Chairman’s Report, Annual General Meeting, 2016

Chairman’s Report May 2016 Our Society is mourning the death of our President Tavia Maclean. Tavia joined the Society by chance after going to a series of talks on Vernacular Architecture in about 1980. Having joined the Society she became a founder member of the Vernacular Archi- tecture Group which was setup to research the origins of the town’s buildings. She became the leader of this group and they re- searched and produced detailed reports on over 3o historic build- ings in the town. This in turn led to the recognised history of the town being re-written For example the”Great Fire of Newport” was always supposed to have raged near the church but the Group has proved that it destroyed an area of the town where the High Street is at its widest. Tavia’s skill, both as leader of the V. A. Group and as Co-ordinator of the Society, was to bring together the abilities of individual members who then felt able to contribute. Their researches led to the production of many History Society booklets and pamphlets. The latest is a new edition of our Heritage Trail which she helped to revise last year. Another example of her lively mind was when during discussions about creating and storing digital images Tavia brilliantly came up with the name SNAP – Shropshire Newport Archive Photographs. More than 35 years on and up to a few weeks ago she was still encouraging people to help with research from her sick bed. She was pleased with the return of our Archives from Harper Adams’ University to Newport and their recent move. She was excited with the growth of our Heritage Centre and with all the work of our field archaeology group. In spite of the fact that she could not see she could still use the telephone to discuss her thoughts on local histo- ry with family, friends and members of our Society. Martin Elkes Martin Elkes