Committee Meeting - 14th August 2026
As always, our August meeting falls in the brief lull during our peak season. Our banners are up and looking superb in the summer sun, we can look back on a very successful (if hot) Medieval Festival event where we welcomed many visitors to the exhibition tent we sponsor, and our summer walks season has regularly been attracting healthy numbers. Don’t forget, our monthly walks programme continues all year round but switches to a Sunday morning from September onwards to make best use of available light.
September will also see the banners coming down ahead of our annual maintenance programme. We’ll be taking them down on Sunday 27 September, an event at which extra hands are always welcome. Whether you’re comfortable shinning up a ladder, standing at the bottom (equally essential), or helping to ‘de-pole’ the banners as they are brought back in, we’d be glad to see you. We gather at Elizabeth Wyatt House from 10.00 am and head out in teams to retrieve those within walking distance. Tea, biscuits, lots of interesting chat and, for the ladder teams, a chance to see the Town from a different viewpoint. What’s not to like!
From then on, our banner painting volunteers will be meeting in the Elizabeth Wyatt House every Monday afternoon to carry out maintenance on the banners. We’re refreshing our agreement with the House trustees as part of their campaign to secure the future of the building, which will hopefully see us improve our storage facilities using some of the funds we make from banner hire, and so strengthening our wider community engagement. Painting sessions are very sociable and cater for all levels of artistic skill, from detailed designs to the broad expanses of colour. No historical knowledge is needed, but inevitably folk become fascinated by the stories behind the banners they’re working on. We’re also working on a new edition of our popular Banner Book, listing all those on display and the individuals they represent. When we did our first run of the book some 18 years ago, we wondered how much demand there would be; several editions on, the customers keep coming.
Our Margaret of Anjou statue project continues apace. Fundraising over the summer has brought us to three quarters of what we’re hoping to raise to match the contribution from our reserves, and there’s enough time in the sculpting and manufacturing process for us to fill the gap so we’ll be looking for some new avenues to pursue. The time certainly seems right for a new piece of public art reflecting the role of women in the nation’s story, so we’re looking forward to the day when we can stick a shovel in the ground to start digging out the foundations. In the meantime, 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.
Our next meeting with be our AGM on Friday 9 October. Our AGM is always held somewhere publicly accessible as that’s our chance to conduct our formal charitable business in front of our members. In truth, the formal part is very short, but that gives us time for a more sociable element so, if you’d like to meet your Committee in person, hear more about what we’re up to and maybe explore how you might get involved, come and join us. Venue details will appear here on the website soon…