History Group Speaker 10 March ’11

Upottery Airfield, England, 22 April 1944.

Upottery Airfield, England, 22 April 1944.

Mr Claud Caple, from the South West Airfields Heritage Trust will be addressing the Hemyock History and Archiving Association on Thursday, 10th March ’11.

The subject is the World War II airfileds at Dunkeswell, Smeatharpe and Culmhead.

New members are warmly welcomed. The talk begins at 7:30pm, in the Church Rooms.

For more information, please contact Mike Cooper on 01823 680175.

Foxes book author delight History Group

Front cover from "The Foxes of Wellington"

Front cover from “The Foxes of Wellington”

The Hemyock History and Archiving Association gave a warm welcome to local author, Dorothy Lomas, on February 10th. The guest speaker delighted the Church Rooms gathering with warm tales of her journey through the Fox Family research – the subject of her new book.

The Fox Family became one of the most successful commercial families in the South-West. Coldharbour Mill, in Uffculme, was home to their famous Khaki dye and infamous soldiers’ ‘friend’ – the Puttee. The mill was said to produce around 4.5 miles of cloth, each day.

At the end of the evening, Dorothy kindly signed a number of copies of her book The Foxes of Wellington – A Family in Business. Proceeds of the book are being donated to the Friends of Coldharbour Mill. More information is available from the Mill, on 01884 840960.

The evening ended with donations being taken for the up-keep of the Church Rooms. A total of