About Us

How It All Started

Early in 1980 John Threadgold was approached by Councillor Ernie Adcock to see if he would be willing to start up a Natural History group in the village. The answer being 'Yes', John then had to liaise with the Parish Clerk to fix up a meeting place and then get some helpers. The obvious choice for help was George Bailey who was a keen photographer and a fellow member of the South Essex Natural History Society.

First Meeting

Our first meeting was arranged for February and George and John put together enough slides for an evening show. A very good crowd attended and in the discussion at the end it was agreed that we should form a local Society. Another meeting was arranged for March and another local speaker David Grigg, showed cine film of local birdlife. After the show we had enough volunteers to form our first committee and arranged another meeting for April to which we invited Betty Goddard to speak on "Essex Flowers". Betty was at that time Convenor of the Southend and Rochford Group of the Essex Naturalists Trust. These first three preliminary meetings were sponsored by the Parish Council, but after that when we had fixed our subscriptions at £1.50 we had to pay our own way (after 20 years the subscriptions remain unchanged).

First Committee

The first committee consisted of Jackie Adcock, George Bailey (Vice-Chairman), Les Cripps, Brian Grigg (Secretary), Penny Hawes, Richard Rae (Treasurer), Allan Short, Betty Stewart and myself (Chairman).

Outdoor Meetings

Outdoor meetings were arranged for the summer and Speakers were sourced for the indoor season starting in September.

First Major Event:

Our first major event was to have a display for the Village Fair at the end of August. This turned out to be a great success.