The HMG Christmas Meeting and Party was held at
Tubbs Hall, Kings Worthy, and 25 members attended.
Despite the ever-present coronavirus threat, that
meant that all those who said they were going to
come did in fact come to the meeting.
To kick off, Ashok Vaidya welcomed everybody on
behalf of the committee, and outlined the situation
that HMG finds itself in. He observed that HMG was
now nearly 40 years old, having grown from just 12
members at the start. In that time it had gained a
good reputation for gathering information about
mills, giving advice, and carrying out practical
work. But now with the secretary and chairman
having stepped down, and with replacements yet to be
found, plus the ability to do practical work much
reduced, the group is at somewhat at a crossroads.
So the committee would be writing to all members
early in the new year to seek views on how we should
go forward. He concluded by sincerely thanking
Alison Stott (as secretary for 26 years) and Andy
Fish (as chairman) for their service.
A very enjoyable Christmas lunch buffet followed,
prepared by Ruth Andrews and Eleanor Yates; see the
pictures and comments below.
There was supposed to be a ‘penny reading’
afterwards with songs and readings about mills, and
indeed a series of mill songs prepared by Sheila
Viner and Eleanor Yates was played in the background
during lunch. But with everybody very happily
chatting and talking with each other it was thought
that it would be a shame to curtail that, and so we
never got to have the penny reading.
