Sadly we have to report the death of our president Bryan Hough who many of you will have known through the DSWA. The branch will miss his company, advice and guidance immensely.
The branch has been active throughout the year. In July we did a demonstration at Saddleworth Show and managed to build a stile into a wall that has been needed for years. Good to do something that isn’t pulled down afterwards.
Visitors were plentiful and Val and Paul made sure they had plenty of information about our activities in the local area. Our social in August took place on one of those miserable days with the mist swirling about as we walked over to The Alderman and Pots and Pans.
Great that nobody seemed bothered as the craich was excellent and continued into late afternoon over a meal and a few drinks in the welcoming Cross Keys above Uppermill.
Our two training courses in August and October were very successful and produced almost 40m of very sound wall. The August course took place in perfect conditions and was something of a first for us as it was the first training course where the ladies outnumbered the men (7:5) and as in previous years the battle of Britain flight came over to keep an eye on us. The October course had 14 trainees and despite being buffeted by storm Brian they got stuck in and produced more than 20m of excellent wall.
These courses are well supported by our members and I do feel that they benefit from having to explain the principles of the craft to trainees. This year 6 of our members have taken and passed tests; five at level 2 and one at level 1 and one member has embarked on training as an instructor. The improving skill levels in the branch are quite apparent in the work that is being produced.
Our monthly practice meets are always enjoyable especially the meet in October when we were joined by Trevor, Alex and Kate from ‘just overt’top’ in West Yorkshire.
We held our AGM on Wednesday 25th October when we were very happy to have Lydia Noble along to see what we get up to. The general feeling was that the branch is doing very well and a new programme was approved for 2018 which should give everybody a chance to improve their skills further. The big projects that we have been engaged in are reaching completion and happily there are lots of other challenges awaiting our attention.