Welcome back for another year of fascinating history!

The first Meeting for 2023 will be at the Imperial Hotel, 5.30pm on Tuesday, 21st February. Guest speaker Christine Perrott will give a talk based on the History of PLC Armidale. Christine, who attended PLC, recently published We Survived, Collected Memories of School Days at PLC Armidale 1936-1964, a compilation of recollections from girls who boarded at PLC. Their stories provide an interesting and extraordinary contrast to twenty-first century boarding school life.

Dinner is available for those wishing to stay after the meeting.

The February newsletter is now available to download:

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 18th October, 5.30pm at the Imperial Hotel and as this will be the final meeting for 2022, it will be a fun photographic ‘Trivial Pursuit Night’, asking you to identify some of our many photographs and sharing information about them. David Betts has commenced indexing and cataloguing the photograph collection, providing reproduced images to allow us to share them, rather than have them hidden in computers. This is a project everyone will be able to appreciate.

The newsletter for October has information about the November excursion, the Family History Group’s annual seminar on October 22nd, and Heritage New England North West’s inaugural conference and AGM on the 29th. Download it by clicking on the link belo:

The next meeting of the Society will be held on Tuesday, 20th September 5.30pm at the Imperial Hotel. The speaker will be Councillor Sam Coupland, Mayor of Armidale Regional Council. We look forward to hearing his ideas and ideals for the Armidale Regional Council, current and future plans.

The September newsletter is now available – read about Stephens bridge and the man it is named after, Edward Morgan Stephens, who served as Mayor of Hillgrove in 1912, and Mayor of Armidale in the 1920s.

The next meeting of the Society will be the Annual General Meeting, followed by the
regular monthly meeting featuring a talk given by David Armitage, well-known and
now retired Armidale Stock and Station agent.The meeting will be held on Tuesday, 16th August at 5.30pm at the Imperial Hotel.

It would be most heartening if some members would either nominate or put their own hands up for nomination for positions at the AGM. We could achieve so much more for the Society with more assistance!

The August newsletter has news about a new history of Armidale, the Dangarsleigh Hall centenary celebrations, and the history of a beautiful quilt recently donated to the Folk Museum.

The next meeting of the Society will be held at the Imperial Hotel on Tuesday 19th July at 5.30pm The speakers will be Jane Lally and Graham Wilson OAM who will present An Evening with the McNutts.

Although the name McNutt may not be familiar, their careers deserve to be remembered and Jane, a librarian, has recorded the life and works of Mollie McNutt (1885-1919). Mollie and husband Andrew commenced teaching as pupil teachers at Hillgrove Public School. In her short life Mollie won prizes for poetry and prose and published the book ‘Songs of the Bushland’ reflecting her love of Australian birds and countryside which was shared by her husband.

The July newsletter (download link below) contains a short obituary for Professor John Ryan, and information about the upcoming centenary celebrations for Dangarsleigh Hall, on August 22nd.

Members and friends of the Society will be saddened to learn of the death of Professor John Ryan. John’s wife, Susan Mason, has requested the following message be passed on to members:

Dear Family and Friends,

We wish to advise that John Ryan died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday morning.

To celebrate his long and extraordinary life, we are holding a small memorial service and we would be delighted to see you there. We understand that time and distance may make it difficult to attend; for anyone unable to attend, we invite you to reply to this email with any reflections you’d like to share and we will read out a selection at the service.

Our heartfelt thanks to all our wonderful family, friends and colleagues who have been so supportive and offered a hand in friendship to our special John over such a long and busy life.

The memorial will be held at 11am Friday 15^th July at the University of New England, Arts Building, Lecture room A3. We request that attendees at the service wear a mask.

From John’s beloved wife Susan, and his adored sons Thomas and Matthew.

The next meeting of the Society will be held at the Imperial Hotel at 5.30 on Tuesday, 21st June.
The speaker will be Graham Wilson OAM who has been collecting images and information to present a talk on ‘Armidale’s Changing Landscape’. We mourn the loss of some of the grand buildings of the city and the transformation and adaptation of buildings which were far more architecturally attractive. The new style of practical and bland buildings is creeping into the business streetscapes, while the heritage features of many private homes are being protected and respected. Graham will discuss the diverse factors that have led to the loss of buildings, public and private or the changes that have taken place.

May already! The year is zipping by. The May meeting will be held at 5.30 on Tuesday, 17th May at the Imperial Hotel, and will feature a presentation from Mr James Roncon, General Manager of the Armidale Regional Council. Mr Roncon has worked in a number of regional centres, most recently in Broken Hill. He has taken the Armidale Regional Council position at a difficult time when many local Councils, including Armidale Region Council, are in various stages of change, transition and financial stress. We look forward to hearing of his aims and ideals for the future of this region.

The May newsletter is now available for download – read all about our thespian members and their current production; the project recording Armidale’s wells; what’s happening in Dumaresq chambers; Graham Connah’s forthcoming book launch; and George Frederick Nott and his contributions to Armidale’s architecture.

The next meeting of the Society will be Tuesday, 19th April, 5.30 at the Imperial Hotel. The speaker will be Lyndon Hardman who will give a talk on Hardmans in Business. Hardman family members have been involved in a number of enterprises in the New England over the years including blacksmiths, bakers, and general storekeepers, but the name Hardman immediately brings to mind CARS. However, the recent sale of Hardman’s automobile business in Armidale has ended an era of the Hardman associations with garages and car sales.

Read more about current exhibitions and other news in the April newsletter:

My apologies that I didn’t upload the newsletter and meeting notice before the meeting today! Click on the link below for the March newsletter: