February 23rd 2020. 

Next club meeting Monday 2nd March 2020.

·        Subject - Club Auction - for members only

Monday 6th April 2020

·         Scottish Coins of James III By  D. Guest

Monday 27th April 2020.

·         A London Bestiary By  Gerry Buddle

 

 Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

 

Notices

·         We will be meeting in the main church area on the ground floor of the church for this meeting as the church has need of the basement area. Unfortunately we are not able to provide teas or coffees. The basement area is to be considered ‘out of bounds’.  Please bear in mind that this is the main area for religious activities and treat it accordingly.

·         The March meeting will be the club auction. Nobody will be allowed to look any lots until all the lots have been put out. Please keep well away from the lots until an official notice is made, saying that viewing can begin. As usual, there will be no dealing at this meeting.

 

February Meeting

For this months talk our club member Stuart spoke about the history of Wallingford and the coins that were produced from King Alfred’s time circa 870, until the reign of Henry III circa 1250.

To start Stuart spoke about the topography of the Wallingford area and how the town was created by Alfred the Great. Later we were shown pictures of the ruined castle built by the Normans and a diagrammatic map showing its position in the later developed town. This map gave a good impression of how extensive the later town became with city walls. Some of Stuart’s pictures showed the remains of the walls. Interestingly being on the River Thames, Wallingford was a strategic point for crossing the river and the reason for so many skirmishes over time. Interestingly part of the towns early bridge is still extant under later works.

Though-out the talk Stuart gave many anecdotes related to events at Wallingford and also nearby Reading. We were told about numerous Viking attacks/ visits and the later ransoms of Danegeld. The royal connections with Reading were also touched upon.

Coming to the coins we were shown many examples for each of the Kings and tables listing the moneyers for each reign and given details of how they moved around, for example to Oxford. Apparently two moneyers from Wallingford were among many others who suffered mutilation for issuing bad money.

To conclude Stuart showed some coins from his own collection.

Listening to all the information related to this period it is clearly a very complex subject.

Many thanks to Stuart for his hard work in preparing the talk.

 

Future Events.

Past Events

·         20 years ago – A club quiz devised by Alistair McKay.

·         40 years ago - Marion Archibald gave a talk about a 15C. Scottish merchant, named Halliberton

 

Club Secretary.