Potters Bar & Barnet  Local RSPB Group Silver Jubilee Year

 

by Stan Bailey

It was on an evening in 1976 when approx 60 people gathered in the TOC H hall in the Barnet Road, Potters Bar. They had all filled in a form at an RSPB film show held a few weeks earlier in Oakmere House, which at that time was a Council Civic Hall and  is now  ‘The Oakmere’, a licensed restaurant in Oakmere Park.  

The form that they had filled in stated that they were interested in the formation of an RSPB Local Members Group (LMG).  Jim Ireland the then Group Leader of the south-east Herts LMG and the Local RSPB representative had called them all together to do something about it. After a few bird slides and a general explanation about Members Groups, from Jim, they got down to the crucial point of forming a committee. This consisted of Dorothy Hubbard as Group Leader, Jim Clark as Outings Organiser, Reg Horsfield as Treasurer, Wendy Norris as Secretary, Bert Bonney as Publicity Officer and Stephen Copps as Projects Officer. The Group was approved by the RSPB and was formally started on the 1st day of January 1977.

The first two meetings were held in the TOC H hall but there are no records held of these, perhaps someone may remember these and let us know, but the hall proved to be too small for the numbers attending so a new venue was found. This was the Roman Catholic Church hall in Mutton Lane. Before the first meeting in Mutton Lane a Film Show was held in Oakmere House on Friday the 1st of April and had two showings, 5-00pm and 8-00pm.  The first recorded meeting at Mutton Lane was held there in April when Mr Norman Hudson the leader of the Edmonton LMG (now the Enfield LMG) gave a talk on “Aids to Bird Identification”. The first coach outing was also in April and was shared with the S.E. Herts LMG and went to the RSPB Dungeness reserve. The first local walk came one week after this and was to the Northaw Great Wood. In the first year there were six indoor meetings, 4 coach outings and an evening outing to Broxbourne Woods.  

After two years attendance's increased so the meeting place was once again changed, this time to Oakmere House and meetings were held monthly with the exception of July and August.  

At the 1981 AGM it was proposed and agreed that Barnet be added to the Group's name as much of Barnet came within our catchment area and many members from there were taking part in our activities.  

The Group was now being seen at many local fetes and fairs, one of the most interesting of these was on the 19th October 1986 the day before the Hatfield tunnel was opened for traffic when a fete was held in the tunnel. We had a stand there and sold over £400 worth of RSPB sales goods. The profit from this event went towards the raising of £2500 for a bird watching hide to be built on the Rye House (now called Rye Meads) RSPB reserve at Hoddesdon, this was to be a memorial to the Group's late Outings Organiser, Mr Albert Lenihan. This was built and opened in 1988 and overlooks the bank where the kingfishers nest every year. We took part in a 'Bird watch Europe' event and had a stand in Regents Park. A TV cameraman turned up and that evening Don Wigmore and his son Keith were seen on TV screens that evening showing birds to interested members of the public.

 

The first overseas bird watching holiday was had in 1990 when a party of 21 members went to Majorca where 124 different species of birds were recorded including the eagles and vultures. Later that year Jim Clark, who had been Group Leader for the past ten years stood down and was replaced by Stan Bailey the present Leader who had been Outings Organiser. Stan was replaced by Frances Attrill, who is still organising the outings, weekend breaks, social events and overseas holidays. Bill Lewis who had been the Treasurer for many years also stood down to be replaced by Muriel Fitt.  Oakmere House was closed and the meeting place was changed to the Wyllyotts Centre, so to start 1991 the Group had a new Group Leader, Outings Organiser, Treasurer and venue for meetings.  

In May we were invited to take part in the London Weekend TV programme '6 o'clock Live' and were seen showing Danny Baker the birds on the Rye Meads reserve and six members were interviewed by him on the pleasures of bird watching.  

During the past ten years, in addition to our Monday evening meetings at Wyllyotts, we have added afternoon meetings at Barnet to the programme. Our coach outings are every month of the year and three years ago Frances Attrill added midweek coach outings, these being shorter trips and last year went to Knebworth House, the Lee Valley, Hertfordshire villages, and Saville Gardens/Virginia Water. Each year there have been overseas holidays including Khazakstan, Hungary, Romania, the Pyranees and more local the Scottish Highlands, and the Northern Isles of Orkney, Shetland and Fair Isle.