Coffee Morning – 16th January 2025

Our coffee morning speaker was Christine Reynolds who gave a talk and a comprehensive insight as to how remembrance day is commemorated around the world. Everyone enjoyed the talk, there was quite a large collection of literature spread out on tables for the members to look at after the talk.

Guest Speaker – Christine Reynolds – January 2025

Collection of literature about Remembrance Day

New Quinton Display Board

Our new noticeboard has now been installed for all to see on the land by the beacon/Doctors surgery, on the Quinton Count Shopping Centre – Great Wyrley. The noticeboard will be used to inform everyone of what’s happening in the society and anything else that is going on in Great Wyrley.

Gary Smith by the Quinton Court Noticeboard

Geoff Nixon by the Quinton Court Noticeboard

Quinton Court Noticeboard outside the Doctor’s Surgery

Wyrley Court Retirement Homes

Wyrley Court Retirement Home – Opening 23rd January 2025

There have been many changes on this plot of land on the Walsall Road, from the old Great Wyrley First School, opened in 1883. In it’s life it was rebuilt and ran as a school until 1985 until it changed into a Daycare Centre. Unfortunately the Daycare Centre closed and the building was left empty for some years. In its place is now a huge building, pictured about, wyrleycourt.co.uk – which is residential apartments for those of us that wish to occupy in later life. It looks very impressive and it’s good to see new businesses opening up in the area, this will bring new people, residents and jobs to the area.

The Old Great Wyrley School on the Walsall Road

First Great Wyrley School after it was rebuilt

Christmas Bash – Thursday 19th December 2024

Merry Christmas To All Our Members

What a fantastic day we had at our Christmas Bash and it was great to see so many of our members come along and join in with the Christmas spirit. It gave a great close to the end of the year.

At the moment we are going through a collection of photos that was given to us by Dave Franks from his Father’s collection. There are hundreds of amazing photos, alot of them have people with no names. We would love to find out who some of the people are. Below are just a sample of the unknown people in the photographs – any ideas?

A Happy and Healthy New Year

Coffee Morning – Thursday 21st November

Our Guest Speaker – Ian Bott, came at short notice, as John Hill was taken ill. Ian Bott gave an interesting talk about Pub Signs. It was was interesting talk full of information. His talk was based around The Robin Hood. Why was there a pub called The Robin Hood in Churchbridge? What have we got to do with Robin Hood?

More information about the History of Pub Signs from ‘A History of British Pub Signs’ website
Walk down any British high street and you are sure to see a pub. The local. Nearly every British city, town or village has one. You can also be sure that, no matter the age of the building, the name of the pub draws inspiration from history. There’s a unique heritage to the pub names and signs in Britain, which depict everything from historic events, local folklore and occupations to royalty, notable characters, ancient associations and heraldry – a simple pub sign can hold the key to a town or village’s past. We take a look at the history behind the names of Britain’s much-loved pubs…

The naming pf pubs is said to stem from Roman times, when Tabernae would hang vine leaves outside as a trading sign, in order to alert passers-by that wine was sold within. However, it has been suggested that when the Romans invaded Britain, vine leaves were in short supply, so they hung bushes up outside instead in order to mark out the inns. It is said that this gave rise to the many pubs which are now called The Bush, The Hollybush or The Bull & Bush.

Thankyou to ‘A History of British Pub Signs’ for their information, read more about Pub Signs at: thehistorypress.co.uk/article/a-history-of-british-pub-names

Annual Open Day – Saturday 19th October 2024

Thankyou to all that came to see us at our ANNUAL OPEN DAY on Saturday 19th October 11am-3pm. It was great to see so many people come to the open day wanting to learn more about the history of our wonderful village. Our theme of the day was Mining in the Village and how the village was almost surrounded by open cast mines. At that time, every in the village seemed to be covered in clay like dust. On display there was a slide show, maps and burial records, we opened our archives for our visitors to look at, and we had the committee on hand to help with any questions. Refreshments available.