The Chairman Writes
From: 152 Autumn 2020
Author: Howard Crapper
I hope this edition of the Oxford Freeman finds you and your family in good health. This Coronavirus has caused panic and chaos but those that have kept to the recommendations have broadly escaped the worst. Our Freeman activities and meetings have been disrupted. The annual Dinner planned for December has been unavoidably cancelled. Oxford is high in the research and development of a vaccine to rid us all of this ghastly disease. Good luck to them.
Our first Admission ceremony to be carried out by way of Zoom technology was made in April. Port Meadow has never been so popular with literally thousands of visitors on the sunny days of lockdown in glorious May when no other sports or entertainments were available. It has been tremendous to see people enjoy the Meadow but the piles of litter left behind was upsetting. It is always the minority and in this case it appears to be the late night revellers. The Ranger, Julian Cooper and Field Wardens really came together to arrange litter picking and removal of the waste at all hours of the day and night. I sent our collective thanks and support to the whole team including Councillors. Litter and meadow animals do not mix and sadly several animals succumbed to eating and suffering the effects.
You may recall the tremendous fund raising three years ago for the memorial to the seventeen unrecorded pilots who lost their lives training at Wolvercote on Port Meadow. The collection exceeded the needs of the stone work and it was decided to use the remainder to carry out a non-invasive Geophysical Survey of the aerodrome area. This is basically an x-ray of the substrata or subsoil. It took a while to get a start date for this work but I am pleased to report that this exciting survey has begun. It is too early to issue full results but we do hope to get these on to our Oxford Freeman web site as soon as possible this autumn.
The Freemen of the City of Oxford are prominent guild members of the Freemen of England and Wales. I would encourage you to become personal members. Enrolment forms are available from myself or see the FEW website. An AGM Weekend was planned to be held in Grimsby (where incidentally our President Stephen White resides). I have attended many AGMs over the years and always enjoyed meeting fellow freemen, old and new, from around England and Wales. The AGM unfortunately fell victim to the Pandemic but next year’s is already ahead in the planning and will be held in nearby Coventry.
Freemen of Coventry can enjoy their Entertainment of the Guild by paying an annual subscription ranging from £8 to £15. Oxford Freemen pay nothing but I do prefer to see donations where possible. Coventry also take part in a postal raffle to raise funds for their entertainment. What do you think?
I was in Llandudno during August and was amazed to see a marble memorial to record the origin of Alice in Wonderland. It is true that the Liddel family went on holiday there but for Lloyd George to unveil a statue to celebrate the origin of the story as from North Wales is a bit too much.
In the mean time keep safe and I sincerely hope to meet you very soon.