The Tewin Society was set up in the 1970s to ensure that the
Tewin environment was enhanced and protected for the community who live here
and the many visitors who enjoy walking, cycling and horse-riding through the
area. Teams of
volunteers over the years have
opened up footpaths, planted new trees and bulbs and kept hedgerows tidy
to encourage bird and other wild life.
Every spring the Society organises a Litter Blitz in the village and later in the year there are Bulb
and Tree planting working parties.
The Society has won a number of awards
for its efforts.
The Society
plays a significant part in village life and also supports other events around
the village such as the village fête.
On Remembrance Sunday we placed a wreath on the monument outside the
Church, and we contributed to the Christmas tree on the Green by paying for the
lights. On behalf of the Parish council in the past we have also entered the
Village of the Year competitions.
The Society
is now affiliated to the Hertfordshire Association for Local History and in
this capacity members have been carrying out interviews with residents to
record their memories of life in the village for the HALH project on Oral
History. The Society is the keeper
of the archive of historical records, which were collected for a village
exhibition in 2000, and again in 2003. This is the material, which is the basis for another
current project by a group of members who are writing a book about the
History of Tewin.
Annual
Speaker Evenings
Each year the Society usually holds two Speaker
evenings in October and November. In 2007 we changed the format slightly as we were
asked to host the Annual Symposium for the Herts Association for Local History
(HALH) in November, which about 35 members of the Tewin Society attended along
with 80 others from other local history societies in the county. The topic for the day was The
History of Landscape, Farming and the Wildlife Trust in
Hertfordshire. The Tewin Society is affiliated to HALH.
In October 2007 we welcomed Anne Rowe from the Hertfordshire
Garden History Society to speak about three local lost gardens. Reports of both these events are to be found
in the latest copy of the Tewin Society Newsletter, which can be found here) The Tewin Society publishes two newsletters each year, which
are distributed to members in the village. In 1991 it also produced a map of
the footpaths around the village.
This was revised and updated in 2007 and can be purchased from the
Chairman of the Society or from Tewin Stores, priced £3.50.
Annual
General Meeting
The AGM of
the Society will take place on Monday 10th March 2008 at 8pm
in the Tewin Memorial Hall, followed by wine and nibbles. Elizabeth Wilson will give a short talk
about Eileen Soper, a local artist who painted portraits but was more well
known for her illustrations of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books.
Visit
to Firle Place in July 2007
On 10th
July the Society arranged a joint visit with THACS members to Firle Place, the
home of the Gage family for over five hundred years, where the artefacts and
art treasures formerly at Panshanger House in Tewin, are now displayed. We enjoyed a special Private tour of
the house with particular emphasis on the links with Tewin. During tea the present Lord Gage who
spent some of the war years evacuated at Panshanger, came downstairs to talk
about his time there with his grandmother Lady Desborough, in the 1940s.
We shall
continue to hold working parties when necessary to look after the pond
and woodland around Upper Green and to keep abreast of the larger view on
planning issues as they affect the village. . We also take
a keen interest in any plans for house building or developments in the
village and across the County and in the possible expansion of airport runways
at Stansted and
In the past seven years the Society has
worked tirelessly to help divert the County Council’s Aggregates panel from
deciding to use Tewin’s environs for minerals extraction. A summary of activity to date is to be
found here or contact the Chairman or
Secretary for further information.
The Society has also campaigned vigorously against the land sales in the
village in Green Belt land which have since been desecrated with stakes and
wiring by a land developer.
The latest information about all these
issues may be found in the Parish News when there is something to report.
Forthcoming Events for HALH
Sat 10 May Spring Meeting and AGM venue Place Hall, Ware Speaker
will be Jill Barber from Herts Archives on “Slavery in Hertfordshire”
Sun 13 July HALH Garden Party at Bushey to include a visit
to the museum and to the beautiful Reveley Lodge
1 November Herts Association for Local History Annual Symposium at the Ewen Hall, Wood Street, Barnet. The subject for the day will be “Care and the Community”
Any enquiries may be made via the Chairman Rosemary Nodder 01438 798705 rnodder@google.com
or the Secretary Liz Lewinton 01438 714577 e.lewinton@btinternet.com