Group History

Group Records

We have some interesting inputs to our appeal for group history, but there are many more of you out there who could contribute. Put your memories down on paper. We can tidy them up if necessary. Some time ago Rob Smart sorted the programmes into date order and filed them, giving us a series from the first programme in 1954.

Group History

The early affairs of the Group have been written up by Bill Myers, see previous paragraph. Barbara Frost is also getting things down on paper. Don't forget our appeal for anyone with tales from previous times in the Group to write them down for our  records. These will be anonymous and edited to be non-personal if appropriate. In the meantime Maggie has been trawling through the collected programmes and coming up with some intriguing thoughts. A short selection:

• Winter 1964-1965 programme: Certain intermediate railway stations in Hampshire are now closed to passenger traffic on Sundays. (The beginning of the end?)
• From December 1967 to February 1968 the programme was suspended because of foot and mouth disease. As in 2001, a replacement programme was produced, offering a mixture of walks in towns, along country lanes and the seashore.
• In May 1968 a walk was arranged to cross over Butser Hill, which had recently been acquired by Hants County Council as "open space".
• Can anyone remember what "County Routes" were? Several walks in the 60s followed them.
• Several other groups had joint walks with Southampton RA, including the Winchester Group, Southampton University Group and the Coffee Pot Group (18/05/1969).
• The first mention of a pub lunch was on 5 December 1970 when Jenny Pilkington led a walk from Wilton to Dinton. According to a handwritten note on the programme, three people went on the walk, but that may have been due to bad weather.
• On Boxing Day in 1970, it was snowing hard, but 8 people turned up for a 13 mile walk from Ropley Station (trains on Boxing Day!).