Romsley & Hunnington History Society -

Meeting Report - May 2014

Annual General Meeting 2014

The Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 26th May. Paul Share, the Chairman, welcomed everyone and reported that the membership had continued to flourish and some meetings had almost reached capacity attendance, such was the quality of speakers and topics.

Julian Hunt, our President, has worked tirelessly in his quest to research the history of the villages of Romsley and Hunnington. The work of indexing the Court Rolls has been progressing thanks to a team of dedicated members and the website is updated on a regular basis.

Paul thanked June Humphreys for her work as secretary for the past twenty two years. She is now reducing her workload but she has still booked a very impressive list of speakers for the 2014/2015 season. Jean Cockin was also thanked for her work on recording the memories of the residents of both villages.

Ruth Harper, the treasurer, reported that there were now 51 members and the balance sheet showed that the society was financially healthy. All offices and members of the committee were re-elected. Julian Hunt presented a series of photographs of Halesowen and the surrounding area, taken in the 1960s by Brian and John Tromans. The brothers had the foresight to photograph Halesowen before it was modernized. They used to cycle around taking photographs in both black and white and colour, with their cycle in the picture as their trademark!

The lack of traffic on the roads was very noticeable and the men in the audience took great pleasure in identifying the cars. Do you remember the Morris Minor, Triumph Herald, Cortina, Ford Popular, Consul and the A35 van? They were all there, evoking youthful memories for many members.

There were some beautiful photographs of the old library and the railway station, all sadly demolished now. However, not all the demolition was intentional, as the photograph of the lorry which had crashed into a house at the bottom of Mucklow's Hill proved. In subsequent photographs the house is shown being rebuilt by Harpers, only to be demolished by the council shortly afterwards! This was only one of several amusing insights into Halesowen's development, captured in these superb photographs. Probably the most stunning of which were the photographs of the old railway viaduct and the views of the surrounding countryside. Everyone agreed that it had been a delightful evening and our thanks must go to the Troman brothers for their "snapshots" of old Halesowen.

Pat Evans