Gerald Reece delivered his talk with humour and passion. Image kindly supplied by David Evans.

Yesterday, I received a wonderful email from David Evans, who did such a fine job of organising and hosting Gerald Reece’s talk on Brownhills last Friday evening at the Methodist Church in Silver Street, Brownhills.

This is the second such talk Gerald has given in the last few years, and since he lives in Devon, this is no small thing for him. Gerald does this purely out of passion for the area, and I’m very sad to have had to miss the talk due to work commitments; however, those who did attend heard a very interesting, unique discussion of local history from a man who has dedicated a large portion of his life to the town he loves.

Gerald’s willingness to accept my ham-fisted questions, jokes and downright impudence over the years have really marked him out as being different to the majority of local historians. He is a rare and generous man indeed.

Coming up later, I have a lovely piece of lost history from Andy Dennis, that was apparently discussed by Gerald on Friday. Just lately, everyone is talking about synchronicity…

David and I would both like to thank all those who turned out on a grim November evening and raised £300 for MacMillan – but none of it would have been possible without the generosity of time and spirit of the wonderful, entertaining and fascinating Gerald Reece.

Hi Bob

I am pleased to send you this report on Friday’s wonderful talk given by our lLocal Historian par excellence, Gerald Reece. We were delighted to learn more of another part of Brownhills history, where Gerald drew from his many years of research to give us a detailed and captivating look back to Brownhills in the mid 19th century. Gerald has a charming and delightful way of delivering his talk in a way that both informs and entertains. His book, Brownhills, a walk into history remains the one truly original source of information, and in his latest talk he revealed much more, unpublished and original material.

An enthralled audience gathered to hear Gerald speak. Image kindly supplied by David Evans.

I attach photos of ‘Professor’ Gerald, sportingly donning a morter board for a few minutes, and a photo of one of the amazingly original prizes in the raffle. My sincere thanks go to dear Gerald who readily accepted the invitation yet again, and travelled up from his home in Devon to come to Brownhills to bring our history to life in this memorable talk.

I would like to pay my personal thanks to Deacon Annie Trembling, who sourced and set up the excellent projector and sound system and helped to serve the refreshments, all of which helped to make the evening a successful one for the audience, and especially for Macmillan Cancer Support Charity. The evening raised £300 for the charity.

Lastly, my thanks to Brownhills Bob’s blog for the superb support given. I do appreciate this.

kind regards
David

A little bird on Facebook tells me Lisa Ashby (formerly Downes, late of this parish and a great friend of the blog) won this framed map in the raffle! Image supplied by David Evans.