Personal Stories

My memories include Millennium New Year Night - A cold, wet and rather damp start to the new millennium - stood on the prom of Bournemouth beach watching the firework display off the pier with my mum, dad, cousin and two of her friends. A lot of umbrellas and flasks full of hot drinks were evident! We parked about a mile and half away down one of the chines and got rather wet on returning to the car!

My grandpa's 80th birthday party was a great day in July 1995 - held in his local church with a buffet lunch put on. About 100 people; including family and friends attended and all had a wonderful time. My dad did a speech of which I was immensely proud of him for doing and we all sweltered in the intense heat of the day - a very warm summer! It was tinged with sadness as grandpa died a few weeks later, but it was great to quality spend time with him prior to the party to help get it ready - a bit of cooking, tidying the church garden and arranging the tables and chairs. A very fond memory of mine.

Jonathan Ford

At 1pm on Millennium afternoon, at home in Derby, we watched the scenes on the TV, of the Mall having been turned into a funfair and family play park, and that all the pubs in the centre of London had been closed. Having wanted all my life to spend one New Year's Eve in London, we took the decision to drive down, with our 4 year old daughter and join the party. Finding a hotel was easy, as they had all priced themselves too high, and now were struggling. We arrived around 6pm, had a quick sandwich and set out for the Mall and the Dodgems, with our only supplies a bottle of champagne and 4 glasses. From the dodgems we drifted down to Trafalgar Square, and as it was still only 9ish we thought we'd go and have a look at Big Ben. As we walked on to Westminster Bridge the police announced it was now closed to further revellers, so we decided to stay put. We shared the next hour or so with families, couples, groups of inebriated teens, from all points of the globe, and the atmosphere was fantastic. When Big Ben struck midnight we shared our champagne around and enjoyed the sensation of being 'in' the fireworks rather than watching them.

So we shared the Millennium with 4 million new friends, and the rest of the world. The walk home was a long one, hampered by the thousands of empty champagne bottles lying around, and a sleeping child, but it was a unique and wonderful experience.

Lesley Downing

Celebrating my 18th birthday on 1st July this year, also the date that smoking is no longer allowed in public places signalling the change in Britain's attitude towards smoking.

On 1st July 2000 DERA became QinetiQ and there was a big party with fireworks where I'm sure I saw a rabbit get hit by a firework!

Alice Holland

This year is the 60th anniversary of my mother and father moving into their first married home. They had married in 1942 during the war but no houses were available so they had to live with their parents.

After the war building slowly started again, and by chance, in 1946, they heard of some new houses being built in Worcester, and were able to get one, even though at £1,000 it cost twice as much as it would have before the war.

They moved in 1947, in early April, and spent the rest of their married life there till Dad died in 1989. The neighbours on either side didn't change for 40 years, such was the stability of those days.

Mum remained in the house as a widow, and nearly reached the 60th anniversary of moving in, but died in March, a few weeks before the anniversary.

1947 saw the beginning of the firm basis of my childhood, the house I was born in and the place of all my early memories. Given the scarcity of housing in the 1940s, mum and dad also allowed friends and family to live for periods with us, as they looked for their own homes.

Robin Whittaker

Other Anniversaries

Evesham Baptist Church celebrates its 275th anniversary in 2007. It dates its official birthday from May 4th 1732 when its first minister, Jacob Mower, was ordained as the pastor of the church. There had been Baptist Christians in Evesham before then and as early as 1704 a group of them had met for worship in a barn which they had fitted out for Sunday services. The barn was on the north side of Port Street in Bengeworth, on land adjoining a farmyard belonging to a Mr. Joshua Harris. A number of other Baptists used to walk from Alcester and back every Sunday in order to join in the services at Bengeworth.

We know about this early history because in 1789 the minister, Rev. Lawrence Butterworth, wrote a history of the Church drawing on the memories of people still living who remembered the earliest beginnings of the Church. The original document still survives and has recently been deposited at the Worcestershire Record Office. We will be celebrating the 275th anniversary in November and will have a display in Evesham Library as part of the celebrations.

Clare Bostle

1977

I have a memory of Silver Jubilee. There was a big party on the caravan site my parents had a Static Caravan on in North Wales. Lots of family open air games like rounders, lots of sunshine and a campfire to finish. The site had a mix of people from Liverpool, Manchester, Wales and the Midlands.

Ian Wilkes

60th Anniversary of the Record Office

Having many other commitments, time for me to pursue my own interests is always at a premium. When I do manage to create a little spare time, I thoroughly enjoy visiting the Record Office or the History Centre. My hope that "today I might make some exciting discovery in the archives" or "I might find the information that will solve a mystery that has been intriguing me" helps me to forget the routines of everyday life and gives me something to look forward to. Just the tonic I need! Brilliant!

Roger Leake

Elgar's 150th Anniversary

Favourite Elgar piece is Nimrod. A piece about his friend Jaeger meaning hunter in German and hence to Nimrod, God of hunting.

Ian Wilkes

Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act

The one that has struck me perhaps the most is the 200 hundred years since the abolishment of the slave trade in this country - it just amazes me that slavery was allowed to persist for so long in a supposedly Christian country, and what little I know of this event indicates passing the Abolition of Slave Trade Act required a long hard struggle, which means a lot of people must have fought hard against it...

Jonathan Morgan