MVP Newsletter Sep 2025

Our group has had a good few months since the last newsletter, with very good attendance and interest at our monthly meetings (on the third Tuesday of the month at the Methodist Church Hall). Our May meeting featured our very own John Miller, who gave a colourful presentation with slides and regalia about the office of High Sheriff of Berkshire. The MLHG had a stall at the Berkshire Family History Society 50th anniversary conference at Wokefield Park in early June, and we presented two large boards about Victorian Mortimer, as well as a model of our wonderful Grade 2 listed railway station, very much a Victorian asset to the village. In our June meeting we were delighted to welcome Dr Richard Marks, an authority on all things rail and waterways, who told us all about the history of the Kennet and Avon Canal, its rise, fall and rise again as a leisure facility. Our stall at the Fun Day on July 5th was well received and we had many visitors looking at the Victorian Mortimer boards, as well as some collages of life from 1945-1949, and a couple of puzzling artefacts to identify. Our July meeting broke all box-office records with 63 present to welcome Paul Spratley, much-loved local businessman and friend, who had researched his family’s connection to the village, including a last minute discovery that his seven times great-grandfather, William Spratley, did indeed live at Spratley’s Farm, now disappeared, and records of which we have dating back to 1733! Glorious August saw our annual tea party, kindly hosted once again by Bob and Carolyn at the Jackdaw, and again, a record number of people attended, and enjoyed a lovely spread on their historic plot. New members are always welcome to our meetings, and we very much appreciate your comments and photos on the MVP FB page about people and places associated with Mortimer