Committee Meeting - 12th June 2026
Our June committee meeting fell in the midst of our busy period. Looking back, our anniversary walk from Tredington to Tewkesbury on 3 May had gone well with the weather smiling on our group of walkers at a period of intermittent heavy showers. The pair of talks held in conjunction with the anniversary: Claudia Zimmerman on George Duke of Clarence and Dr Michael Jones on Edmund, Duke of Somerset – were also well subscribed and had been warmly received.
Our banner choosing days in the Town Hall in May had attracted its usual popularity, complemented by our email reminders to regular banner renters, meaning that all 202 banners are booked for this year’s display, with a small reserve list. Our teams are out early this year, doing some of the further flung locations, then on Saturday 19 June, we’ll be at the Elizabeth Wyatt House in Barton Street, putting the banners on their poles and on Sunday 20 June we’ll be taking to the streets to hang them. Volunteers are very welcome for either or both sessions – the more we get the quicker those banners will be up and beautifying our town.
We also took part in “This is Tewkesbury” in the Abbey on 13 June as one of many organisations showcasing their activities, and on 21 June we’ll be conducting a battlefield tour as part of the weekend’s Tewkesbury History Festival.
Those will lead us nicely up to the Medieval Festival on 11 and 12 July, where once again we will be sponsoring the exhibition tent to provide display space for other heritage non-profit organisations, and for a display by artist Graham Turner who continues to lend his talents to both the Society and Festival.
We’re continuing our efforts to raise funds to create a sculpture of Queen Margaret of Anjou in the grounds of the Abbey now that all the permissions are in place as construction can progress. We’ve already been successful in securing a number of grants towards the costs, and have launched our crowdfunding appeal to take donations up to 50% of the cost, at which point, the Society will pick up the other half from the funds we’ve put aside. You’ll find the flyer elsewhere on our website and you can make a donation direct at https://www.tewkesbury.org.uk/donate-to-margaret
As part of our wider community involvement, we’re also helping to secure the future of the Elizabeth Wyatt House, where we conduct our weekly banner painting sessions. This importance piece of the town’s heritage – once a school and more recently the location of a club supporting the elderly – is an ideal space of groups to meet and would make a superb dance or theatre rehearsal venue. If interested, contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the management committee. In the meantime, we’re planning to do some work to help freshen it up and give it a dose of ‘kerb appeal’.
As always, there’s room for more Society volunteers, whether that’s as keen historian, banner painter, or just to play your part in the preservation and promotion of the heritage on our doorsteps. We’d love to hear from you…