Chelmsford & District National Trust Supporter Group

From Chris Bellamy

Reflecting on activities since the Autumn 2024 Newsletter, the committee as a team has arranged outings, meetings and events for the benefit of members and enabled further fundraising for the NT. Other matters are reported in this 100th edition of this Newsletter.

Jackie Arnot (our President), despite receiving a replacement hip and other health issues, co-ordinated the arrangements for another successful Cathedral Christmas Market. Olive Baldwin & Thelma Wilson again knitted many woollen animals augmented by Julie Nicolson’s handmade items. Beryl Furley refurbished two sets of shelves, painting them matt green, which blended well with the two new green table clothes, enabling a wonderful display of the many knitted items on our stall. Jackie Arnot’s granddaughters helped to ensure an enjoyable and successful day raising £1,415.00. Thanks to Paul Chaplin for his research, arrangements and scheduling for the outings over the summer and autumn and a very good week in Liverpool all reported further on in this Newsletter. He also compiles the rolling screen and liaise with speakers to set up their PowerPoint presentations for their talks at Trinity Methodist Church. The programme sub-committee (Jackie Arnot, Shirley Deering, Sue Almond, Colin Jay and Paul Chaplin) continues to arrange interesting and topical speakers.

Thanks to Keith Otter for maintaining the web site - do look at it! Thanks to Ann Notman, Hanna Gillett, and Shirley Deering for the outing reports and Shirley for the evening talks reports and short story.

The wish list from regional office continues to be monitored by Maurice Austin, circa £15k distributed in recent years. Thanks are due again to Maurice Austin who organised a most interesting self-drive trip to Lavenham Guildhall (NT) on Thursday, 3rd October ,where the Manager welcomed us and we viewed the much-improved displays and later enjoyed lunch.

One hundred and twenty-seven NT members sent their submissions to be voted on to the NT Council including five from Chelmsford/Essex area who were unsuccessful in being voted in. We are attempting to find them. Do you know Iain Compton, Patrick Streater, Robin Stretton, Jennifer Sumption or Daniel Winfield?

We will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary at Trinity Methodist Church on Wednesday 29th October with an afternoon tea.

By Shirley Deering

“Hello Graham. Haven’t seen you about for a long time.”

“No, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Hannah.”

“Hannah? Have I met her?”

“Probably not. I doubt if you move in her circle.”.

“Which you obviously do.”.

“No, I didn’t until I bumped into Greg, an old school friend. Greg told me he was part of a team working on a big restoration project and asked if I might be able to help them. They were looking for a skilled carpenter. The chap who’d been volunteering with them had moved to the other end of the country and they hadn’t been able to replace him. I was not enthused with the idea but reluctantly agreed to go to a meeting. Thought I might be able to give them some ideas on how they could use less skilled people to tackle some of the jobs. When I got there and saw Hannah I was just smitten immediately. She was poised and elegant, so graceful and shapely. But she wasn’t just lovely to look at, she was just full of personality.”

“Graham I’m so happy for you. I look forward to an invitation to the big event.”

“Oh, we are a long way off thinking about that, but I feel confident we will soon move onto the next stage.”

“Yes, Graham, you’re right to take it slowly. But I’m sure one day I’ll be buying the obligatory big hat.”

Graham smiled politely and said he must be getting on. What was the silly women talking about he wondered as he hurried away.

There’s no obligation to wear a big hat at the launch of a restored Thames sailing barge.

The sharp-eyed readers will see this is edition 100 of the Newsletter. To celebrate this edition, here is a copy of Newsletter No1 dated March 1976. This was printed on Foolscap paper (still popular at the time despite metrication in 1972) and has been converted to machine-readable text. Two further newsletters were published in 1976 one in August 76 (No 2) and then November 1976 (No 3). Thereafter the NL was published twice yearly in the spring and the autumn.

It is worth observing two themes still current, namely the cost of everything and the need for membership!

CHELMSFORD & DISTRICT CENTRE
NEWSLETTER NO 1
MARCH 1976

NEWSLETTER NO 1

Owing to the high cost of paper and postage the Committee decided to delay issue of the first Newsletter and combine it with the Annual Report, so please read your Annual Report for more News!

THE ARMOURY, DANBURY COMMON

It is goad to know that the Danbury and Lingwood Commons Local Committee has exchanged contracts, with a completion date in mid-February, for the purchase of The Armoury on Danbury Common. The Committee will use the building as a base for the Warden and as a Store for necessary mechanical equipment. The 21 x 17ft.building is of timber construction. The walls are clad with tarred weather boarding and the roof is covered with peg tiles.

Upon purchase the first major job will be to retile the roof., This job, together with the purchase of the building, will cost about £1,000 and the Local Committee is already grateful for the interest shown by the Chelmsford Centre in this project. Once the structure is water tight it is hoped to undertake repairs to the walls and to complete other improvements as funds become available in the future.

This interesting building may well date from the time that troops were stationed on Danbury Common during the Napoleonic Wars. Certainly by the 1840’s the building formed one of several outbuildings to the Cricketers pub where the landlord William Jaggs spent as much time farming as he did as a publican. During the First World War the building was used as an army food store, supplying foeo to the hundreds of soldiers stationed in the Danbury area.

With its historical associations, its vernacular appearance and its position on the very edge of Danbury Common no building could be more appropriate to the needs of the Local Committee.

- Report from Peter Came, Vice Chairman Danbury & Lingwood Local Committee

The contract for the purchase of the building has been signed, and the Commons Management Committee are hoping to make a start on restoration work during February - from Mr, Corson.

FROM THE P.R.O. (Publicity)

The Committee would like to see a continuing high level of membership of the Centre. During the coming year each member could play a part by enrolling one new member thus ensuing the centres future. This would allow a wider range of interests to be catered for and a more substantial sum raised for National Trust projects. If there should be anything on which you would like information, please do not hesitate to ring me at Danbury 3196 and I will do my best to tell you.

FROM THE PROGRAMME SECRETARIES

YOUR SLIDES

At the AGM on March 17th, there will be the opportunity to see slides taken by members of the Centre. There will Le a commentary and a small prize for winning slides, Slides can be on any topic in the British Isles likely to be of interest to National Trust Members. As we anticipate an enthusiastic response, entry will be limited to 5 slides per centre member and we must reserve the right not to show all slides if there are too many for the time available.

Perhaps you have some interesting slides which other people would enjoy .Simply take your slides to your nearest committee member by March 5th. Make sure you enclose a label identifying both you and the topic. Slides will be returned on March 17th or the way they came.

DATES FOR THE SUMMER

• MAY 1st - Following his talk on wild life, Mr. Pyman offered to conduct a walk round the property at Danbury, This will be on Saturday May 1st starting at 2.30 p.m. from the Camp Ground Car Park. Owing to the nature of this visit, numbers will be limited to the first 30 names received by the programme secretaries. If there is a big response a repeat performance may be possible. This outing will take the place of the April meeting.
• MAY 22nd - OUTING to Ely and Oxburgh. Last date for booking Mon. May 3rd. Oxburgh was built in 1432 during the transition from fortified castle to unfortified manor house.
• MAY 30th - Langleys Gt. Waltham Mrs.Micklom kas kindly agreed to open the garden of Langleys on the afternoon of Sunday May 30th in aid of our appeal on behalf of the Armoury Danbury Common. We are sure we can look to our members not only to come themselves but to make it widely known among their friends; Light refreshments will be available.
• JUNE 26th - DANBURY Horticultural Society Show Primary School, Runsell Lane.; We have been invited to display informative material jointly with the Essex Naturalists; Trust at this show. It is part of our publicity activities.
• JULY 17 - OUTING to Sissinghurst and Knole Last date for booking Monday June 28th. Sissinghurst is the remains of an Elizabethan house with the beautiful gardens created by Sir Harold Nicolson and Miss Sackville-West. Knole is one of the largest private houses in England, with the finest collection of 17th C furnlture.
• SEPTEMBER 18 - OUTING to Guildford and Clandon Last date for booking Monday 30th August. Clandon has one of the finest interiors in Britain and was beautifully restored by the National Trust only a few years ago. It has important collections of furniture and porcelain.
• October 6th - First autumn evening lecture.

Final arrangements have yet to be made for these visits, and we will let you know if there has to be any change in the programme.

PRINTED PROGRAMME

Your printed copy of the programme for 1976-77 will be sent to you with the next Newsletter.

YOUR HELP

If any Centre Member has suggestions for future activities, or, is willing to organise a special event, or can offer help in any way, the Committee would be very pleased to hear from you, for one of the main aims of National Trust Centres is to raise money for local and national projects of the National Trust.

We urgently need volunteers to prepare and serve coffee at monthly meetings, we also require cups, any ideas? Please contact the Chairman.

OTHER GROUPS

There are in the district a number of groups such as the Essex Naturalist’ Trust, The Guild of St.Christopher, etc., that have activities likely to be of interest to our members. We know that individual members of these groups have joined our Centre already and we are only too willing to give details of our activities of these other groups. Later more close liaison and co-operation may be possible, e.g., shared outings, meetings.

NEWSLETTER 2

It is hoped that Newsletters will be issued in August, late October and February, if anyone wishes to contribute please contact any Committee Member.

BOOKING UP OUTINGS

Members wishing to go on any of the above outings should contact as soon as possile the Programme Secretaries Jan and Paul Chaplin of 61, South Primrose Hill, Chelmsford. Telephone Chelmsford 60113.

Recalled by Paul Chaplin

An initial meeting for the formation of an Essex National Trust Centre was advertised in the Essex Chronicle by Mid East Anglia National Trust Centre and held on the 2nd October 1974. I decided to go along to the meeting which was held in a basement room in the Civic Centre. At the meeting there was sufficient interest to form a Chelmsford Local Association which was named Chelmsford & District Centre of the National Trust (by March 1978 changed to Chelmsford & District NT Centre which remained until spring 2013 and changed to C&D NT Supporter Group). A steering group was formed which met on the 18th November 1974 and again on the 6th January 1975 and a further committee meeting on the 24th March 1975 was held.

The inaugural meeting was held on the 4th March 1975 in the Shire Hall Chelmsford and committee members were elected including myself and Janet Chaplin as Programme Secretaries. I have held the post ever since going from one updated constitution to the next! Dennis Hance was elected Chairman and Mr R E Tritton President. After the first year membership was 307, which the Membership Secretary reported as almost 50% of the National Trust members in the area. We soon moved from the Shire Hall as it was expensive and the acoustic was poor to the Cathedral Hall (which no longer exists).

Below is the Programme Secretaries report and a report by Geoffrey Corson on Danbury & Lingwood common from the first annual report to year ended 31st December 1975.

As we write this report, it is difficult to realise that it is still less than a year since our inaugural meeting. On that occasion, and since, we have been very pleased at the way members have supported the Centre’s activities.

Following the inaugural meeting in March: the programme opened admirably with a talk by the Assistant County Planner, Mr. Dunbar, on the work his department has undertaken on the Heritage Towns of Essex.

During the Summer, we ran two outings, the first to Waddesdon Manor formerly the home of the Rothschilds, and the second to Anglesey Abbey rear Combridge. On both occasions we were able to take full coachloads, and were rewarded with two glorious days.

The Autumn season was given a splendid send-off by Miss Hilda Grieve who gave us a fascinating and original account of the water supply from the Burgess Well. From a topic basic to our everyday needs we went to the more luxurious topic of 18th century French Furniture under the skilful care of Mr. Wellesley Clinton, In December there was an opportunity for Centre members to chat and get to know one another better at our first social event, As you know, it was necessary to change the location at short notice, and although the Grammar School hall was rather large for our needs; we were most grateful for its use. We should like to thank everybody who contributed towards that evening. Many people were involved in the preparations giving generously of time, effort and money, including our musical entertainers. Thanks to all these people we had an enjoyable evening and made a comfortable profit for the National Trust.

After Christmas, Mr. Pyman reminded us of brighter days to come with a description of the work of the Essex Naturalists’ Trust on the properties at Danbury, illustrating the variety of wild-life to be found there and the ways in which nature often needs a helping hand.

In contrast to the temperatures on our summer outings, it was so cold for our visit to Wicken Fen that many of the birds had taken cover. Centre members proved more hardy and turned out in strength to see the Fen in its wintry mood.

We continue to the end of the season with a talk on the windmills of Essex and the AGM at which members’ slides will be shown together with another attempt at showing the film. “The National Trust”.

Sales

Total sales for 1975 was £100; profit on Turnover was £27; stock in hand is valued at £70. This profit was in part to having bought National Trust goods at relatively low prices during the earlier part of the year. A wide variety of goods have been on sale; as was to be expected, the lower priced goods, such as notelets, paper napkins, etc. have all sold well, It would be helpful if members would let the Sales Secretary know of any goods they would like ordering, such as car badges, ties, etc.,especially near Christmas.