Meetings are usually held monthly, in the upstairs room of the King's Head pub, on Thursday evenings at 7.30 pm. Non-members are welcome, but please be sure to arrive in good time because we always try to start meetings at the scheduled time. The programme from September 2011 to mid-2012 is as follows.

The January meeting talk was: Wilton House and the Russian Conection by Ros Liddington.

In 1785, Semyon Vorontsov, a favourite of Catherine the Great, became the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He had two children: a daughter, Catherine and a son, Michael.

Catherine became the 2nd wife of George Herbert, the 11th Earl of Pembroke in 1785. They had six children together, five daughters and one son. A strange thing about Catherine is that, of all the many portraits painted of her, she is always pictured not wearing any jewellery. There is very little Russian influence created by her in Wilton House itself, other than a long carpeted seat under a Van Dyck painting in one of the rooms. Carpeted seats seemed to be a popular thing in the Crimean region from which her family originated. She did have much more of a say in the garden areas of the House, which are still evident today.

Her brother Michael, though brought up in England, returned to Russia, where he became a very brilliant and distinguished Commander in the Russian army. He later built the famous Vorontsov Palace in the Crimea. This palace was built in the Tudor style with many Gothic achitechural features. Ros has been to this palace, and has taken many photos, and had a few stories to tell us of her visit. Questions and answers followed before Janette Munro proposed a vote of thanks .

The next meeting will be 07.30pm on Feb 16th at the Kings Head, and the subject will be: Early Pioneering Aviation in the New Forest from 1910 by John Levesley. Non members £3.00.
Chesney Carpenter (Secretary)

All that Jazz by Julie Horton was the talk at our December meeting.

Julie told us of the origins of jazz music, starting with the freed slaves who, after the American Civil War, roamed around playing their rhythmic music wherever they could. Around 1897, New Orleans and St Louis became the main homes for this new type of music known as syncopated or ragged time [ragtime].

This new style of music was in great demand for all types of events, including weddings, and leading funeral processions. Scott Joplin came to the fore at this time. He wrote many ragtime tunes, the most famous and influential being the Maple Leaf rag. This music remained popular up until the 1920s when other types of jazz came on to the scene. Jazz also became very popular in Europe after the1914-1918 war, especially amongst young wealthy people. Womens fashion changed dramatically. Out went long dressess and in came shorter ones. Bobbed hair also became fashionable at this time.

Julie then told us about the jazz singers and musicians who influenced her. These included: Betty Smith, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She played us tracks of their music, and then gave us a short history of their lives. She then told us about her career in jazz music. She told us that in 1990, some guy had tried to chat her up. He said his father played jazz piano. The father 6 months later rang her up, and was to teach her all about jazz. Julie went on to sing in the Gosport and Guildford area and is still singing today. The 100 Club, the Waldorf Hotel and at the Goodwood Revival meeting are amonst many of the places that she has appeared at.

Questions and answers followed before Steve Karmy proposed a vote of thanks. Next meeting will be at the Kings Head on the 19-01-12 at 7.30pm. The sub:ject: "Wilton House and the Russian Connection" by Ros Liddington. Non members £3 at the door.
Chesney Carpenter (Secretary)

This month's talk was: Fame and Fortune for the Foxes of Farley, by Norman Thorne.

This was a story of fame, fortune, politics, marriage, gambling and corruption told with great humour by our speaker. Stephen Fox was born in 1627 to a yeoman farmer in Farley. He went to school at Salisbury Cathedral where he was a chorister. After this he went into service where he was highly thought of due to his skills at managing finance. He was a royalist and it is believed that he helped Charles the 2nd escape to the continent. He visited Charles on numerous occasions when the King was in exile to help with financial matters. When Charles was restored to the English Throne, he made Stephen, Paymaster General to the Forces. He soon became a very wealthy man. It was him who founded the Royal Chelsea Hospital built by his fellow Wiltshireman, Sir Christopher Wren. Later he was to become MP for Salisbury. He married twice. His second marriage brought forth two sons, Stephen and Henry.

Stephen was to become Lord and later Earl of Ilchester. He was to marry the 13 year old daughter of the Strangways family, and changed his family name to Fox-Strangways. He and his family went on to own many estates in the west country.

Henry was to follow his father into politics and also became, Paymaster General to the Forces. But here the similarity to his father ended. He was a corrupt man, a gambler and squandered a lot of the family fortune, and became known as The Big Bad Fox. He eloped and married the daughter of the Duke of Richmond. She later became Baroness of Holland and Henry the f1rst Baron of Holland. They first lived at West Winterslow, but when the house burnt down, they moved to Holland House in Kensington.

Norman told a lot more about the Fox family before he finished his talk, and questions and answers followed.
Chesney Carpenter (Secretary)

The April meeting of the History Group started with the AGM. The Chairman welcomed everyone with apologies having been received from John and Beppie Marsh and Margaret Chase. The minutes of last year’s AGM were adopted with no comments. The committee and officers for 2011/2012 were confirmed as Jenny Harrison (Chairman), Keith Weymouth (Treasurer), Jenny Karmy (Programme Secretary), Chesney Carpenter (Secretary), Janette Munro, Don Munro and John Marsh. Members were asked to consider joining the committee since some members wish to stand down next year and new blood and ideas are always welcome.

The Chairman’s report then followed with Jenny briefly reminding members of the speakers and their talks during 2010/2011. She gave thanks to the King’s Head for making the Function Room available and to all committee members for their encouragement and commitment to the group. Special thanks were also given to Margaret Chase for yet again arranging an excellent programme – a tradition which Jenny Karmy looks set to continue.

Copies of the Income and Expenditure Statement 1st March 2010 to 1st April 2011 were made available to members by Keith who then went through the Group’s finances. He explained that one of the reasons why there was a minus figure for the excess of expenditure over income was that it was now usual for speakers to charge for travel as well as a fee. To help offset this loss and to make the Group sustainable in the future the committee had decided to increase subs to £8 per annum with visitors being charged £3 per meeting with effect from September 2011.

There were no items under AOB and the business part of the evening closed with Mike Nokes proposing a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

Jenny then introduced Eric Chase, Colin Iles and Chesney Carpenter who gave a talk on The Admiralty Depot at Dean. Eric began by recalling that prior to the existence of the Depot the land had been used for farming but during the 1930s there had been a slump and in 1938, in preparation for the Second World War, the decision was taken to turn the land into an Ammunitions Depot. This was up and running by 1942. Colin and Chesney then took up the story and with the help of slides spoke of their time at the Depot with Colin having been employed there as a constable and with Chesney combining his day-to-day job with that of conservationist. It was fascinating to see inside the tunnels, look at examples of armaments and watch the making up of a delivery. Colin explained that some of the sheds have now been taken over by the Science Museum for storage. We also saw slides showing the security and estate work. Chesney also highlighted an unexpected aspect of the Depot which is that it was a haven for birds, pond life and wild animals and in 1982 a Conservation Group was formed to log the rare species of plants and butterflies etc seen within the grounds. At the closing ceremony in 2004 it was said that the Depot was a “blend of working establishment and a place of great beauty”.

Thanks were given to all three speakers for an entertaining and lively talk which was a fitting end to the Group’s programme for 2010/2011. There will now be a break for the summer and the next meeting will be on Thursday 15th September when David Plunkett will talk on Eling Tide Mill and its History.
Jenny Harrison (Chairman)