The Month That Was That Was September 24

September was another active month for the club, mixed though with success and disappointment.

Supporting Air Ambulance

Held at St Cuthbert’s Church, the play staged by Wells Rotary about the Fossil Lady was by almost every measure a great success. Tickets were sold out, the actress Alison Neil was outstanding, the sponsors were impressed, and over £3,000 was raised in support of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.  A big, big pat on the back to David Randon and team for organising and a big thank you to our event sponsors, Harris & Harris, The Crown at Wells, Wells Reclamation, Cooper and Tanner, Brownes Garden Centre and the Long Story Bistro, and also to everybody who helped sell the tickets.

The disappointment came at the end of the month with the decision to cancel the Great Sedan Chair Race which had also been planned in support of the Air Ambulance.

The Strawberry Line

This turned out to be the theme for the month. At our first meeting of the month, Richard Jones joined us and after supper kept us spell bound with his presentation on the project to bring the Strawberry Line back into Wells, this time as a muti user path but largely following the track of the old railway line. It was a fascinating talk with a swath of pictures from pre Beeching days of the railway set in contrast to how the line looks today in its new role.

At the end of the month an intrepid team from the club met at Easton and yomped the stretch of the line from Easton to Westbury sub Mendip. On route we were met by Andrew Buchanan who is leading the archaeological dig on the edge of Westbury into the remains recently unearthed of a 3^rd century Roman villa. The rains held off and we were able to walk around the excavations while Andrew captured our attention with explanations on how he and his team now believe the Romano Britons living at the villa had interacted with the wider community – those digging lead up on the Mendips, the traders moving up and down the Fosse Way, the citizens of Bath while occasionally having to deal with raiding parties from Ireland.

Business Meeting 23^rd September

At the meeting, which was at the Museum, our ADG Ian Huxham and a number of supporters of the Nepal Trust joined us for the update presentation on the work of the Nepal Trust. Wells Rotary has been a big supporter of the NT over a long period with quite a few members from the club having participated as volunteers in the Trek to Build programme. Facts and figures shared illustrated the main theme of the presentation: how the chain of health posts built by NT volunteers, very much including Wells Rotarians, had made a real difference to the lives of those living in one of the most remote, most inaccessible and poorest parts of the world.

A group of members visited the Wells Mosaic project and reported very positively on what they had seen.