NEWS
This page is here to contain any items of news about the society and its activities. It will be updated from time to time as things happen or events are organised. Watch this space.
Our May Talk
"Auschwitz"
Lest We Forget – Timeless Lessons of Auschwitz thanks to Primo Levi
with Galen Bartholomew
Our 2026 programme continues on
Thursday 28th May
2025 marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and the death marches in which concentration camp victims were forced to march west into Germany as the Red Army advanced from the east.
Primo Levi was an inmate of Auschwitz for 11 months (where life expectancy, if you were ‘spared’ for work, was three months). His highly acclaimed books about his experiences, rather than focusing on the appalling brutality of Auschwitz, shed light on the way human beings behave in these most extreme conditions, and how some are better equipped to survive than others.
In this talk Galen Bartholomew will outline some chilling aspects of the Third Reich 1933-1945 in the belief that continued awareness of the Holocaust, the most hideous crime in modern history, will help to protect future generations.
As usual we will be at the Friends' Meeting House in Cowl Street, starting at 7:30. All are welcome.
Our Talks Season 2025-26
WE HAVE EXPANDED OUR PROGRAMME OF TALKS
By popular request we have expanded our programme of talks
in 2026 and we now have meetings all through the Summer up to October. These newly-arranged talks complete the season.
28 May 2026 7:30pm
Galen Bartholomew “Auschwitz”
25 June 2026 7:30pm
John Reid "Ripping Yarns and Wizard Wheezes
The Golden Age of British Comics, 1950-1975
30 July 2026 7:30pm
From Time to Time “A Day in the Life of a Victorian Lady”
27 August 2026 7:30pm
Vanessa Morgan “Dear Mother... A Tragedy of 1918”
24 September 2026 7:30pm
Robin Hill “The Working Countryside - The Rural Past of the West Midlands
As Captured by the Cameras of the Time”
29 October 2026 7:30pm
Max Keen “Clive of India”
All talks will be at the Friends’ Meeting House in Cowl Street.
We look forward to seeing Society members, new members, and anyone else who wishes to come.
A complete list of our expanded 2025-6 season is shown here
Our Friends in the Churches Conservation Trust
at St Lawrence's Church
PRESENT
This will be held on Friday 12 June at 7:30pm
in St Lawrence's Church
You can book your tickets here
or via the q-code
THE VEHS COLLECTION IN THE ALMONRY MUSEUM,
The Almonry Museum has now closed for its much-needed restoration work, and virtually all of its contents - large and small - have been removed.
For many of the items (those belonging to the Town Council, of course, and some of those belonging to the Society) it is intended that these will be rehomed in the museum when it reopens in two or three years' time. A few of our items have been returned to their original donors, or passed or offered to other museums etc. The remainder of our items, including documents and furniture, will not be taken back when the museum reopens, and are now totally in the care of the Society.
Some items have been judged to be in very poor condition (or of too little interest) and have been scrapped, but the remainder is now in store. We have rented a second room at the storage facility at Avondale and a container at Hinton-on-the Green, and many artefacts are stored in members’ homes.
We would like to give as many of the donated items as is possible to other museums in Worcestershire or Warwickshire. Failing that, we would like to continue to return as much as possible to the original donors of the items (and of course we want to return articles which have been on loan to us). As the museum opened in 1957 in many cases it will be to the descendants of the original donors or lenders.
If anyone has donated or loaned an item to the Vale of Evesham Historical Society, or knows of anyone who has done so, and would like us to return it, please contact the Society’s Chairman at her dedicated e-mail address.
Alternatively if anyone volunteers at a Worcestershire museum and would like to augment its collection, contact Carmel to let her know what it is your museum is in need of.
Medieval Market
Did you see our stall at the Medieval market on 16-17 May? We were there for all of both days, and met many of our friends old and new.
As ever, our tombola was a great success with children and adults alike, and as a bonus we made some money!
We had been threatened with rain at the weekend, but luckily most of it held off.
Membership
Our 2025-6 Membership Season is well under way, - and we always welcome new members. If you are looking to join you can do so here - either as an individual or as a joint membership with a partner or a member of the family.
Members who have not yet renewed their membership are invited to do so. It is simple to renew online: here for individual members and here for a joint membership.
Joining now will authorise you to come and vote at our AGM in April
Meanwhile, back numbers of our Members' magazine The Almoner's Pen
is available to all including non-members. This is the 2023-24 issue: Just
click on the cover picture to order, and others are also available.
see all our publications here.