Our topic for October was South America - the land waiting to be discovered.

Homo Sapiens - hunter gatherers - are known to have crossed the land bridge at the Bering Straits from Russia to Alaska during the last ice age between 30,000 and 13,000 years ago, when vast quantities of water were locked up in the ice, and sea levels were much lower than they are today. Over a period of thousands of years they managed to spread right down the Americas until we reached the furtherest most point of South America.

By the time Columbus set sail in 1492, spices were in great demand in Europe, and so the race was on to find a quicker way westwards to get them.
Columbus landed in what was later called the West Indies, and
it was not long before Spain and Portugal had colonised most of South America, creating Vice Royalties of New Granada, Rio Del La Plata and Peru(Spanish) and the Vice Royalty of Brazil(Portuguese). However on the top North East coast , England, Holland and France managed to established small colonies , with Patagonia at the bottom of South America apparently not colonised by anyone in the early days, but later absorbed by Argentina and the new country of Chile.
In the early 1800s the Spanish and Portuguese colonies gradually gained their independence, and the new countries of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay and Uruguay were formed from parts of this vast continent.
The move to independence was started by “creoles” - the lower orders of nobles who had settled there and ran the country, but were resentful of the interference in their own affairs by Spain. In many cases powerful leaders arose to help this cause along, often by force of arms.
In the case of Brazil liberal ideas had started to flow across the Atlantic, and so in 1822 they declared themselves independent under the rule of King Pedro 1, son of the Portuguese monarch.
The effects of independence varied, although it is safe to say that the broad mass of people-those who did not own land and enjoyed few if any political rights - probably noticed little difference in their everyday lives. Power was transferred from one set of whites to another, leaving the Indians ,Mestizos and African slaves to carry on much as before,
The dream of a Latin American confederation did not materialise under the growing pressures of regional differences and nationalism, individual countries began to clash, and this in turn opened the way for interference by outside powers.
The main period when these border clashes erupted into full scale war, often involving tanks, artillery, airpower and naval power was between 1899 and 1942, and many thousands of people died.
South America has grown and developed over the years to meet the demands of the modern world, but there is still the problem of guerrilla activity , especially between 1960 and 1973 . But hopefully things will eventually settle down to make South America a peaceful and happy place to live and work in.


The next meeting will be on Monday 15th November and the subject will be “The Role of the Monarchy in the 20th and 21st Centuries.”.
Michael Page.

September Meeting

SEPTEMBER MEETING
------------------------------

At this meeting we discussed King Arthur and his Knights, and the picture emerges of knights in shining armour on horseback, with lance, sword and shield riding off to do battle against evil on behalf of the damsel in distress. This is however the romantic picture as painted by the Medieval Historians in the 11/12th centuries who were collecting and writing his story down.
The reality is very different. His story is deeply entwined in Celtic mythology and starts as the Roman Legions finally leave Britain in AD410.
From the emerging chaos of many tribes seeking to dominate , a leader called Vortigern emerges and by AD425 has declared himself high king over all Britain, but as he hated the Roman Imperial State System he dismantled all of it and so left Britain in a confused and shaky state and open to all invaders. So he did what the Romans did and invited some Saxons over to defend the British against invading tribes which they did. Then the Saxons wanted more land and trouble started.
In about AD450 Vortigern and many of the tribal leaders had a meeting with the Saxon leaders Hengest and Horsa and tried to sort things out, but the Saxons drew their knives and killed all of the British leaders - in the” Night of the Long Knives“- except Vortigern who was married to Hengist’s daughter. Vortigern fled and his son tried to fight on, but was poisoned by the Saxons.
After this , power in Britain passed into the hands of a coalition of Lords under the leadership of Ambrosius Aurelianus, who was referred to as the last of the Romans and represented the faction who wanted a return to Roman ways.
One source mentions his royal parents, suggesting he may have sprung from a marriage between an old noble British family and a high ranking Roman Official .
Under his leadership they took up arms against the invaders of Britain, the Saxons were pinned down along the east coastal regions, trade re-established with the continent and a basic form of law and order was established in the land. This ran fitfully for 30/40 years. Indeed , one report states that some of the Saxons and Jutes emigrated as they felt that the British venture had failed.
In the late 5th century King Arthur emerges as the leader of the British ,as the Saxons and other foreign tribes start to move westwards again across Britain. It is said that Arthur fought at least 12 battles against the invading hordes in different parts of Britain. The last one -called the Battle of Badon- probably at the beginning of the 6th century , soundly defeated the Saxons and their allies and the result was again their being confined to the eastern coastal regions for probably another 30/40 years until after Arthur’s death . Then when the Saxons, Jutes and Angles again started to move across Britain they came this time as settlers rather than invaders and started to marry into British families and establish a stock that would eventually become a new race called the Anglo Saxons.

Michael Page.

The next meeting will be on Monday 18th October, and the subject will be South America.

July Meeting

At our July meeting we talked about “The formation of modern Italy”, and as the weather was so nice we held our meeting in the garden. The only problem was that as it was so warm it looked as if the two members on the hammock were nodding off.

Italy started life off as a city state many years before the birth of Christ. However by the time the Romans invaded Britain in AD43 the Roman Empire was the biggest ever known, stretching from Northern Britain to Africa and from Portugal in the West to Egypt in the East.
This did not last as Rome fell in AD410 and then for over 1500 years it was invaded, partitioned and fought over by many countries .In addition from early 7th C for about 1200 hundred years there was a Papal State covering about one quarter of modern Italy.

In the mid 1800s Giuseppe Garibaldi managed to unite three quarters of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel, but it was not until 1918 with the collapse of the old Austrian Hungarian Empire at the end of WW1 that Italy managed to regain the remaining top part of old Italy from Lake Garda to the current border with Austria.
In 1919 Mussolini founded the Fascist Party.
In 1919 The Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio plus 2600 men seized back Trieste for Italy, and regarded it as the spoils of war, since the end of WW1 it had been under the control of the League of Nations.
In 1921 Mussolini declared himself “Il Duce” and the following year marched on Rome, seized it, and declared himself the only person capable of ruling Italy.
Italy entered WW11 in 1940 on the German side, but suffered many military defeats, and in 1943 the Italians deposed and killed Mussolini and changed sides in the war.
In a referendum in 1946 the Kingdom of Italy was abolished and the Italian Republic was born.
Italy is now a modern European State and an active member of the European Economic Community.

The next meeting will be on Monday 20th September, and the topic will be the history behind King Arthur and his Knights.

Michael Page.

May/June visit to the Submarine Museum

HISTORY OF SUBMARINES. MAY/JUNE 2010.
====================================

On Monday 17th May, 14 members enjoyed a visit to the Submarine Museum at Gosport. We began with a one hour tour of the WW11 submarine HMS Alliance led by a former crewman. Then members split up into groups visiting the museum of submarine history, the original Holland 1 submarine in its own building, other exhibits around the site and of course refreshments at the café.

On a sunny Monday 21st June we sat in our garden and talked about the history of submarines, and how for many years man had dreamed of going beneath the waves in such a boat.
The first known attempt at building a submarine was in 1620 and built by Van Drebbel. It was a wooden frame and hulled boat covered in leather with oars coming out of sealed flaps to propel it, and it had a Snorkel to let air in.
It is recorded that James 1 had a trip up the River Thames in it at a depth of approximately 12 to 15 feet.

The first recorded time a submarine was used in conflict was in 1775 at Connecticut, USA by the Americans against the British in the war of Independence. It was called the “Turtle” and again was made of wood and sealed. It had one crewman and enough air for 30 minutes and a speed of 3 mph and was operated by a hand cranked propeller (the first recorded use of a screw propeller for ships). An attack failed against HMS Eagle through a combination of strong currents and the copper sheath on the ship’s hull (which prevented a hole being drilled in it to place explosives inside), but this scared the British.

Before Holland 1,the basis of all modern submarines, could be built, a series of events took place including some important inventions:

In 1800 Alexandro Volta- an Italian Physicist, invented the first battery to emit a continuous current.
In 1850 Michael Faraday invented the first working Electric Dynamo.
In 1860 Jules Verne wrote his famous book “20,000 Leagues under the Sea“.
In the mid/late 1800’s some countries, including Britain, built steam powered submarines, with a funnel for surface running.
In 1885 Daimler invented the first successful 4 stroke petrol/gasoline engine.
Then in 1901 Holland 1 was launched and became the first Royal Navy submarine.

Since then the Royal Navy have had built and used many different/improved designs of diesel electric powered boats, however in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s a decision was taken that the UK would operate only nuclear submarines. The Swiftsure and Trafalgar attack class submarines were built and operated, and they are now being gradually taken out of service as the new nuclear attack Astute class submarines come into service (it is hoped that 7 will be built).
Specifications are:
Tonnage: 7800(dived) 6500 (surface).
Dimensions: 97m long x 11.3 m wide x 10 m high.
Max speed: 29 plus knots dived.( a knot is 1.151 mph).
Endurance: 90 days.
Crew: 84(accommodation of 98)
Home Port: Faslane, Scotland.
It has 100 km of cabling and 10 km of pipe work.

The next meeting will be on Monday 19th July and the topic will be
the formation of “modern“ Italy .

Michael Page.

April Meeting

At our April meeting , members spoke for a few minutes on an historical character (living or dead) of their choice, and covered the following:

*Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian leader responsible for the collapse of
the Berlin Wall.
*Amy Johnson ,the famous woman aviator who set many new records
in the 20/30s, but was killed in an air crash in WW11.
*Thomas Cromwell- from humble beginning to Earl of Essex, First
Minister to Henry V111, but executed over the failure of the Anne of
Cleves marriage.
*Jane Austin of the 18/19th Century, a daughter of a clergyman and
famous for the many books she wrote, but sadly only fully recognised
after her death.
*Aneurin Bevin, the Welsh Politician, who as Minister of Health in 1948
brought in the National Health Service.
*George Lovelace, who started the first Union and became famous as
one of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
*Mary Queen of Scots, brought up in France, had 3 failed marriages in
Scotland and was executed by Elizabeth 1.
*Sir Walter Raleigh, a favourite of Elizabeth 1, famous explorer and
founder of the State of Virginia, but executed by James 1 to please
Spain.
*Douglas Bader, the RAF fighter pilot who lost the lower part of both
legs in a flying accident in 1931,but with artificial legs went on to
achieve fame as a fighter pilot in WW11.
*Holbein was the official portrait painter to Henry V111, but lost some
support from Henry over his failure to paint a true picture of Anne of
Cleves.
*Samuel Pepys of the 17th Century, famous for his diaries and helping to
create our Royal Navy.
*Isaac Watts, famous inventor, born in Scotland and grew up and worked
in Birmingham and died in 1819.
*Sir Thomas Moore, a strong Roman Catholic who believed God was
above the King, and as a result was executed by Henry V111 for High
Treason.
*And finally Lady Mary Montague (no relation to our Montagues at
Beaulieu) daughter of Duke of Kingston, known as a wit and beauty in
London, brought back and successfully used the scratch type of
inoculation for smallpox from Turkey 70 years before Jenner and died
In 1762.



** On Monday the 17th May we have our outing to the Submarine
Museum at Gosport, please ensure that you are at the entrance by
10 am, ready for us to move across to HMS Alliance for the
guided tour.

Michael Page.

March Meeting

MONDAY 15th MARCH 2010

MARCH HISTORY REPORT

Bonnie Prince Charlie- The Young Chevalier- also called the young pretender

Charles Edward Stuart’s Grandfather-James II of England and James VII of Scotland- only ruled from 1685 to 1688, before being forced to flee the country as William of Orange and Mary (James’s daughter) invaded- by invitation from the English government - and became King and Queen of England.

James II landed in Ireland in 1690 to try and regain his throne, but he failed and spent the rest of his life in exile. His son, James Francis Edward Stuart - the old pretender - also tried in 1715 by invading through Scotland, but failed also and spent the rest of his life in exile in Italy.

Charles Edward Stuart - son of the old pretender- was born in exile and as he grew up he longed to try and regain the throne of England. His chance came in 1744 after his father had got the support of the French Government for an invasion of England. He then travelled from Italy to France to assume command of the expedition which included 7000 soldiers, however the expedition had to be abandoned after fierce storms wrecked many of the French ships.
He still wanted to go, so with 7 companions he set sail for for Moidart, where Macdonald of Clanranald at once rallied to his colours.
The news of his landing filled the mainland Jacobites with concern, and one laird, always a fervent supporter of the Stuarts, begged him to abandon the enterprise. He carried on and raised his father’s standard at Glenfinnan. Men started to join him, and by November he was on the March with 6000 men.
On the 21st September 1745 he defeated a government force at Prestonpans, and on the 17th January 1746 he defeated another government force at Falkirk.
He then marched South into England to get the English throne as well, telling the clansmen that the English Jacobites would rise up and support them, but only 300 came from Manchester. So on reaching Derby the Clan Chiefs told him that they were going back to Scotland. He could not change their mind and was bitterly disappointed but had to accept it and go back. Little did he know that the English Government was in panic and George II had all his valuables packed on a ship on the Thames ,ready to take him back to Hanover.

So the Jacobites went back to Scotland ,with many clansmen deserting on the way, at Culloden they were totally defeated by the English forces under Duke of Cumberland.

Bonnie Prince Charlie was forced to go on the run, hiding from the English who were hunting him as he had a price of £30,000 on his head. He did however after some months succeed in reaching the shores of the same sea-loch where he had landed 14 months earlier, where a French ship took him back to France.
Bonnie Prince Charlie fully intended to raise more money and return with French soldiers but never did. He did visit London in disguise in 1750 and ended his days in a rented Italian palace with the Royal Coat of arms painted in the entrance hall, which still to this day bears the Royal cypher CRIII. He finally died in Rome on the 31st January 1788, and was buried in a church at Frascatti.

On Charles’s death he was succeeded as head of the house of Stuart by his younger brother Henry, Cardinal York, who by entering the Church had effectively destroyed the prospects of his dynasty, but nevertheless now assumed the title of Henry IX.
Henry died in 1807 and twelve years later, his body, his brother Charles’s body and their father’s were removed and placed in a marble tomb in St Peter’s Rome, which was paid for by George III.

The next meeting will be on Monday 19th April, and the subject will be 4/5 minutes on an Historical Character of your choice.

Michael Page.

FEBRUARY HISTORY REPORT.

At this meeting we talked about the native American Indians and their origins.

It is believed that from about 60,000 years, waves of settlers started coming from Siberia across the Bering Straits into Alaska and then down the continent to Cape Horn, and each new wave destroyed ,or displaced and moved on the existing tribes.

In 1492 Columbus sailed west from Spain to try and find a short cut to India, but instead found Hispaniola and the vast American continent. Not realising his mistake, he started calling all the natives “Indians” and all future explorers did the same. Even when they realised their error no one wanted to admit that they had made a mistake.

As the Europeans moved around this vast continent they left a trail of devastation and despair among the Indians as European diseases ( such as smallpox, cholera, influenza and measles), together with forced labour on plantations and in mines, and segregation of sexes for working purposes destroyed whole communities and left thousands dead.

Indeed nobody knows for sure how many people lived in Hispaniola when Columbus arrived, but half a century later they had all been wiped out .
The male natives considered farming and milling to be women’s work ,and settlements the opposite of their mobile life - style ,so many men refused to work on the plantations, and they fled, revolted or committed suicide . So from the 1550s in ever increasing numbers, black slaves were brought in from Africa to replace them.

The Spanish and Portuguese colonised all of South America between them and had many boundary disputes until the Pope stepped in and divided it up between them, so Portugal had Brazil and Spain the rest.
However by 1620 Portugal’s only colony was Brazil as she had lost all the others to Britain, France and Holland .

Before Columbus “discovered” America only Captains and Officers had a bunk to sleep in at night, however Columbus first saw Native American Indians using hammocks in the new world and later they were adopted for use at sea by ordinary crew members.
The famous explorer Amerigo Vespucci voyaged down the coast of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. His reactions to this wonderful “land of milk and honey” in his book about the trip, which was translated into several languages, so impressed the cartographers that they named the new world continent “America” after him.

The Spanish settlers were lesser nobility. Though often poorly educated, even illiterate, these lesser nobles had a place in a rigid Spanish caste system far above that of the common labourer and peasant. They were too grand for manual labour, fiercely proud, contemptuous of their inferiors, and ambitious for military glory and personal wealth. It was from their ranks that many of the new warlords came, most famously Hernan Cortes and in Central and South America they became important.
The Spanish and Portuguese settlers found that Africans were much stronger and hardier than the local Indians, and more resistant to Western diseases. Also in Africa they had farmed tropical crops with iron tools and had mined, processed and refined gold and silver.

In 1492 the native Americans did not have horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, sugar cane, iron and other hard metals, cash currency or shops ,just bartering. Aztecs did not have doors or wheels. Native Americans used bone for arrow heads.
They grew cotton, tobacco, potatoes, chocolate beans and the much prized Brazilwood from Brazil.

Before 1492 the natives of Central, South and North America had a highly organised society structure, with some tribes always on the move like Stone Age Farmers, whilst others lived settled lives in well organised settlements and town. Indeed the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was larger than any contemporary city on the continent of Europe, with causeways, wide streets, great houses of red brick. The inhabitants were elegant, with cotton cloaks for men and women. Their craftsmanship was of a high order and their decorated tapestries depicting parrots, pheasants, hummingbirds and the such like were of a very high standard. But all this changed for ever with the arrival of the white man ,who crushed and destroyed all these civilisations, without regret, for their own personal gain and changed the continent for ever.

The next meeting will be on Monday 15th March and the subject will be Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Michael Page.

January Meeting

HISTORY REPORT FOR 18 th JANUARY 2010.
History of Aviation.

In December 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight of a plane with a person in it .This then set in course a series of events with many years later the public taking it for granted to fly in planes holding 200/300 people, and man landing on the moon in 1969.

It all started in 1799 when Sir George Cayley first worked out the relationship of the 4 basic principals of aerodynamics- weight, lift, drag and thrust - which enabled him to build and fly the first glider with his coachman in. This then set in motion the events for Wright Brothers in 1903.

Julie talked about her grandfather George Bertram Cockburn who was an early aviator, and took part in the first flying competition held in Rheims, France in 1909. In 1911 he started to train future pilots at the Aero Club based at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, and there is now a plaque there to commemorate this. He was a good friend of the pilot Mr Rolls (of Rolls Royce the car makers) who became a pilot but was killed in a flying accident in 1910.

In the early days flying was considered a man’s job -with no room for women- and it took many years for them to fly and gain recognition from the men. (There is now a woman pilot in the Red Arrows).
In America in 1925 the first woman pilot’s air race across the country was organised, but they could only fly inferior planes and a man had to be with them for the whole race. However it was not many more years before women were organising their own solo races.
Amy Johnson took flying lessons and became the first woman to be granted an Aircraft Ground Engineer’s Licence . In 1930 she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.
In the second World War women took on the role of flying planes around the world from the factory to the airfields (with many losses).

Airships were around before planes, indeed in 1900 Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin flew his airship for the first time, a short distance near Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance in Southern Germany. In 1915 a German Zeppelin crossed the Norfolk coast at night and bombed unsuspecting British towns, with 20 civilian deaths and 40 seriously injured. This first event heralded the bombing of civilians from the air in time of war, and went on to the massed bombing raids of WWII.

Michael finished off by recounting about his 3 parachute jumps in 1966/7 at Thruxton. The plane they went up in had no door and no seats. In order to jump he had to climb out of the doorway and onto the wing and hold the strut(at 3000 feet),he then let go and fell off, the parachute opened and he gently glided down to earth (what a great experience).

The next meeting will be on Monday 15th February and the topic will be “Native American Indians”.

Michael Page.

November Meeting

History Group Report - November 2009

It’s November again, and our last topic in another varied and interesting year was “Social Care”.

Barbara opened this session talking about the life and times of Doctor Barnardo , who was born in Dublin where he nearly died at the age of 4. He planned to become a missionary in China, and a doctor (which he did), but upon moving to London he became very distressed by the wretched plight of young ragged children (especially boys) forced out onto the street at a very early age to exist as best they could. He then devoted the rest of his life to their care, building homes and finding employment and a life for them. He then proceeded to do the same for girls, and in the middle of it all found time to get married. His wife fully supported and helped him in his crusade, and he died in 1905 at the age of 60, after a long and fulfilling life.

Julie talked about an autistic person who lived next door to her. When this person was in a special home with 24 hour care they lived as good a life as possible. It was only when the local authority placed them in the community that the care was nowhere near as good, with carers only popping in two or three times a day.

Lesley talked about Almshouses and what a wonderful service they have provided over the years, but whilst researching her family tree was surprised how many of her ancestors had lived in almshouses.

In Roman times if there was no male heir, then they would adopt an orphan boy to ensure the family line continued.

In Medieval times, the Church grew to be the main body looking after the needs of the ordinary people. However after Henry VIII ,this started to move to the state with the Poor Laws being brought in. Parishes then started to look after their own (but often moved strangers out of their parish so they would not have to help them!!!)

In the 19th Century Workhouses were introduced, and then at the beginning of the 20th Century Labour Exchanges, Old Age Pensions, Medical care for school children came in and finally the National Health Service came into being after World War II.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 18th January 2010 when we will be talking about “The History of Aviation”.

Michael Page.

October

HISTORY DISCUSSION GROUP REPORT FOR OCTOBER


At this meeting we talked about clothing and Michael started with the Iceman.
This was the body of a Neolithic hunter who died about 3,300 BC on a mountain ridge in the Austrian Alps and was found frozen in a gully in September 1991. With the body they also found fragments of clothing.
He had a belt and pouch of calf leather, a loincloth of leather (not fur), leggings (separate) tied on to his belt and stretching down to his feet, a cap of strips of fur sown together, an upper garment of strips of fur sewn together stretching from shoulder to knees but open in the front, and on top of all this was a grass coat made from grass lengths over 1 metre long- plaited together and thought to stretch from neck to knees- and probably again open in the front. His body is on display in a special cabinet in the Museum at Bolzano in Northern Italy, and Joan U. has seen it there.

Brian told us that in certain times in the past, ordinary people were not allowed to wear certain colours of clothing - purple, scarlet, gold, silver, deep blue- as they were worn only by high class people .

Myra showed us sketches of Tudor costumes she had made, pointing out the slits in the clothing through which you could see the expensive material underneath (this was the height of fashion).

Kathy talked about the evolution of bathing costumes and showed us pictures of them, and how when it first became fashionable the clothes worn were more like a full set of day clothes, and then gradually became more and more simplified until now when sometimes the costumes are sometimes a “bit too brief”.
Jean showed us a picture of a lady in Roman times wearing a bikini (who said they were not an advanced civilisation!)

Brian mentioned about cod pieces in Tudor times in which people often kept their money and jewels and sometimes a dagger. A cod piece was made of velvet, silk and satins for noble people and cloth for commoners. After Tudor times they went out of fashion.

Joan R. talked about ladies fashions from the 1920s onwards, and how their hem lines gradually rose to above the knees, about pin stripped suits, James Dean hair style, flower power and bell bottoms, but in contrast men’s fashions had not changed much.

Barbara talked about ladies’ fashions 1947 to 1950, and how women rebelled from the austerity clothing of WWII to colourful, flowing clothes (including underwear) of the 1950s. It made them feel so much better.

Pam talked about underwear and how it has only been around for about 200 years. The first was a chemise worn mainly to protect outer garments from body odour. The first “pants” or “drawers”, appeared about 1800, so called because each leg was separate and was drawn up, but was not joined in the middle until the Royal Drawer Maker decided to join them up and her name was Florence Gusset (the rest is History).

After more discussion, Marie and Jane handed around old photos. of past generations showing their fashions in clothing.

The next meeting will be on Monday 16th and the topic will be Social Care.

Michael Page.

September Meeting

HISTORY DISCUSSION GROUP

At our September meeting we talked about Women Inventors and the roll they have played in our society over the years.

Some of the women’s inventions include the circular saw by Tabitha Babbit in 1812, the windscreen wiper blade by Mary Anderson in 1903, the medical syringe by Letitia Geer in 1899, a permanent wave for hair by Marjorie Joyner in 1928, the chocolate cookie by Ruth Wakefield in 1924, the life-raft by Maria Beaseley in 1882, the fold away bed by Sarah. E. Goode, in 1885,a torpedo guidance system by Heddy Lamarr in 1942 and the rolling pin by Catherine Deiner in 1891( and many many more).

Ruth Handler invented an anatomically improbable moulded plastic statuette named “Barbie” . Since its debut in 1959,the Barbie Doll has become an American icon that functions as both a steady outlet for girls dreams and an ever changing reflection of society.

Mary Dixon Kies received the first U.S. patent issued to a woman (before that all women inventions had to be registered in a man’s name) for a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. The Patent Act of 1790 opened the door for anyone, male or female to protect his or her invention with a patent. However, because in many American states women could not legally own property independent of their husbands, many women did not bother to patent their new inventions.

Every year a conference is held honouring the best of women’s inventions. In 2009 Denise Anstey of Bristol won British female inventor of the year with her invention of the “slik stik“ . As a disabled lady she was dissatisfied with conventional walking sticks, and came up with the idea of a stick that folds away for convenient storage and portability, whilst maintaining a firm and rigid support when extended.

At the Korea International Women’s Invention Exposition last year Iranian women won 12 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze medals, and gained first place among 25 countries participating.

One of the earliest known women’s invention was Sibilla Masters in 1715 in the USA, when she invented a process making cornmeal from maize.

It was a very interesting meeting, and shows how brilliant women have been over the years with their inventions, and how the world would be a poorer place without them!!!

The next meeting will be on Monday the 19th October at Kim House, starting at 10 am when the subject will be Clothing through the Ages.

Michael Page

July meeting

At our July meeting the theme was "Follow a House" and some members gave short talks on the following..

Lesley talked about the workers cottages at the Wilton Carpet factory.
Marie and Brian discussed Testwood House.
Kathy talked about the history of Sarehole Mill near Birmingham (near where she comes from).
Phyllis about the hotel they stayed in at Devils Bridge,Vale of Rheidol.
Michael the history of the Palace of Greenwich (Michael comes from the next borough of Lewisham)
Myra - Nappa Hall, Wensleydale, which was the seat of the Metcalfe Family.
Margaret talked about Dyrham House, where a relation of hers had worked for the National Trust.
Jack and Joan explained about the history of Avington House.
Pam talked about Blickley Hall in Norfolk.

It proved a very interesting meeting.

The next meeting will be on Monday 21st September when the subject will be Women Inventors.

Michael Page.