AGM & Talk 17th May 2017

The Society’s Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday 17th May 2017 at 7.30 pm in All Saints Church.  

The Society’s Chair, Mary Thompson, presided in her usual efficient way over the meeting, which was attended by some 30 SCLHS members.

Mary reported on the activities of the Society during the past year and the Committee’s plans for the remainder of 2017 and into 2018.  She also invited input from members who might have suggestions for the Society’s future activities. To see the full text of Mary’s Chair’s report click here

The Committee was re-elected as follows:

Chair - Mary Thompson

Secretary - Clare Simpson

Treasurer - Sue French

Members - Alison Draper, Bill Hanks, John Talbot, Sarah Ward

The AGM was followed by an illustrated talk by Tim Healey :

Pagans & Puritans - The Story of May Morning in Oxfordshire.

Tim Healey presented a lively illustrated talk about the origins of various May-time traditions in Oxfordshire, including the choir singing on the top of Magdalen College Tower early on May morning.

Tim described how Maytime revels take place all over the county, and were already controversial in Britain in 1250 when the Chancellor of Oxford University forbade ‘alike in churches, all dancing in masks or with disorderly noises, and all processions of men wearing wreaths and garlands made of leaves of trees or flowers or what not.’  He also outlined the origins of maypole dancing and other May-time traditions like "Jack-in-the-Green” and May Garlands.

For much more information and photos, see Tim Healey’s excellent website : www.maymorning.co.uk.

About the Speaker

TimHealey

Tim Healey is a musician as well as a writer and broadcaster on a wide range of subjects.  He is a popular speaker at historical societies, U3A groups and other associations.


He recently gave a talk to the Society about the Drove Roads of Oxfordshire

Tim has been a frequent contributor to the Oxford Times monthly colour magazine, Oxfordshire Limited Edition. Many of the photographs accompanying his pieces are his own. 

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