Author Archives: David

2023 Summer Lunch

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We have Ernest Morris to thank as our host again this year.

Many thanks to Bryn O’Neal, Lloyd Jones and some very generous friends of Kay Day who lent us their gazebos for the event after we double booked with the Longshaws.

Sunday morning on 2nd July started with Ernest welcoming the gazebo team who set to work putting up the 4 tents, seven tables and forty chairs in record time. They then all rushed back home to get washed and dressed and return for 12:30.

In the meantime, Ann Evans, Kay Day and Ann Tennant laid the tables and prepared the food.

Numbers were a little down this year, with some last minute cancellations reducing our number to below 40.

At 1 o’clock, Ann Evans welcomed everyone to the event – our 23rd year and everyone found a place at the tables.

We were all a little worried that the wind would catch the tents and send them skywards.

At one point the catering gazebo was caught by the wind and had to be weighed down with bricks.

In the end there was more of a problem with the paper napkins and tablecloths which seemed to want to take to the skies, but it remained dry, which was the main thing.

Ann Tenant had prepared a really delicious and substantial salad, with many of us returning for seconds, and there was a great choice of desserts.

In the absence of our chairman Gwyndaf, David Powell thanked the tent team, Kay Day for organising everything, Ernest Morris for once again being our host and Ann Tennant and her team as caterers for their efforts in making the day so successful and asked that anyone who could, to help dismantle and put away the gazebos, tables and chairs.

We had a great many volunteers to help, and in no time the tables and chairs were cleared and put into Ernest’s garage, and, after some puzzling we worked out how to get the gazebos down and back into their carriers.

Thanks to everyone for making another successful Summer Lunch!

2023 AGM

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CDWS AGM 12th May 2023

This year we chose a new venue for the AGM – the Jubilee Hall in Amersham. This is a new building on Rectory Hill, near the railway bridge, and just down the hill from Dr Challoner’s and is the home of the 2nd Amersham-on-the-Hill Scout Group.

The building has several meeting rooms, and we had booked the Ernest Shackleton room. When we arrived to put out the tables and chairs, the first thing we noticed was the faint smell of fresh paint. Soon afterwards we also noticed that the fire alarm had gone off! Thankfully one of the leaders from the Beavers managed to turn it off.

There were about 33 members in attendance, and chairman, Colin Picton, kicked off the meeting at 7:30. Colin went through the formal part of the evening with approval of last year’s minutes and a run through of all the events we had enjoyed over the past year. Membership remains at about 110, and Colin welcomed several new members to the Society.

2Ann Lawrence asked a question about older members. Some members are no longer able to attend any of our meetings but still wish to keep in touch with the society. Ann asked whether it would be possible to let these members become ‘honorary members’ with no fee, but still included in emails and sent copies of the newsletter. David Powell said that, as treasurer he should point out that newsletters and postage would cost £4 per annum. The chairman proposed a vote on the issue and it was carried unanimously. The society will now offer an honorary membership to those who can no longer attend meetings.

David Powell then gave the Treasurer’s report, showing that the Society’s funds were in good order.

Next was the election of the Committee members. Colin thanked the committee for their work, without which the Society would not be able to function. Barrie Reece is unable to take up the role of our next chairman, but Gwyndaf John has volunteered to take over, as Colin will be stepping down from the position after 2 years in the role. Merle Davies is stepping down from the committee and her role as Minutes Secretary, Colin offered to 2take over this role. David Powell has been acting as Treasurer for the last year, and Lloyd Jones has volunteered to join the committee to take up this position.

After the committee had been elected, Gwyndaf addressed the room as the new35 Chairman. Of course, many will remember that Gwyndaf has held this post before, in 2010. The new chairman thanked Colin for his work over the past two years, and our President, Ann Evans presented Colin with a present of Welsh whiskey.

Gwyndaf again thanked the committee and asked for members to consider volunteering for committee membership.

Ann Tennant then served us all with dinner with three choices of main and several alternate desserts. We are all very thankful to have Ann, and are constantly surprised at how she prepares such good food on her own at such reasonable prices.

After the meal, Gwyndaf gave us a very interesting talk on the subject of ‘The Search for the Snowdon Lily’. This flower can only be found in two locations in the UK, both in Snowdonia. The flower is the only Alpine bulb in the UK and is probably a remnant from the ice-age.

Gwyndaf described the history of the original discovery of the flower by Edward Lhwyd (Lloyd) around 1690 and the flower was named after him (Lloydia serotina). Gwyndaf described his search (with Janet) which involved climbing Snowdon to find it at one of only 5 sites in the UK.

Gwyndaf then answered questions and the evening finished just before 10:00 pm.

Spring Walk 2023

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Spring Walk April 27th 2023

We had a good turn out for the Spring Walk this year – 20 of us in all, and it was a good thing that we set off in the morning, as it poured with rain all afternoon.

We all met at 10am at The Potter’s Arms in Winchcombe Hill, a lovely pub selling real ale and with a good choice of lunchtime food. We spent some time selecting and ordering our food for lunch before setting off across the Common, down a footpath to a small pond called Gawde Water beside Horsemoor Lane.Gawde Pond

We crossed the road and went along the footpath across Warren Field from where it was just possible to see Penn House, the home of Earl Howe, who is patron of the Chiltern Society while his wife, Countess Howe is patron of the Amersham Festival of Music. Here, under the trees we found a large clump of bluebells (though nowhere as impressive as those in Church Woods in Hedgerley).

Gwyndaf and Janet John had selected an easy and a more difficult route and at this point those who wanted to avoid a steep slope (and to 5get to the pub earlier) took the quicker route with Janet. The rest of us followed Gwyndaf down a slope through trees where in days gone by bodgers used to work, and then joined an old wagon track leading back up the hill on the other side of Penn House, through woodlands known as Charcoal Grove.

CoralrootOn the way Gwyndaf found several plants of interest, including the Coralroot, a tall pink flower which is quite rare (in most places)96, but one of the few places you can find it is in the Chilterns.

We then proceeded around the back of the ground of Penn House, an area known as Little Readings, looking into the grounds to see a gardener hard at work.

Further on, we re-crossed5 Horsemoor Lane, past a farm and some woodworking buildings, across a field with views across to Penn Street and its church, then turned right into a path edging Priestlands Wood, back towards the common and The Potter’s Arms. On the way we were told of the hundreds of different types of dandelions, and were informed about sedges – all being asked to recite ‘Sedges have Edges’.

We returned to the pub right on time to enjoy our food and some real ales and before the rain started after lunch.

 

Thank you to Gwyndaf and Janet for planning and leading the walk.

St David’s Day Dinner 2023

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On Friday 3rd March the society held its annual St David’s Day Dinner at Gerrards Cross Golf Club. Kay Day had organised the event with the help of the golf club’s catering manager, Martin Hillary and Gwyndaf John.
We all gathered for a welcome drink at 6:30 and met up with new members and old friends. The club house at Gerrards Cross looks very smart after being redecorated last year, and the décor was made even better by the addition of several Welsh Flags around the room.
We were very pleased to have Geraint and Glenys Lewis from the Slough Welsh Society join us, and several new members and guests. In total there must have been about 65 of us present arranged across eight tables.


At around 7:15 President, Ann Evans said grace in both English and Welsh, and we sat down to eat. The food was of a very high standard and we must thank the staff of the golf club for the quality of both the food and the service.

For starters, there was a choice of leek & potato soup, halloumi salad or mackerel, with sea bass, pan roasted lamb or stuffed peppers for the main (no-one went for the vegetarian option), and with chocolate mousse, crème brulé, poached pears or an enormous plate of cheese and biscuits for dessert.
After our meal, Colin Picton introduced our speaker, Margaret Knight. Maggie is an art and cultural historian, has designed courses at the Victoria & Albert Museum and was historical advisor for the Channel 4 series ‘Mrs Brown’.

We had expected her talk to be about Wales and the Welsh in art, but she entertained us with a talk on The Keltoi – a history of the Celtic peoples through their artifacts.
There was a lot to learn, starting with the earliest known examples of Celts in Hallstatt in modern Austria around 1200BC. These people were originally salt miners and many artifacts have been found preserved by the salt including leather backpacks and textiles. From there, these early Celts came to mine and refine metal ores into first bronze then iron, which were highly prized by other cultures.
Their metalwork was distinctive with scrolls and a symbol of three circles within a circle. This form of decoration gradually spread across Europe as the Celts grew in numbers and became more successful. Maggie showed us examples of beautiful ornate torcs worn by high-ranking individuals.
The earliest references to the ‘Keltoi’ were by the Greeks. These people seem to have used little written language (except to keep accounts) and so there is very little history to follow, but it seems that the culture gradually spread across much of Europe, to France and Spain, where they were known as Gauls, and to have reached the British Isles by about 500BC.

Their language and culture were common and even today there are great similarities between the languages of Wales, Brittany and Galicia.
One of the strengths of the Celtic culture was its decentralised nature, tribes ruled locally with no central government structure. But this was also its weakness, for, faced with the expansion of Rome, they were not able to withstand the Roman invasion for long. Maggie described the Claudian pursuit of Celtic druids to Anglesey where most were put to the sword.


Maggie then answered many questions from the floor, before Colin Picton thanked her for a fascinating talk.

John Breese then took to the piano and, after the National Anthem, many favourite songs finished off the evening.

A big thank you to all those who made the evening such a success.

There are many more photos of the evening here.

Quiz Night 2023

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Our 2023 quiz evening was held on Friday 20th January at Coleshill Village Hall. It was a cold night and people were pleased that the hall’s heating was turned up.

This year Ruth Huckle set the quiz and was our quizmaster, ably assisted by her friend Lesley, who acted as scorekeeper.

We divided ourselves up into 5 teams, and decided on our team names.
This year the names chosen were mostly Welsh: Stargazers, Yma o Hyd (Still Here), Gwin a Dwr (Wine and Water) Pobl Yr Wyddfa (People of Snowdon) and Eryri (Snowdonia). Most tables were well provisioned with nibbles and drinks to act as brain food.

Ruth is an enthusiastic quizzer herself, and this year’s questions had more of a flavour of a pub quiz.

The occasion was more of a get-together and a chance to meet other members after the Christmas break, but teams still wanted to perform well!

There were rounds on General Knowledge, Wales (of course), Geography, a chocolate based round and one where some knowledge of cockney rhyming slang was an advantage.

Embarrassingly, the round that everyone found hardest was the Welsh round (many of us had forgotten that the Welshman Michael Barratt was better known as Shakin’ Stevens).

Halfway through the evening the fish and chips delivery arrived. It had been supplied by ‘The Village Chippie’ in Three Households was really very good and they had managed to deliver them still hot and crisp. Some of us had ordered ‘naked fish’ (without batter) and they reported that these were excellent.

We finished the quiz at 10pm and Ruth announced the scores.

Out of a possible total of 75: Yma o Hyd came in first with 68 points, followed closely by Eryri with 64.5. Third was Gwin a Dwr with 64,while Pobl Yr Wyddfa had 63. Stargazers came fifth  with 61.5, but they did really well given that there were only four of them.

As we pushed the tables and chairs to one side, people were saying how much they had enjoyed the evening and what an varied and interesting quiz it had been.

Our thanks to Ruth and Lesley for giving us a splendid evening.

Christmas Drinks 2022

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Well, someone forgot to take the photos! (sorry)

Alan & Di Longshaw

Anyway, we had a lovely time at Alan & Di Longshaw’s home in Austenwood (Chalfont St Peter). They are wonderful hosts and have held our Christmas Drinks and the Summer Lunch at their home many times before. There is lots of room to circulate and try to get round to seeing everyone.

 

Kay DayKay Day had made the arrangements and asked Ann Tennant to do the catering. Ann worked on her own and was like a dervish – she was preparing the canapes and serving them and seemed to be everywhere at the same time offering a wide selection of different goodies, and even remembering people’s food requirements.

As Ann wasAnn Tennant working on her own, we were able to reduce the price of the event from £18 in 2021 to £14 this year.

Guests started arriving at around 12:30 and we had a very good turnout this year with 50 members in total, including many new faces, which is really nice, although illness prevented one or two from attending at the last moment.

Kay and Ann handed guests a drink as they arrived, but after that people served themselves from the well-stocked dining table.

The World Cup was a frequent topic of conversation, with most deciding that Wales had played bravely and that this was the best result for decades, but as they were no longer in the competition, then, under the circumstances, many felt that it was now permissible to support England.

Another topic was the sadness that a number of our most stalwart members had passed away this year. They will all be missed.

We had no piano or keyboard this year, but that did not deter us. Towards the end of the afternoon, Kay, Barrie Reece, Colin Thomas and Jean Owen formed the core of our cerddoriaeth and soon got everyone joining in in a succession of carol songs and Welsh favourites, culminating, of course, with the National Anthem.

Colin Picton thanked Alan and Di for their hospitality, and we all thought that Kay and Ann Tennant had done a splendid job in planning and delivering the food.

Our thanks go to all those who contributed to making this such a success.

 

London Walk

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We had our delayed London Walk on Wednesday 26th October. It was originally scheduled for September, but was postponed as so many people were unwell.

Meeting our guideWe met our guide, Caroline James outside St Paul’s Cathedral at 11am. I’m afraid that our numbers were down – there were only 5 of us in total, but luckily the weather held mostly fine – a drizzle threatened a couple of times, but never came to anything.

Caroline was a fantastic guide with incredible knowledge of the Welsh population in the late 18th century, when the early Welsh Societies were first formed. She showed us the sites of the first meeting places (mostly in pubs and coffee houses).

The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion was founded in 1751 by the two Morris brothers from Anglesey, to promote the language, literature and arts of Wales. This was a bit too high minded and serious for some, who, led by Owen Jones (Owain Myfyr), formed the Gwyneddigion Society in 1771. Many Welshmen were members of both societies and meetings were held on different evenings so not to clash with each other.

Bengal AlleyWe were taken on a walk through some of the older parts of the City of London, down tiny little alleys and narrow roads with names like Old Fish Street Hill, Bread Street, Seething Lane and Crutched Friars. As we went Caroline pointed out where the pubs and coffee houses stood or still stand, with stories about the Welsh people that were involved in them.

We passed the London Mithraeum with its remains of a Roman temple and briefly entered St Stephen Walbrook, a church designed by Jonathan's Coffee HouseChristopher Wren with a beautiful circular ceiling. It is also the place where the Samaritans was founded. We were very lucky in that when we entered the choir was practicing and the overall effect was enchanting.

Walbrook was also the site of the Bull’s Head Tavern, where the Gwyneddigion Society used to meet, the source of the following rhyme:

 

In Walbrook stands a famous Inn
Near ancient Watling Street
Well stored with brandy, beer and gin,
Where Cambrians nightly meet.

Another of the pubs that used to be used by the societies was the George and Vulture, which still exists and was later used by the Pickwick Club and now houses Dickensian memorabilia.

 

Outside the George and Vulture

 

 

 

 

 

Iolo Morganwg was one of the main founders of the Gwyneddigion Society,  but he was also a member of the Cymmrodorion and he organised an assembly of bards on Primrose Hill in 1792.  We also heard about prominent Welsh leaders who campaigned against slavery, and saw a recent art installation commemorating the abolition of slavery.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many of the prime movers behind the creation of the University College of Wales, the National Library of Wales and the National Museum of Wales were London Welsh. The National Eisteddfod was twice held in Westminster, at the Albert Hall in 1887 and in 1909.

Navy OfficeWe were wandering in Pepy’s territory now, with St Olave’s Church, where he worshipped and was buried opposite the Navy Office where he used to work. (Richard Morris, one of the main founders of the Cymmrodorion Society, worked as a clerk in the Navy Office in Seething Lane’)

 

We ended our tour at a pub called’ The Hung Drawn and Quartered’ which is not that old, but was named after a quote from Pepys (see photo).

We enjoyed mini pies and mash, but had to follow in the old Societies’ habits with glasses of beer and wine!

Thanks to Caroline for an exceptionally enjoyable walk.

 

More photographs can be seen here.

Jack Absolute Flies Again

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On Thursday 6th October, over 15 members of CDWS had a cultural evening – we went to see the an ‘as live’ showing of ‘Jack Absolute Flies Again’ from the National Theatre at the Everyman in Gerrards Cross.

It is based (very loosely) on Sheridan’s play ‘The Rivals’, but set in the 1940’s Battle of Britain. The play features the famous Mrs Malaprop – played brilliantly by Caroline Quentin, whose use of the wrong words was particularly risqué in this rendition.