At our meeting on Monday morning the 21st January there were 14 out of the 22 members present and the topic for discussion was "Romsey on the Test"
It was good how lively debate and chatter flowed at this meeting, as stories of Romsey past and present were told and explained. From its humble beginnings as an island surrounded by rivers and marsh it started to grow to the town we know today over a couple of thousand years.
In about the 6th century Christianity came back to Romsey after a gap of several hundred years. then from 7th to 10th century it was an important for iron smelting.
When metal was first introduced using bronze, tinkers would travel from village to village with lumps of bronze and then make items to order on small fires.
However when iron came along ,it was found that much higher temperatures were needed to work it, so villages had to have their own permanent smithys to make iron items,
using very high temperature forges.
It is thought that the name of Romsey comes from..the "EY" ending comes from Old English word for island
and the ROMS is thought to derive from the name of an important Saxon leader of about 8/9th century.
There is no February meeting , and so the next meeting will be on Monday 18th March starting at 10 am, and the topic will be "Old Hampshire"
Michael Page
