On moving into the 51st year of your Society’s existence, it was felt at the last AGM that we should be engaging with aspects of parish life other than the traditional areas it has so far concerned itself with, namely to help protect the parish from inappropriate development. Tony Hickman (a past President) suggested that following on from the undoubted success of the Taplow Heritage Day, we should take advantage of the impetus to widen our appeal to the people of our parish by tapping the talents, skills and interests of our residents so well demonstrated by the Heritage Day displays.
To this end he put forward the idea of developing a range of informal, special-interest groups under the umbrella of the Society to broaden interaction generally and provide a means by which people can come together without the formal commitment of joining the Committee. The Committee would remain directly responsible for the Village Green Party, planning matters and the twice-yearly newsletter, but in addition there would be a number of interest groups, formed and run by volunteers, free to develop their activities as the participants wish and publishing their work (and fun) in the Newsletter. The following groups were suggested by Tony:
Art Group
Main activities would be an annual exhibition, possibly coinciding with the Village Green Party (providing a potential audience of 500-plus), painting and drawing activities, exhibition visits and the like.
Literary Group
For those who enjoy writing, readings in any genre, poetry or just plain gassing about the latest books, plus feedback from members of the local branch of Nadfas (National Association of Fine Art Societies).
Taplow History Group
To carry out research, discussion and publication of the history of Taplow and Hitcham; its places and people, maybe in the context of the wider history of England. Link to the Heritage Day organisers.
Gardening Group
Informal visits to members' gardens, summer fruit and flower show, plant swaps, specialist talks, etc.
Music Group
Informal recitals in members' homes, circulating details of local music events, discussions, concert visits and choral evenings.
Natural History Group
Details of local flora and fauna, articles for the newsletter, site visits, discussions, specialist talks.
There are probably many other specialist interests within our community which the Society can help organise and provide communication channels for. For example, Taplow is probably better served for broadband access than most rural areas (or is it?) and there may be a case for starting a DIY broadband facility somewhat above the modest 2 megabits per second promised by the government - which sounds fine until you find that South Korea is planning a universal coverage at 500 times this speed! A lady in South Witham in Grantham called Helen Anderson, who knew nothing about broadband, started an initiative to provide a self-help cable connection. It's quite a story and in these days broadband is becoming as essential a facility for a community as its gas and electricity connection. Maybe we in Taplow should consider a Broadband Connection Group?
These are all just ideas right now, but the talent is there (take the wonderful material on show at the Art Exhibition during Heritage Day). If you are interested, even just to talk through the above ideas, then contact either Tony Hickman at
hickman124@aol.com, or me, Fred Russell, at
fred.russell@sky.com
Our parish and its community are precious assets, especially in its critical and strategic position as a green lung preventing the conurbations of Slough and Maidenhead from merging. They are worth protecting and nurturing and that can only be done by you, kind reader.
Fred Russell
