SOCIETY NEWS

Best wishes to all supporters of the Society for a happy and prosperous New Year

The next Buckley Society talk is on the first Friday of the month. The meetings take place from October to May each year

The new Buckley Town & Heritage Trails leaflet is now available from the Library and Town Council Offices see Publications page for more detail

In recent weeks several web sites have been added on the links page, a useful facility to trawl through for information on local history. In the event of a link failing please try using one of the search engines available e.g. Google / Bing etc. to search for the relevant site address

An historic document donated to the Buckley Society is now on permanent display in the foyer at Buckley Council Offices for anyone who wishes to view it.

Dating back to 1888 the ornate and intricate document which was presented to the Gregory family of local Industrialists was a gift from the work force of Mount Pleasant Colliery and is inscribed to the effect ' Your friends and workmen welcome the opportunity of presenting this Address to you as a slight token of our esteem, and in recognition of the energy and perseverance shown by you in proving the mines at Mount Pleasant Colliery and that at a time when great depression prevailed in this neighbourhood. We also desire to express our respect and thorough appreciation of your uniform kindness, affability and earnestness and our admiration of of those business capabilities which have enabled you to carry out the undertaking so successfully. It is our earnest hope that yourself and Mrs. Gregory may long be spared to live amongst us and to enjoy the fruits of your labours'

As well as the above information it also contains a full list of all employees at the Colliery and should prove an invaluable source of information to both local historians and family history researchers alike. Photographs of the family plus a well known photograph of Colliery workers lined up alongside a railway engine in front of the Colliery also appear within the document.

The framed manuscript was presented to the Society by Mr. Michael Kenyon Gregory a descendant of the Colliery Owners for it to be displayed in the Town on a permanent basis. We are grateful to both Mr. Gregory and to the Town Council for making such an important document publicly available.

The events which were recorded on 16 mm film sponsored by the J Arthur Rank Organisation and filmed by Thomas Dempster Jones contains classic footage of Buckley streets, community preparations before the day, the procession itself and activities at various churches thereafter. Professionally filmed it is possible to identify many people involved in the celebrations, people in the crowd lining the streets, as well as Churches, buildings and locations in the back ground many of which have altered or been demolished in the last fifty years or so.

For a few minutes at the end of the film it switches to the Buckley Amateur Pantomime Co. Silver Jubilee production of Jack and the Beanstalk, featuring close ups of the Director Alderman Dennis Griffiths JP and members of the cast as well as several clips from the Pantomime itself.

Footage of the restored Castle Firebrick Sentinel waggon is available on u tube including a visit to Buckley and to Flint Mountain in 2009

After the earlier reported road accident on the way back from Onslow Park Rally in late August to Stuart Gray's 'Castle Firebrick Co Ltd' Sentinel S4, the waggon had all the repairs completed in a fast track program in time for it's return to Stuart's home before Christmas. The repairs were carried out in Shropshire by father and son team of John and Neil Boughey from C & G Coachworks and Stuart himself who did a fair amount of running around in the process. Whilst the impact with the third party has only been estimated by the Police at 20mph, this was sufficient to cause significant damage to the off side of the front of the waggon, particularly the chassis and running gear, requiring the whole front end of the waggon to be taken apart to facilitate the repairs, which included removing the boiler for a thorough examination as the main supporting chassis cross member had shown signs of impact damage from the accident and required repair. With the front end completed stripped the repairs were relatively straight forward except for the steering box, where the impact had bent the main steering box weigh shaft, which required a new one to be fabricated. The availability of Sentinel Works drawings from The Sentinel Drivers Club help considerably in determining the exact dimensions and material specifications.

With the waggon completely stripped the opportunity was taken by Stuart to carry out some planned winter improvements, including the fitting of a Sentinel pattern spark arrestor and collector box and the fitting of a second filler on the water tanks to allow for improved dosing of water treatment.

Stuart would like to thank in addition to C & G Coachworks, John and Justin Goold, The Shuttleworth Collection and James Campbell in helping to get this repair completed in a short space of time. See Old Glory Magazine February 2010 for a feature on the repairs.

The initial damage didn't look a lot but everything was twisted and bent and the chassis was broken, a complete strip down was needed

Above, the new steering box weigh shaft shown against the old shaft now bent and twisted, which can be seen from the oil feed hole

The third edition of the archive will be issued in 2011 and will contain about 5,500 images.

Castle Firebrick Co Ltd. Sentinel Waggon Visit to Buckley 29.8.09 An enjoyable visit occurred which was supported by many people from the town and surrounding area.

A brief film of the visit to Buckley is available on u tube courtesy of Mr. John Butler by searching for ' Just another vehicle The Buckley Sentinel'

The Waggon later visited Flint Mountain a further video clip from which is available on u tube - Log on to u tube and enter Bomber 127 'The Sentinel returns to flint Mountain' into the search box or click on the below link

Sadly the waggon was involved in a road traffic accident en route home from Onslow Park Shrewsbury on Bank Holiday Monday the 31st August. No one was injured but the waggon incurred extensive damage to the front axle, springs and steering. It will have to be stripped down and repaired which could take it off the road for several months. Our sympathy is extended to the Gray family who have put so much effort into bringing the waggon back to the pristine condition it was in.

The Buckley Society are now members of the above organisation for further details visit www.balh.co.uk

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The Society has released a DVD entitled 'Processions from the Past' which is a compilation of old cine and video footage dating from the late 1950's through to 1980. If you, your friends or relatives were involved in Jubilee celebrations during that period you may be captured on film. There are also two clips of the Buckley Carnival processions and a Civic Service. A fascinating collection of short film clips, they capture people, fashions, characters, buildings and vehicles from three decades. See 'Publications' page for details.

Note! The Society are still appealing for any old cine film of the Buckley Railway in operation before its closure in the 1960's or details of anyone who might have such footage please.

Two visits to The Church of St John the Baptist Pentrobin, Penymynydd in the last two years have attracted over fifty attendees both times.They were treated to a most interesting and informative tour of this fascinating Church that was recently featured on the Programme 'Fishlock's Wild Tracks' See website link below to view some of the artwork therein.

On Thursday the 5th February 2009 ITV Wales transmitted an edition of 'Fishlock's Wild Tracks' which featured the 2008 Buckley Jubilee celebrations and a visit to the town library to film the Buckley Society in an archiving session.

Watch out for repeats if you missed it or search the Internet for 'Fishlocks Wild Tracks Great Crested Newts' on u tube for a preview'