to this house, a neighbour mentioned that a family had lived there who then perished on the Titanic. Geoffrey decided to explore this link and gave a fascinating talk about his findings. The family was Frederick and Augusta Goodwin, originally from London. They were cousins who eloped together and married in 1894; their families were against the marriage. Frederick was a compositor (a skilled printing job) but in 1907 they moved to Melksham with their six children, where Frederick worked for an agricultural engineering firm based at Spencer’s Factory. |
In fact, the family lived at Watson’s Court rather than 7 Canon Square and the children attended St Michael’s School. Frederick’s brother had already emigrated to Niagara Falls in America and wrote of job opportunities out there. So, the decision was made to set sail, originally on another ship but they were then moved on to the Titanic. The ticket price for the whole family was £46.18 0 to travel third class, the cost being met by the brother in America.
Geoffrey went on to dispel some of the myths linked to the loss of the Titanic. The ship was designed as an ship to carry those emigrating to America and was built for comfort rather than speed. The structural design was good with extra safety features such as water-tight bulkheads. Titanic was one of 3 ships of the “White Star” line, with the Olympic (her sister ship) having already completed several trips to USA. Titanic set sail on 11 April 1912 from Ireland to New York.
On 14 April, whilst going at high speed, she sailed into the middle of an icefield. Despite lookouts, on a dark night with no moon, an iceberg was spotted too late and despite the ship changing course, Titanic collided with it at 11.30pm which led to five sections of the ship being severely damaged and fill with seawater. A naval architect on board reported that the ship would sink within 2 hours. Captain Smith sent an SOS by morse code. |
There were two nearby ships, SS California, which mistook the emergency flares for fireworks, and RMS Carpathia which was 50 miles away. The Carpathia turned round but took 1 ¾ hours to steam back. The passengers were reluctant to abandon ship and several lifeboats left without being full. There were not enough lifeboats for all and those who jumped into the sea died very quickly from exposure. The ship finally sank at 2.20am. Carpathia rescued 712 out of the 2,201 on board. Sadly none of the Goodwins survived – a poignant end to a fascinating story. And the link with a lady in Box? At the end of the talk, a member of the audience, Ruby Eyles, stood up to say that her parents had lived at 7 Canon Square and that she hersdelf was born there – an extraordinary coincidence.
Buffy Freeman
Buffy Freeman
Tuesday 19 December
Trellech, Monmouth, Medieval City Site by Stuart Wilson, archaeologist
Stuart Wilson, who discovered this site, is an example of someone who perseveres against all the odds. As a young archaeology graduate from York University, he became fascinated by local 'knowledge' of a lost medieval city in Monmouthshire, Wales. Professional opinion placed it beneath today's modern village of Trellech but Stuart was convinced it was not there but in two adjoining fields in the local landscape which looked different from the rest. Aerial photos showed salient features of underground development. Another clue was in the soil of molehills, found to contain pottery fragments. His hypothesis was rebuffed by the archaeological establishment, which included Welsh university professors. Undeterred, Stuart used his life-savings of £32,000 to buy the fields in an auction, bidding against a property developer.
In the first hour of the first day when he and his team started digging, he was proved right! There is now acceptance, initially grudging in some quarters, that his significant findings firmly establish the site as medieval Trellech. Despite having no funding he manages his site, giving students and others the invaluable experience of hands-on archaeology. They continue to uncover all sorts of buildings and exciting artefacts during the summer digs.
Stuart is a modest person and only revealed the real extent of his achievements when questioned before and after his talk. We did have difficulties in hearing the talk for various reasons but it was a privilege to meet someone who without the back up of any institution or financial help remains enthusiastically at the forefront of current archaeological exploration. He has invited us to visit the site and join in the dig. Interested? Let us know!
Jane Cox
Trellech, Monmouth, Medieval City Site by Stuart Wilson, archaeologist
Stuart Wilson, who discovered this site, is an example of someone who perseveres against all the odds. As a young archaeology graduate from York University, he became fascinated by local 'knowledge' of a lost medieval city in Monmouthshire, Wales. Professional opinion placed it beneath today's modern village of Trellech but Stuart was convinced it was not there but in two adjoining fields in the local landscape which looked different from the rest. Aerial photos showed salient features of underground development. Another clue was in the soil of molehills, found to contain pottery fragments. His hypothesis was rebuffed by the archaeological establishment, which included Welsh university professors. Undeterred, Stuart used his life-savings of £32,000 to buy the fields in an auction, bidding against a property developer.
In the first hour of the first day when he and his team started digging, he was proved right! There is now acceptance, initially grudging in some quarters, that his significant findings firmly establish the site as medieval Trellech. Despite having no funding he manages his site, giving students and others the invaluable experience of hands-on archaeology. They continue to uncover all sorts of buildings and exciting artefacts during the summer digs.
Stuart is a modest person and only revealed the real extent of his achievements when questioned before and after his talk. We did have difficulties in hearing the talk for various reasons but it was a privilege to meet someone who without the back up of any institution or financial help remains enthusiastically at the forefront of current archaeological exploration. He has invited us to visit the site and join in the dig. Interested? Let us know!
Jane Cox
Tuesday 21 November 2017
Alaska by Land, Sea and Air
Our scheduled speaker was unfortunately unable to be with us tonight but we were lucky that Brian and Susan Hatton stepped in and gave us an insight into the history, flora and fauna of Alaska. They had visited the country twice and were consequently able to provide a rounded view.
Alaska by Land, Sea and Air
Our scheduled speaker was unfortunately unable to be with us tonight but we were lucky that Brian and Susan Hatton stepped in and gave us an insight into the history, flora and fauna of Alaska. They had visited the country twice and were consequently able to provide a rounded view.
Brian gave a brief history of Alaska. Russians had settled in Alaska in 1741 and then in 1867 the United States of America purchased it from Russia for $7.2M. The total population is around 750,000, of whom 230,000 live in the capital, Anchorage. The land area is 571,000 square miles, twice the size of Texas. Gold was discovered in neighbouring Yukon in 1896 and the resulting Klondike Gold Rush expanded into Alaska. 1959 saw Alaska become the 49th state of America, and is known as The Bear State. Oil was found in 1968 at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean coast and 1971-77 saw the construction of an oil pipeline from there across Alaska to Valdez on the Pacific coast.
Sue covered the fauna and flora: musk ox, snow geese, Arctic fox, Sitka deer, rock ptarmigan and Dall sheep, noticeable for their huge curved horns; a midnight boat trip to see beavers; a cruise through the Inside Passage to see salmon, bald eagles (which aren't bald, but have snowy-feathered heads and white tails), black bears, harbour seals, Stellar sea lions and sea otters. Crossing the Gulf of Alaska they then saw a pod of some 40 orcas and distant views of hump-back whales. And to finish, Kodiak brown bears, tufted puffins and berglets, miniature icebergs. It was a real treat.
Jane Browning
Sue covered the fauna and flora: musk ox, snow geese, Arctic fox, Sitka deer, rock ptarmigan and Dall sheep, noticeable for their huge curved horns; a midnight boat trip to see beavers; a cruise through the Inside Passage to see salmon, bald eagles (which aren't bald, but have snowy-feathered heads and white tails), black bears, harbour seals, Stellar sea lions and sea otters. Crossing the Gulf of Alaska they then saw a pod of some 40 orcas and distant views of hump-back whales. And to finish, Kodiak brown bears, tufted puffins and berglets, miniature icebergs. It was a real treat.
Jane Browning
Tuesday 17 October 2017
Graveyard Dig at Holy Trinity, Bradford-on-Avon
The Winter Programme of Box NATS was launched on Tuesday 17th October with the AGM, followed by a most interesting talk given by two members of the Wessex Archaeology Team on last year's exciting discoveries made while monitoring planned refurbishment work at Holy Trinity Church, Bradford-on-Avon.
Bruce Eaton, Project manager, explained the careful process of disinterring a large number of old burials from the site and the care and respect that is afforded to such activity in modern times. As the excavation work progressed and was seemingly near completion, further older burials were discovered under the old boiler-house floor, which subsequent carbon-dating found to be 9th and 10th century. The very rare discovery of Anglo-Saxon burials at a Christian site suggested the possible existence of an earlier Christian church on the site. It may even have been evidence of the long-suspected 'minster' church, built in the time of King lna, the first king of Wessex, one of a number of such mission churches built to promulgate Christianity in the Anglo-Saxon world.
Kirsten Egging-Dinwiddy, the senior osteo-archaeologist on the project, then told us of the process of sorting, counting and examining the disinterred bones, explaining the importance of the context of the burials - their position, alignment, whether they were in coffins, whether grave-goods were present etc. She told us that much can be learned about the individuals from their bones, such as gender, appearance, pathology and even life-style. Interestingly, it appears that the Anglo-Saxon individuals showed signs of being generally larger and more active than post-mediaeval folk.
As the remains are all in consecrated ground they could not be removed and all the work had to be carried out within the confines of the Church. Time for completion of the archaeology was limited so local people were invited to help, which proved of great interest to the participants and invaluable to the professionals. After the work was completed the remains were carefully packed and re-interred within the Church boundary;
a service was held which reflected ritual used in the lifetime of the graveyard's occupants.
It now remains for all the data collected to be collated, analysed and eventually to be published. It is clear that such important and interesting material will add to the understanding of the life and times of our ancestors.
Margaret Wakefield
Graveyard Dig at Holy Trinity, Bradford-on-Avon
The Winter Programme of Box NATS was launched on Tuesday 17th October with the AGM, followed by a most interesting talk given by two members of the Wessex Archaeology Team on last year's exciting discoveries made while monitoring planned refurbishment work at Holy Trinity Church, Bradford-on-Avon.
Bruce Eaton, Project manager, explained the careful process of disinterring a large number of old burials from the site and the care and respect that is afforded to such activity in modern times. As the excavation work progressed and was seemingly near completion, further older burials were discovered under the old boiler-house floor, which subsequent carbon-dating found to be 9th and 10th century. The very rare discovery of Anglo-Saxon burials at a Christian site suggested the possible existence of an earlier Christian church on the site. It may even have been evidence of the long-suspected 'minster' church, built in the time of King lna, the first king of Wessex, one of a number of such mission churches built to promulgate Christianity in the Anglo-Saxon world.
Kirsten Egging-Dinwiddy, the senior osteo-archaeologist on the project, then told us of the process of sorting, counting and examining the disinterred bones, explaining the importance of the context of the burials - their position, alignment, whether they were in coffins, whether grave-goods were present etc. She told us that much can be learned about the individuals from their bones, such as gender, appearance, pathology and even life-style. Interestingly, it appears that the Anglo-Saxon individuals showed signs of being generally larger and more active than post-mediaeval folk.
As the remains are all in consecrated ground they could not be removed and all the work had to be carried out within the confines of the Church. Time for completion of the archaeology was limited so local people were invited to help, which proved of great interest to the participants and invaluable to the professionals. After the work was completed the remains were carefully packed and re-interred within the Church boundary;
a service was held which reflected ritual used in the lifetime of the graveyard's occupants.
It now remains for all the data collected to be collated, analysed and eventually to be published. It is clear that such important and interesting material will add to the understanding of the life and times of our ancestors.
Margaret Wakefield
AGM Chairman’s report 2017
Ladies and gentlemen, I have pleasure in welcoming you to the 48th annual general meeting of The Box Archaeological and Natural History Society. 48 years on and we are delighted to still have some founder members attending our meetings although sadly a few are no longer with us this year. They have not been able to attend meetings recently but Eileen Browning, Graham Eyles, Peter Grainger, Pam Kite, Mary Lambert and Joan Woodgate were all members over many years and strong supporters of Box Nats. We remember them with great fondness.
As I have already mentioned, 48 years and I am pleased to be able to report that Box Nats continue to thrive.
Last winter’s talks were well attended, notably the Christmas meeting held in the school instead of here, not so easy distributing mince pies but Michael Rumsey kept us well entertained with his Wiltshire churches and also an interesting talk on Wildlife photography with excellent pictures by Nick Upton. All our talks were able to take place, the weather was kind to us.
Unfortunately, we continued to have problems with the microphone. Tom, Jane and Brian had a meeting with David Button in August, hopefully it will behave better this winter. Thank you for your help, David.
On a very wet May Bank Holiday we manned a stall at the Revels again this year. In spite of the weather we attracted quite a lot of interest with a display of photographs and an intriguing quiz. Maybe our marquee provided a welcome shelter from the rain.
The summer programme also proved very popular with visits to the Royal Mint, unfortunately no free samples, Batsford Arboretum, Mumford’s vinery in Batheaston and Sudely Castle. John Chandler, our vice-president excelled this year with his visit to a mediaeval village at Comeston lakes in S Wales. We experienced what it would be like to live in the 14thC, not always comfortable. He also took us to Llantwit Major, home to a church founded in 508 AD and site of the first university in GB. All this followed by a scenic route home.
The History Trails, devised and organised by Alan Payne proved to be very popular again this year and as a consequence we have several new members. Near the Old Jockey we walked the Roman Road, originally from Marlborough to Bath where we discovered a mysterious circle of standing stones in a wood. A week or two later Vicki Hess led us on various footpaths on Box Hill Common pointing out the wealth of wildflowers that are to be found. This was followed by an underground tour of the mines. Finally, our tour of Middlehill provided us with many interesting facts and photos about the history of the buildings and their inhabitants and learnt about the spa which might have rivalled Bath but failed to. We were also treated to a history of St. Christopher’s church ending up with a splendid tea party at Ardgay House. Lastly, we had our weekend away, discovering the delights of Dorset. You will see a full report of this in November’s issue of the parish magazine. Do read this excellent magazine each month for a full review of all our talks and outings.
Kobra, our sub-committee which was set up to raise funds to promote knowledge of the Roman Villa in Box has now been wound up as we felt it had achieved its objectives. We produced a book, a model of the excavations on view in the library and each year provide a talk to Box school children with a visit to a local Roman site which they love and we receive many enthusiastic thank you letters. Elizabeth Devon had committed herself to giving this annual lecture but having now moved to Berwick on Tweed Alan Payne has very kindly offered to take this over. The children all get to be given a copy of the book.
We have to thank Jane Cox for our new logo and for the programme for this winter which caters for a wide range of interests. She is our new programmes secretary, having taken over from Penny. Penny has completed five years of organising all our talks and outings. We are very grateful to you Penny, you and John have worked tirelessly to give us an immensely wide variety of experiences covering natural, local and ancient history.
Many thanks also to Buffy, our secretary, organiser and reminder par excellence and to all the committee, Tom, Alan, Margaret and Jane Browning. They all add a great input into the work and planning that goes on all year. Then there is Brian, he is said to be our Treasurer but is, in fact our great Treasure. He and Sue are involved in every aspect of Box Nats from administering our monies to clocking us in to every meeting, stacking chairs and organising tea and biscuits. What a CV, Brian.
My final thanks are to all of you, our members, for your friendship, encouragement, enthusiasm and occasionally your forbearance when things go slightly awry.
Jenny Hobbs
Ladies and gentlemen, I have pleasure in welcoming you to the 48th annual general meeting of The Box Archaeological and Natural History Society. 48 years on and we are delighted to still have some founder members attending our meetings although sadly a few are no longer with us this year. They have not been able to attend meetings recently but Eileen Browning, Graham Eyles, Peter Grainger, Pam Kite, Mary Lambert and Joan Woodgate were all members over many years and strong supporters of Box Nats. We remember them with great fondness.
As I have already mentioned, 48 years and I am pleased to be able to report that Box Nats continue to thrive.
Last winter’s talks were well attended, notably the Christmas meeting held in the school instead of here, not so easy distributing mince pies but Michael Rumsey kept us well entertained with his Wiltshire churches and also an interesting talk on Wildlife photography with excellent pictures by Nick Upton. All our talks were able to take place, the weather was kind to us.
Unfortunately, we continued to have problems with the microphone. Tom, Jane and Brian had a meeting with David Button in August, hopefully it will behave better this winter. Thank you for your help, David.
On a very wet May Bank Holiday we manned a stall at the Revels again this year. In spite of the weather we attracted quite a lot of interest with a display of photographs and an intriguing quiz. Maybe our marquee provided a welcome shelter from the rain.
The summer programme also proved very popular with visits to the Royal Mint, unfortunately no free samples, Batsford Arboretum, Mumford’s vinery in Batheaston and Sudely Castle. John Chandler, our vice-president excelled this year with his visit to a mediaeval village at Comeston lakes in S Wales. We experienced what it would be like to live in the 14thC, not always comfortable. He also took us to Llantwit Major, home to a church founded in 508 AD and site of the first university in GB. All this followed by a scenic route home.
The History Trails, devised and organised by Alan Payne proved to be very popular again this year and as a consequence we have several new members. Near the Old Jockey we walked the Roman Road, originally from Marlborough to Bath where we discovered a mysterious circle of standing stones in a wood. A week or two later Vicki Hess led us on various footpaths on Box Hill Common pointing out the wealth of wildflowers that are to be found. This was followed by an underground tour of the mines. Finally, our tour of Middlehill provided us with many interesting facts and photos about the history of the buildings and their inhabitants and learnt about the spa which might have rivalled Bath but failed to. We were also treated to a history of St. Christopher’s church ending up with a splendid tea party at Ardgay House. Lastly, we had our weekend away, discovering the delights of Dorset. You will see a full report of this in November’s issue of the parish magazine. Do read this excellent magazine each month for a full review of all our talks and outings.
Kobra, our sub-committee which was set up to raise funds to promote knowledge of the Roman Villa in Box has now been wound up as we felt it had achieved its objectives. We produced a book, a model of the excavations on view in the library and each year provide a talk to Box school children with a visit to a local Roman site which they love and we receive many enthusiastic thank you letters. Elizabeth Devon had committed herself to giving this annual lecture but having now moved to Berwick on Tweed Alan Payne has very kindly offered to take this over. The children all get to be given a copy of the book.
We have to thank Jane Cox for our new logo and for the programme for this winter which caters for a wide range of interests. She is our new programmes secretary, having taken over from Penny. Penny has completed five years of organising all our talks and outings. We are very grateful to you Penny, you and John have worked tirelessly to give us an immensely wide variety of experiences covering natural, local and ancient history.
Many thanks also to Buffy, our secretary, organiser and reminder par excellence and to all the committee, Tom, Alan, Margaret and Jane Browning. They all add a great input into the work and planning that goes on all year. Then there is Brian, he is said to be our Treasurer but is, in fact our great Treasure. He and Sue are involved in every aspect of Box Nats from administering our monies to clocking us in to every meeting, stacking chairs and organising tea and biscuits. What a CV, Brian.
My final thanks are to all of you, our members, for your friendship, encouragement, enthusiasm and occasionally your forbearance when things go slightly awry.
Jenny Hobbs