Our Annual Dinner took place on Friday 13th June at Blakedown Golf Club. It was a lovely warm evening and after an enjoyable meal the speaker, Michael Hall, gave a very interesting talk. He pointed out that history is full of instances of one event leading to another and that facts and making connections go hand in hand. Julian Hunt, our President, responded and said that much of the work on the Wills and Court Rolls was concerned with uncovering facts and connecting them, to bring together a picture of Romsley and Hunnington in times gone by.

At the meeting on Tuesday 24th June, the proposed speaker, Max Keen, had to postpone his talk until January 27. We were very grateful to John Billingham who agreed to give a talk instead. His subject was "The Edwardian Age".

When Queen Victoria died in 1901 her son, Albert Edward, who was born in 1841, succeeded to the throne as Edward VII. The Edwardian era had begun. Edward was a playboy prince. He loved horse racing, shooting, the theatre and generally having a good time. Although he was married to Queen Alexandra at the age of 21, he also had a string of mistresses throughout his life. There were many changes to the country in Edwardian times, which is usually thought of as the period before the First World War. It was a time of great social divide, with poverty for the poor and a life of luxury for the rich. In the large country houses you either belonged to upstairs or downstairs. The wealthy landowners had many servants who all knew their place.

Life was hard for the working class. Wages were low and the men had to work long hours in agriculture, industry, the mines, or the mills. There were reforms in education and the school leaving age was raised from 10 to 12 years and secondary schools were introduced. Women began to realise that they could play a more important role in the country and the suffragette movement, campaigning for votes for women, was formed.

There were many inventions in transport, instead of horse drawn vehicles, motor cars became popular, but only for the rich! The first flights over the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean were made by aeroplanes. There was also the disastrous sinking of the Titanic and the failure of Scott's expedition to the South Pole.

King Edward VII was related to many of the rulers and royalty of Europe and he tried to keep the peace between them. He died in 1910 and his morals were reflected in the fact that both his wife, the Queen, and his last mistress were present at his death bed! For good or bad the Edwardian era had ended.

Pat Evans