Minutes of Stoke Ferry & District History Group AGM, 13 October 2025
Community Room, All Saints Academy, Lynn Road, Stoke Ferry
1. Appoint a minute taker: Marion Clarke
2. Welcome and apologies: Jim McNeill welcomed everyone to the meeting and commenced proceedings. Committee members present: Jim McNeill, Roger Warner, Alexis Brand, Marion Clarke, Anne Ellis, Lauren Arellano. Members present: Stuart Pembery, Tony Hunt, Carol Lee, Fay Crouch, Sue Lintern.
Apologies received from: Helaine Wyett, Sandra McNeill, Andrew Carter, Dave Deighton, Beverley Phillips, Jackie Pembery
3. Agreed the minutes from previous AGM as a true record.
4. Matters arising from previous AGM
Stuart Pembery asked if the cost of annual membership should be £15 or £20. It was agreed to keep it at £15 for the time being as this was more likely to encourage new members. Fay Crouch suggested that other methods of fundraising, such as having raffles, should be considered.
5. The Chair’s feedback on the Group’s activities during 2024/25
Jim said it has been an enjoyable and fruitful year. He regretted the loss of Dave Deighton and Mo Austin from the Committee. He wished to give special thanks to: Lauren for her research work; Helaine for her collection of Romano-British artefacts; Jackie for the school display board; contributors to the Village Pump; Stuart Pembery for his IT, AI and drone filming skills; as well as to Roger, Geoff and Andy for giving talks.
Highlights of the year included the talk on Colourful Characters, the Open Archive Weekend, the Local Film Day, Displays of Lynn Road and Whittington, plus the expansion of our Community History Archives.
He believed the history group contributed to a vibrant local district along with the village hall, the Bluebell Community-owned pub, the playing fields, local churches, the Village Pump, the walking group and the local book group.
(The full Chair’s Report is availale on this website)
6. Presentation of accounts for the year 2024/25
Anne Ellis delivered the Treasurer’s Report for the last year. Expenses included the cost of replacing the photocopier, the purchase of display boards and expansion of the Archives. Successful grant awards contributed to the cost of purchasing a drone. Jim McNeill donated £50 he received for giving a talk at Wells-on-Sea. The £500 raised by Tesco has been ringfenced for projects aimed at pupils of All Saints Academy.
The balance sheet showed a sum of £1,238.62 carried forward to 2025/26.
(The full Accounts for 2024/25 is availale on this website)
7. Nominations for election of a maximum of six committee members for the year 2025/26.
Jim McNeill, Helaine Wyett, Roger Warner, Alexis Brand, Anne Ellis, Lauren Arellano and Marion Clarke were nominated and elected.
Jim told the meeting that volunteers are welcome to join working groups and to be involved with the Group’s activities.
8. The formal meeting closed
9. Open discussion:
Ideas for future events, talks, walks, publications.
Alexis and Jim are researching the contribution made by Eastern and Central Europeans who lived in this area. This would include the Ukrainian community that lived in Great Man’s Way, Stoke Ferry, as well as prisoners-of-war based locally. Jim said that the Polish association based in Norwich was keen to be involved.
It was suggested that the Group might research and mount a display of Wretton’s history similar to the one that was done on Whittington.
Following the archive work done on the buildings along Lynn Road and the High Street, other areas of Stoke Ferry such as Oxborough Road could also be catalogued. The railway station was another possible project.
Jim said the history of droving would be an interesting subject.
Other projects could make use of the drone for which Stuart is the licensed operator. He told the meeting that it is covered by commercial insurance so the other users can operate it for a voluntary donation to the SF&DHG.
Stuart reported that there are now 150 posts on the SF&DHG website. Views had increased from 2,500 to 7,500. As many as 25% of these were Google searches, the majority of them researching the transatlantic slave trade. It was also visited by residents of Canada, Australia and New Zealand researching their family history.
Members on our Facebook account now number in excess of 300.
The meeting closed at 9.00pm.