16. End Of The Road
The End Of The Road
At the Annual General Meeting in June 2006 the officers were reappointed – chairman Noel Bourke, secretary Elaine Berry and treasurer Peter Hopkinson. Barbara Hopkinson was happy to continue as president but would not be attending meetings. So the society looked set for another year, but all was not as settled as it seemed. At a special meeting immediately following the AGM, there was considerable discussion about the cost of the proposed twinning signs and what contributions might be forthcoming from Bradford council, the parish council and the twinning association. A decision was needed so that the work could go ahead. Noel proposed a maximum of £100, which was about what was expected from the twinning association. When there was no seconder for this proposal, Noel felt he could no longer act as chairman and resigned. A proposal of £250 was seconded and accepted by all except Noel who abstained. A further financial decision was to contribute up to £300 for a fire eater for the next gala, Noel again abstaining.
No new chairman was appointed and John Hansen agreed to chair a meeting in October. There do not appear to be surviving minutes but there is a copy of a letter from the president, Barbara Hopkinson, to Philip Taber of Simpson Duxbury Solicitors, dated 10th January 2007. This was for the purpose of transferring ownership of the squash courts to the village hall. It states that the committee of Wilsden Village Society unanimously voted on October 9th 2006 to close the village society as soon as possible. Among other documents, two copies of the relevant minutes were enclosed.
The Telegraph and Argus of 17th October 2006 reported ‘At a meeting last week it was decided that Wilsden Village Society will close in March next year because of the difficulty in finding officers.’
Finding officers was actually more a consequence than a cause of having reached the end of the road. At periods when there were obvious things to be done, funds to be raised and causes to be backed, there was an abundance of volunteers to hold office and be involved in so many ways, as these pages have shown. They came from a wide background, representing many shades of local politics, spanning ages from school children to senior citizens, and local connections from descendants of generations of Wilsdeners to newcomers. Perhaps the formation of the parish council should have marked the end. All those planning and environment issues were now the concern of this new statutory body towards which the bigger authorities had statutory obligations. On the social side the village hall had generated a new crop of groups and societies as well as providing more satisfactory premises for older ones. There was plenty to do in Wilsden and an obvious place to look for news of what was available. Growth of the village and changing work patterns added to the changing scene.
However, even if the last couple of years had been rather low key, it is easy to understand the reluctance to take the final step. So many friendships had been made and so many things achieved that could be looked back on with justified satisfaction.
The final meeting, on November 8th 2007, in the village hall, was attended by present and past members, including some who had moved from the village. There were displays showing many of the society’s achievements and Julie Petty, Jeff Moor’s successor as warden of the hall had framed a representative selection to be kept in the village hall along with the chairman’s badge. The society’s remaining funds of about £9000 was to go to the village hall. There was no formal agenda for this meeting, but a great deal of reminiscing, a certain amount of sadness as members remembered lost colleagues and perhaps just a tiny bit of relief from some who had tried to keep the momentum over the last few years, and satisfaction that Wilsden now had a statutory voice in local issues, with the continuity that came from knowing that some of the new councillors were practised negotiators whose skills had been developed and honed by Wilsden Village Society.
The full text from the Telegraph & Argus report on the final meeting
Dedicated members of a society which has fought for nearly 40 years to preserve the character and heritage of a village are set to call it a day.
Wilsden Village Society will hold an emotional final meeting next week for stalwart members to share memories of its 37-year history.
It was originally set up to fight off the threat of insensitive re-development by Bradford Council of rows of distinctive cottages in the village, many which date back almost 200 years.
Residents feared that vulnerable communities such as Wilsden would be swallowed up during a process of sweeping council reorganisation and the society was born to protect its heritage.
Since then, it has improved life in many aspects of the small but energetic community, including building a new village hall in the 1970s, for the then huge sum of about £120,000.
The committee, many of whom have been involved since Wilsden Village Society was set up, have also organised celebrity fetes and galas and raised tens of thousands of pounds over the years for good causes in the village.
Their campaigns for better transport services and protection of the green belt have also drawn support from hundreds of villagers.
Former treasurer John Hansen said the decision had been taken to disband the group following the creation of Wilsden Parish Council in 2004.
And its final meeting will be at the village hall next Thursday.
Mr Hansen, of Manor House Road, Wilsden, said: "The first meeting was triggered by Bradford Council getting demolition-happy' and we didn't want that. Some of the cottages were 100 years old or more and there was a lot of property up to 200 years old. That stimulated the first public meeting just a few yards away in Royd House and it all grew from there.
"But now we have decided that, because many of the roles the village society had have been taken by the parish council, that there is no point replicating their efforts.
"Many organisations have a natural life span and the village society has had a remarkable one."
He said one of the society's proudest achievements was the building of the village hall, which opened in 1976.
An early survey by the village society showed that residents wanted a new community centre to replace the dilapidated Mechanics Institute. It is now used by play groups, Scouts, Guides and other community groups as a hub of village life.
Mr Hansen's wife Astrid, another stalwart member of the group, said one of the first fundraising drives for money to pay for the village hall was the first Aire Faire in Myrtle Park, Bingley, in 1973.
Programmes from successive Aire Faires and press cuttings from the Telegraph & Argus feature in 17 scrap books detailing the society's 37-year history.
Mr Hansen said the society may donate the books to Bradford Council's archives for future generations to look at.
