On Saturday 4 June, Firs Field will be transformed for Combe Down’s celebration of Her Majesty’s 70 years on the British throne. Your heritage society will be there too! come rain or shine. Please drop in and visit us under the shelter of the green gazebo (you can’t miss it!).
There will be a fascinating display of photographs from Combe Down’s past, and an opportunity to enter our new Cookery Competition!
Monday 8 November saw a webinar on local wartime history. This fascinating evening brought two stories of how America’s racial relations and civil rights movement came to the West Country during the Second World War. Although not organised by CDHS, we are sure that these talks will be of interest to our members.
To begin, Professor Mary Louise Roberts from the University of Wisconsin, USA, related the amazing story of Leroy Henry, an African-American soldier who was saved from a hanging after an incident in Combe Down.
This was followed by Kate Werran, who talked about the dramatic ‘wild west’ shoot-out that took place in Launceston, Cornwall between black American GIs and military police.
Thanks to Tanya Parker of the South West TUC, we can now post the recording of these two talks on our website.
More details of the Leroy Henry case can be found on the website of Robert Walsh, a freelance writer based in Cornwall.
On May 6th this year, Dick Irving gave a talk via Zoom to the Chepstow Archaeological Society: “A Brief History of the Stone Mines and Quarries at Combe Down, near Bath”. Thanks to Colin Harris, the Chairman of that society, and to Miranda Litchfield, Chief Executive of our sister organisation the Museum of Bath Stone, we can now make this available here on our own website.
The talk proper begins at 1:50 and lasts until 59:00, after which there are questions.