As I sit down to write this, it is Sunday September 12th. After a scenic ride from Amersham to home in Maidenhead, there’s no time like the present to write a report of my splendid afternoon with the Chiltern Welsh Society. I think most of us ladies had an eye on the weather that morning. We had ferreted around in our wardrobes for a special summer dress to wear; after all there have not been many opportunities over the last 12 months to dress up. This was only my second physical event with the Society, having joined a year ago. I did enjoy meeting people on Zoom. However, there is nothing like a real life experience!
I had given myself plenty of time to explore the streets of Amersham and locate a parking spot. I walked down to number 16, to find Kay Day waiting at the gate to greet me. She said, ‘You must be Ruth, as you are the only person I don’t recognise from the list.’ As we chatted, Sue Jones and Rose Alkins arrived and kindly invited me to join their table; it’s always important to feel wanted on your first or second event with a different group of people. There was lots of catching up to do before the formal part of the afternoon. We were a group of 30 on tables of five, all sheltered under gazebos. In fact, I was really impressed when I turned up and saw the garden laid out in front of me.
Bright blue matching chairs and, cheerful garden flowers adorned the crisp white tablecloths. At this juncture, our thanks to the ‘flower girls’ as they were referred to. The guests had come laden with their own wine, fruit juice, beer and fizzy water and people on the tables introduced themselves. I maintain that Welsh is my first language and, was fortunate enough to be educated through the medium of Welsh from the age of 3 to 21. I was especially pleased to catch up with a few people who spoke Welsh and spent a while chatting to Bill Jones about the delights of Amlwch and Anglesey in particular!
Table by table, we were invited to the serving area, where the To Dine For ladies had set up a veritable spread. Our food had been pre-ordered, I had salmon, others had chicken and there was a vegetarian option, all adorned by a variety of salads, I have to say it was very tasty. We had olive and chilli bread, which you could wash down with the drink of your choice. Extra food was available if you wanted a top up. Chatter, covering a multiple of varied subjects, was constant. David Powell managed to pop round each group to photograph everybody deep in conversation. For dessert there was fruit salad, tiramisu, chocolate tart with lashings of cream, should you want it. To round off the meal tea and coffee were served with some lovely chocolate mints. All in all, I would say the afternoon was a massive success, everybody was pleased to catch up, after such a long time of being at home.
I would like to give a special mention to Ernest Morris, whose delightful garden we enjoyed and for the loan of the gazebos by Alan Longshaw. Thanks too to David, Gwyndaf, Alan, Peter Johnston and Colin Thomas for erecting these and, getting the furniture in situ; hopefully it was dismantled a bit quicker than it went up. Thank you very much to Kay for her organisational skills and making the afternoon such a success, we all know that these events, don’t ‘just’ happen.
Along with several other people I talked to, we are all looking forward to the next diarised activity, Christmas drinks. In the meantime, enjoy the autumn sunshine, while it lasts.
Ruth Huckle
A fine selection of able-bodied chaps gathered at Peter & Beth’s home on Saturday morning to put up the gazebos for Sunday’s Summer Lunch. The garden looked like a team of gardeners had been at work, but Beth assured us that they did all the work themselves.
discussion about positioning of the gazebos in the garden. It didn’t take too long, and by midday, we were able to sit under the canvas to enjoy a well-earned drink and biscuit.
Colin thanked David for his chairmanship over the past 3 years and went on to introduce our speaker – Neil Rees, an IT professional who is also a keen amateur historian and writes for the Bucks Free Press and has some fascinating facts about Aneurin Bevan.
The old farmhouse came with just over 50 acres, plus farm buildings, and 2 cottages. The farm manager and cowman were kept on, together with the herd of Guernsey cows and 60 hens. Nye became an enthusiastic farmer. He built up the herd to 60 cattle, and also started to keep pigs. 
On Thursday 29th April Gwyndaf and Janet John organized a Spring Walk around the woods at Hedgerley.
The plan was to meet at the pond in Hedgerley at 10:30, book our meals at the pub and then set off covering very similar walks but at different times and in different directions. However, when parking the cars, people were so pleased to see each other again, that in true CDWS fashion, they stopped to chat and soon it was 11:00.
It is with great sadness that we report the death of our local MP and honorary CDWS member Dame Cheryl Gillan on 4th April 2021, after a long battle with cancer.
This year our St David’s Day Dinner was a bit different. There was no dinner!
welcome from our Chairman, followed by two 10-minute breakout sessions where we were able to chat to about half a dozen other members and catch up on local news.
Dr. Williams told us about the early church in Wales and how there was a surprising amount of movement of people and ideas between Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany. The Christians of the time (500 to 700 AD) thought themselves the successors of the Roman tradition, as opposed to the largely pagan influx of Angles and Saxons. Gravestones of the time frequently contain complex Latin verses and Hebrew Christian names.
There were very many Saints in Wales, and one of the reasons for this was that at the time, there was no central control from Rome and sainthood was determined locally in Celtic churches and was often given to the founder of an ecclesiastical settlement (llan). It wasn’t until the middles ages that there was a central role in determining sainthood.
We finished off the evening with Jonathan Pegler playing the National Anthem and a selection of hymns.
As we moved into the final round Team Goch put on a late spurt, but it was too late, Team Gwyn (appropriately consisting of Gwyndaf and Janet John, Bill Jones, Ruth Huckle and Ann Brown) were too far in the lead.