Wednesday 21^st February  2018

We got together again at Sue’s house to have another good look at the memorabilia and ephemera documents that were so kindly donated by a local resident in the village. This very interesting collection - late 19^th and early 20^th century in date - relates mostly to his grandfather’s grocery business, the Methodist Chapel’s Sunday School, and the Embsay Brotherhood.

The Embsay Brotherhood, 1933

The Brotherhood Movement, founded in 1875, is something we knew nothing of before we saw this collection – a Non-Conformist society, it was intended to bring together men, especially young men, to promote Christian values and mutual support (They merged with the Sisterhood Movement in 1967).  The Embsay-with-Eastby branch was established in 1928 and lasted until well into the 1930s.

It was an intensive day of cataloguing, photographing and scanning the materials so that we have a permanent digital record of everything in the collection.

We surprised ourselves that we actually managed to get it all done by the end of the day, and even fitted in an hour or so to discuss progress on our preparations for the Armistice Event in November.

We confirmed who is doing what, and the central themes to focus upon. Now all we have to do is go away and research it all, and put it all together…

There’s also the annual Churchyard Tour, which David and I are to give – we shall have to start thinking about that too. Perhaps we shall give that a First World War perspective as well.

Jane Lunnon.