The annual OPC meet up took place on the 8th October at the Bear Hotel in Devizes. It was good to see some familiar faces and two new faces too. I hope those who attended enjoyed the day. Due to illness and family matters the group was reduced to just 8 for lunch. 5 participants took advantage of the visit to the Wiltshire Family History Society research facility out on the Bath Road, Devizes where we were warmly greeted by Jerry & Jenny who showed us around and explained what their role in the community was. We thank them very much for their time and effort. Our goody bags were a nice gesture too so a big thanks to them. Hopefully we will work closer with them in the future. The meal at the Bear Hotel was sadly over too quickly as three members of the group headed off to the Museum for the afternoon. We must thank Amanda Wood-Woodley for organising everything for us all but sadly she was unable to join us for the day. I spent four interesting days in Devizes and surrounding parishes in the company of my daughter and stalwart of the OPC Project John Pope. John had spent a few extra days south of the County beforehand so keep a look out for all the new photos he will add to the website. The highlight for me apart from meeting some familar faces and new on Saturday was our visit to the Moravian Church at East Tytherton. Fortunately we were able to gain access to the building and was given a tour by the Minister. She then led us down to the burial ground which has been so diligently cleared and brought back to how it was many years ago. John Pope was in his element photographing the headstones, the history of the burial ground, church and school were truly mesmerising. To learn more about the history of this small Moravian community please take a look at the Bremhill Page on the website where you can find lots of information produced by Nigel Pocock, one of the group involved in bringing the burial ground back to an accessible state.
The website is still growing with new items and galleries and updates almost daily. I now have a bit more time as I am now officially retired from work although my achy bones don’t allow as much getting about as I would like. I need to be reminded to take breaks from the PC too. Our We Will Remember Them Section takes up a lot of time and effort and thanks to Martin Barrett who I rely on for publishing the calendar to Face Book each day- this hopefully reflects the website calendar although there may be some slight differences in synchronisation.
I keep saying this – but we are all getting older and need some younger members to take on admin duties – sorry for this dreary thought but when the likes of John, myself and others are no longer able to maintain the website who will??????????? My dream would be for someone to help with the day to day admin with me so that the wesite future is guaranteed for another 20 years or so. If anyone would like to learn what is involved I am sure I can set up information to help them help us. Of course we are always happy to have others come aboard the project to assist in other ways, there are loads of opportunities to transcribe, adopt parishes and build on them. Sadly I feel that unless we get more involvement the site may fall into an archived state with no new input.
Anyway enough with the morbidity. Christmas is coming so …………… (I know Halloween hasn’t been and gone yet) but those who know me will understand how all out I go for Christmas. This year however I will need to switch off the light decorations earlier and use up less batteries. Stil it’s time to start thinking about how we are going to celebrate this year. For me it will be just myself and my adult son, although a newly found friend looks like she will be joining us so that will be nice. My Christmas wish for everyone this year is to Cope and Hope – what with wars and instability of governments and the cost of living crisis it’s going to be a difficult time for us all. Lets just hope that 2023 can start the regenration and things can get back to pre Covid levels at least. I believe that all these global issues are happening to test us to see what humanity can cope with and overcome. I am not overly religious but I think we could be facing the modern day equivalent of the biblical plagues of Egypt. Poverty, Pandemic, War, Weather Changes – all have an impact on each and everyone of us – lets hope and wish that mankind can come together and overcome whatever life throws at us.
Just leaves me to say an early Merry Christmas (or whatever way you wish to say it) to everyone and a Happy New Year for 2023.
