Visit to Larkhill Camp

Eighteen Rotarians and their wives met at Larkhill Camp on Friday 30th September on a beautiful sunny morning. Rotarian Don Ross organised the visit where a National Trust Guide outlined the military history of the site.

                                                                                                                               

              Larkhill Camp sits within Stonehenge World Heritage Site and was first used as a military camp in 1899 when a tented garrison was established.  It became Britain’s first miltary aerodrome in 1910 but was closed in 1914.

 The British & Colonial Aeroplane Company built three hangers of which one remains on the site . This is a listed building for being the oldest surviving military aerodrome building in the UK.   The British & Colonial Aeroplane Company evolved into British Aerospace and then to BA Systems today.

                The Royal School of Artillery was established at Larkhill Camp in 1919 where together with 32 Regiment Royal Artillery and 14 Regiment Royal Artillery Training Regiment are still now based.

                 As an aside to Modern History the group were then taken to the Stonehenge Cursus which is a 3Km long, 100 m to 15o m wide track which predates Stonehenge itself.

                Needless to say the group finished the day at a local hostelry .It had been a warm day.                                                                       

A recent meeting

Charlotte Hitchmough

Jonathan Compton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Jonathan Compton came to our meeting this week to tell us about his experiences at the Rotary Youth Leadership (RYLA) course near Monmouth this year. He described his challenging exercises with groups of other young people of his age and older working together to improve their self confidence and leadership skills. He thanked Marlborough Rotary Club for funding his course and said, “RYLA really helped me to organise myself and the element of reflection was very important”

 

Charlotte Hitcmough gave a fascinating illustrated talk about the work of Action for the River Kennet (ARK). She told us that our river is one of 121 chalk streams in the UK but almost unique in the Northern Hemisphere. We learned the importance of the plant Ranunculus as an indicator of cool, clear fast moving water and its gradual loss due to lower flows as a result of extraction.

Charlotte also told us how the water meadows used to be maintained by a man called a ‘drowner’ who maintained the wet meadows to warm up the ground, irrigate it, and fertilise it with the added silt deposit to provide an ‘early bite’ for grazing cattle in the spring.

ARK are working now to improve the River and its meadows using Belted Galloway cattle and by carrying out ecology counts and surveys. The problems and possible solutions to extraction were discussed. 

For more information about ARK go to www.riverkennet.org

 

 

Great news

The total funds raised from Avebury Rocks 2011 will now be £30.000. A ‘rocky’ cheque will be presented to Prospect Hospice late October at a high profile press event.

AR12

Organisation for Avebury Rocks 2012 is now under way.

Swindon Thamesdown visit us

At our last meeting on Monday 19th September we had the pleasure of the company of three members of Swindon Thamesdown Rotary Club which included their current president, Bob Barrett.The other guest was Mike Shires who joined us for his second visit.

The planned business meeting was shelved since information regarding the new website developed into a lengthy debate with many useful suggestions. Rob, Allan and David as administrators/editors took careful note and Rob has already shown considerable expertise by accomodating some of the ideas.

As a result the website continues to evolve and, in particular, a ‘Members’ page is now ready and sub pages appear under ‘Future Events’.

Martin Greaves,District Governor visits us.

DG,Martin Greaves,informed and entertained us last night with his thoughts on the aims of Rotary.He then did a presentation on a cycle ride in China he did some ten years ago to raise funds for Mencap.
He finally urged us to attend the District conference in Bristol and to read the District Newsletter.

Waiting for a bus……No, a mini !

Rotarians and ex Round Tablers after their visit to the mini factory at Cowley on thursday 8th Sep. For the full story see the ‘Social’ page.