Simon Draper, Assistant Editor of the Victoria County History for Oxfordshire, gave a fascinating talk about how boundaries tell us about the history of our landscape.

It was not quite the Flower Show we all know and love but, when it was announced that the 118th Flower Show would go ahead, albeit in a cut-down way and not at the Recreation Ground, we decided to erect our gazebo in the front garden of The Willows, High Street, Badsey.  There was a host of new displays, including a first look at some of the photos taken in the recent photo survey of the village.  A steady flow of visitors came to see us on both afternoons.

Apparently, it’s not just HGV drivers that there’s a shortage of – there’s also a national shortage of archaeologists!  So said Joanna Pine, Director of the excavation at Laurels Road, Offenham.  This was a follow-on from the talk in May by Nina O’Hare about the Roman settlement.  Jo spoke about the archaeological excavation undertaken by Thames Valley Archaeological Services (East Midlands) at the site of Valefresco. The process of the archaeological excavation was explained and Jo presented the results of the fieldwork.

Our second hybrid meeting was attended by 28 people in person and 19 people via Zoom.  Parish Councillor Mike Tennant spoke about the history of the plot of land at Pear Tree Corner where the new Parish Council Burial Ground and allotments are to be located.  In the words of one of our members:  “I thought the talk on Friday excellent:  a very good speaker. Being very much under weather at the time I was most pleased to see the whole episode on Zoom. The whole new setup is much better and came up very clear on my small laptop.”