Village news from Helen Price – 22/2/18

Village news from Helen Price – 22/2/18

Published 19 February 2018

Kings Bromley Parish Council – HS2 Phase 1 and 2 Meeting

On Thursday 1st March between 4.30 and 6.30 pm the HS2 Team will be at the Village Hall to provide residents with an update of any developments affecting Kings Bromley.

Wednesday Club

The Chair opened the meeting by welcoming two new members to the club and outlining the programme for the year.

The Treasurer then proposed, on behalf of the committee, that the Wednesday Club, as regular users of the village hall, make a donation towards the refurbishment fund. This was unanimously agreed. Members were informed of an event being held on March 24th from 10am – 1pm when plans for the refurbishment will be on display in the village hall. Tea and cakes will be available and the Village Harmony Choir will be performing. Members were also informed of a planned visit to the Garrick Theatre on May 9th to see “Avenue Q.”

Lin then welcomed our guest speaker, Kath Reynolds, who gave an amusing talk entitled “Goose Grease and Brown Paper” in which she described the many old-fashioned remedies used to cure all manner of ills in the days before the NHS. The talk was illustrated with a display of weird and wonderful lotions, potions and pills. Some of the more unusual remedies included placing onion in the ear to cure earache; soaking the feet in a chamber pot to ease chilblains; tying a sweaty sock around the neck to soothe a sore throat; swallowing an onion and brown sugar linctus for a chesty cough; rubbing pipe tobacco on to an aching tooth and treating boils with carbolic soap and sugar!

Of the late 19thC, early 20thC manufactured remedies one in particular stood out – Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People. A product so versatile it was able to ease a range of maladies from a fear of going out to chronic headaches – from pale and sallow complexions to St Vitus Dance – from palpitations to rheumatism! In fact, “all forms of weakness in male and female.”

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday March 7th at 2.30pm in the Village Hall when Colin Bagshaw will be talking about the Alaskan Goldrush.

Kings Bromley WI

The ladies of the WI celebrated with a post Christmas meal at the Royal Oak and enjoyed a lovely three course meal with good company. We had a fantastic time and would like to thank the Oak’s staff for making it an enjoyable evening .

Our February meeting was held in the Village Hall; we had a lovely talk on Shugborough Hall from our speaker Judy Hubble. Judy worked at Shugborough Hall for over 7 years until she was made redundant and then volunteered at the museum. She would give talks about the Hall’s history and the life and times of Lord Lichfield plus talks about the lives of the servants called ” A Servant’s Lot”.

We learnt all about the Hall from medieval times, with the building of the Essex bridge and how the Hall wasn’t originally on its present site but probably where the Chinese house is today. .Judy was able to give us a tour of the estate using slides , and her talk ended with the 2nd Earl of Lichfield, Thomas George Anson and his 13 children. He was left with debts of over £600,000 by his father and was determined to pay back all the money, which he was able to achieve before his death.

We closed our meeting with the traditional social time, however we didn’t find our raffle winner!

We have booked to see the musical “The Girls ” by Gary Barlow in Stoke on Trent on 15th November and will be taking a coach. Could members please give your names if interested ASAP. We also have a trip planned in the summer to either Liverpool, David Austin roses or Powis Castle, so lots to look forward to.

Our next meeting will be our AGM together with Cheese and Wine on 1st March.