The meeting was held at the museum of the Severn Valley Railway.   Thanks are due to Mike Dickins, who, living nearer than the rest of us, undertook to sort out the details and make sure we were getting what we needed.  It was pleasing to see that Tony Faulkner was able to join us.

We started, as was customary, with coffee, served in the meeting room of the ‘Engine Shed’.  This was never in fact an engine shed, it was purpose built to house an interesting collection of steam locomotives and memorabilia, plus a cafe, shop and aforementioned meeting room.   First item of the meeting proper was a talk from Malcolm, one of the volunteer guides, on the history of the Severn Valley Railway, and an explanation of how it now operated as a charitable trust, with a few paid staff and a lot of volunteers. 

Following the talk we split into three groups, so that we could visit the ‘King’s Carriage’, a coach which was designed as part of a royal train for King George 6 and the Queen, as they toured the country during the second world war.  Once again Malcolm was our guide, so he had to repeat his talk three times.  We could understand why this was necessary, as the coach had little space for moving about,  and we had to progress from room to room in single file.

Next was lunch.  This was a do-it-yourself affair, most people opted for the cafe (there were no other food outlets for miles) and fortunately the food proved to be highly satisfactory.

After lunch we reassembled in the meeting room, and had a minute’s silence in memory of Mike Thompson, followed by a tribute to him put together by Peter Jones from You Tube material and Ken’s photographs from past meetings.   Peter also updated us on the financial position – we are still solvent  - and then we discussed the content of the next meeting (details elsewhere) which Peta has arranged.

The rest of the afternoon was occupied by playback of various items contributed by members.  David Holland offered three items, the first of which was a visit to HTV studios in Cardiff in May 1991.  This brought forth many comments on the lines of “there’s a young .......” and “I had hair then”

Mike Dickins had a fascinating recording in which he discussed, with a wildlife expert, a Victorian book which attempted  to represent bird calls in print.  This caused some hilarity as the written descriptions were compared with actual bird recordings.

Stewart Smith had made several recordings in Bolton Abbey, a very ‘live’ acoustic, and we were able to compare recordings including a choir and a guitar duo and see on the accompanying photographs where the microphones were placed.  We discussed the merits of using a mid/side configuration to give some control over the stereo spread at the post-production stage.

David’s other items were his recording of part of Malcolm Arnold’s ‘Four Scottish Dances’ and a short film of a visit to the war cemetery at Dozinghem, where his Grandfather James William Holland was buried.

In the course of the afternoon we had drinks and muffins to prepare us for the ardours of the trip home (except the six of us who were staying overnight in Telford – we had the tea and muffins anyway, then went out for a meal).

Richard Simmons