Norman Hargreaves

Norman passed away peacefully on 9 August 2006. Norman was born on 31 March 1917 and had lived in the Newport area throughout his 89 years. He had been a member of the club since 1972. Norman was always a gentle man, with never a cross word to say about anyone. His passion in stamps was for the Machin issues on which he could be relied on to provide guidance to all who needed help. He was a regular at the stamp meetings, most recently at the film night on 26 April of this year, and was still taking the exchange box.

Norman was always willing to help out and accompanied me to the Federation AGM on several occasions. The photograph here shows a slightly younger Norman at our own Autumn Day celebrating the club's Golden Jubilee in 1997.

Recent meetings

The last season ended with a film night showing historic footage from the Post Office Films Unit and Neil Jones displaying some of his extensive New Zealand collection.

The new season kicked off with the usual ice breaker of “new acquisitions”, a bring and buy evening and a members' evening of aerophilately.

October saw our first visitors when Alan Rosser and Reg Lyons of Barry Club entertained, Alan showing Boston Packet covers and a miscellany of other items and Reg following with “Lyons” postmarks and stamps and related material with a Welsh connection.

Alan had brought the Boston covers because I mentioned that I had just acquired one. These date the 19^th century. My cover was posted in Newport in 1862. It went via London to Liverpool where it was carried to the USA. The postage was 1/-. The Boston Br Pkt 5 cents date-stamp in red indicates that the onward postage in the USA was pre-paid. In black, it would be paid on arrival. Ships coming from the USA would have Am instead of Br date-stamps.

Visits to other clubs

The only visit scheduled before Christmas has been to the Cardiff Club, where Newport members displayed Venice postal history, Ascension Island, history of the post and Fiji.

South Wales Federation News

Our club had a table at the Federation Autumn Day in Barry on 30 September 2006. There was a very good turn-out from our club members, which the Barry Club appreciated. Newport hosts the Autumn Day on 29 September 2007 to celebrate our 60^th year .

John Perry and Gwen Hussey attended the Federation AGM on 28 October. The morning was given over to displays. From Newport we showed items commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the first Severn Bridge and the Centenary of the Newport Transporter Bridge, and German flight covers. Among the other displays, Colin Lewis, the Federation Treasurer, showed an interesting display of Falklands Islands. I have photo images of the sheets for those interested.

The AGM took place in the afternoon. The lunch break allowed Gwen and I to visit Pietro's in Porthcawl. A walk along the sea front was out because of the rain but the cappuccino was excellent. At the AGM, Neil Prior said that this was his 30^th report as secretary. The main announcement was that the Ammanford club had folded. There remains some hope for the future of the hobby in Wales with Eirene Grieve getting some schools to start up clubs and with the success at national level of Bertie Brown and of Neyland School.

There has been some movement on new boards for the Federation Convention. These are needed to provide better protection for the displays, especially against attack by drawing pins. Reg Lyons will make one for the committee to consider.

The election of officers saw one change, with John Perry being elected vice-chairman.

Bob Hunt from St Athans Club was at the AGM and made some important points about delays at some clubs in circulating the exchange box. He seemed in good form and we were shocked to hear that he died in his garden the following day. Bob had been a part-time dealer and had a wealth of RAF covers and USA material on sale at stamp fairs. He will be missed.

Arrangements are in hand for the 2007 Convention, which will once again be in Port Talbot. It looks as though the charge for the hall will increase. Also the local council has disposed of most of the tables from the hall, which means there will be an additional charge to rent tables from someone. This could add £100 to the costs and result in a deficit for the day. There was some discussion about increasing the entrance charge but with numbers down to around 120 in 2006, this did not seem a good idea. The kid's corner is no longer viable and something needs to be done to encourage some attendance from local school children who were entirely absent from the 2006 event.

Stampex

Roy and I made a trip to London for the Autumn Stampex event at the Business Design Centre in Islington. It was rather disappointing, with no displays to look at and dealers having poor or expensive stock. We did, however, pick up a few items to add to the collection. This was made easier by the absence of visitors. Sunday is generally the quiet day but at times it felt as though we were the only people in the hall. This feeling was confirmed by the review in Stamp Magazine.

Bits and Pieces

On holiday in Snowdonia in August, we picked up the local paper, The Herald. In it was a a letter that echoes our own feelings. “The Isle of Man (pap. 76,000), Jersey (pop 87,000) and Guernsey (pap 59,000) create and sell their own postage stamps. Not long ago, Guernsey Post decided to contribute profits from Andy Priaulx car racer stamps to the Priaulx Premature Babies Foundation. Well done! A bit of vision goes a long way, which we could do with here in Cymru/ Wales. Is it not time that we had our own unique postal stamps and postal service?...”

Stamp fairs

Dragon Fairs (Chris Doble) - Cardiff Jury's Hotel – 8 December 2006 and then on the first Friday of each month in 2007.

M J Promotion - City Hall Cardiff – 16 December 2006, 10 February and 21 April 2007

Cardiff Postcard club – Roath Community Centre – April 2007

Ann Scott Postcard Fairs, BAWA Centre, Bristol

The big London fairs are Philatex (22 to 24 February 2007) and Stampex (28 February to 4 March 2007)