Historical Society

Olveston Parish Historical Society

The society was formed in 1966 to "promote interest in the history of Olveston and the surrounding areas and to collect and preserve documentary and photographic records". The Society meets at the Methodist Hall on the first Wednesday of each month from October to April with guest speakers on topics as diverse as The Severn Channel during the Ice Age and Concorde. In the summer months we usually have two or three field trips, often following up talks given during the previous winter. Visitors are always welcomed and, more often than not, recruited.

There is a link to our website here.

LATEST NEWS! All are welcome at our exhibition at the Parish Hall on Saturday 13th March 2010, 10am - 4pm, celebrating 100 years of Aviation in the local area. See the exhibition poster here.

Olveston Parish Historical Society Programme: Oct 2009 - April 2010
All events will be held at the Methodist Hall, The Street, Olveston at 7.30pm, unless otherwise indicated. Members are welcome to bring friends who may be interested in joining the Society.
Wed. 7th Oct 2009	The new season will start, as usual, with the Society's AGM, to be followed by the showing of a DVD of local interest. We look forward to seeing a good attendance at this event.
Wed. 4^th Nov. 2009	Jonathan Foster will talk about the eccentric Gloucestershire inventor Harry Grindell Matthews, who built a prototype mobile telephone and a "death ray" in the 1920s.
Wed. 2^nd Dec. 2009	Local historian Tony Cherry will be giving a talk on "The Changing Face of Thornbury High Street".
Wed. 6^th Jan. 2010	Anne Bowring, who was the Administrator at Clevedon Court, will tell us about some of the people who lived there in a talk entitled "Clevedon Court - A Medieval Exploration".
Wed. 3^rdFeb. 2010	Paul Barnett has been cataloguing and learning the history of the barges and other vessels now used to shore up the riverside bank of the Sharpness Canal. His talk about them is called "Fore and Aft: The Purton Hulks Graveyard".
Sat. 13^th Mar. 2010	An exhibition will be held at the Parish Hall, Tockington, to celebrate 100 years since the founding of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, with books and other exhibits illustrating the local involvement in the aviation industry. This exhibition, which will be open to anyone who is interested, will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wed. 7^thApr. 2010	Professor Simon Haslett from the University of Wales, Newport, will talk to us about "The Somerset Tsunami". This enormous tidal wave or surge, which occurred in1607, was very destructive on both sides of the Bristol Channel.