Monthly Archives: March 2019

Newsletter No. 135 – March 2019

The first meeting of the year was another excellent presentation by Steve Hookin, and this time he told us about the role that women played in World War One at the Arsenal, Woolwich. With help from one of our members, Steve told us about the recruitment process that women went through (apparently it was thought that blue eyes indicated good eye sight!), the dangers they worked with (the chemicals turned them yellow), and showed us items related to their work, including a very heavy bomb fuse.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 11th March at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, and unfortunately, our advertised speaker, Tony Farnham, is no longer able to present to us. Instead, Keith Whitmore of the Swanley History Group, is going to give us his talk “Up the Junction” which shows what Swanley used to be like (pre Asda and the 1970s shopping precinct).

Our 2019 schedule:
20th May                The Kaiser’s War – Christoph Bull
8th July                    Lost Empires – the last days of Music Hall and Variety – Wilf Lower
9th September      To be confirmed but will be a talk by one of our members
11th November     AGM & Short Talk followed by Wine & Cheese

John Woodhead has been busy on the society’s facebook page, posting then and now pictures around the parish. These are attracting a lot of comments, as we hoped, but if you are interested in seeing these pictures but are not a facebook user, please let John or I know, and we can give you paper copies so that you can give us your memories.