Welsh Journals

THE SIXTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT REPORT OF THE SECRETARY FOR 1993 Sadly the year has been marked by the death of three stalwarts of the Society. In addition to years of invaluable work on the Executive, Mrs P Evans, Mr Reg Oliver, and Mr John Stratton gave much time and scholarship to the Society and their contributions will be very greatly missed. Appropriate obituaries appear elsewhere in these Transactions. Once again the three excursions organised, with his usual expertise, by Mr Frank Rose, were well supported. I know that the arrangements to visit Pennant Melangell caused Frank Rose some anxiety, but members who attended coped very well with the difficult access and the visit was a great success. Those of us who visited Quarry Bank Mill at Styal and Llancaiach Fawr were very impressed and at the latter learned a lot about the origins of many words and phrases in use today. The three lectures provided different and contrasting topics: namely a dig, a battle, and a job! The Knighton lecture on the New Radnor excavations was reasonably well attended, as was the lecture on the Elan Valley Warden Service at Rhaeadr. However, the prize for top attendance goes to Presteign, where over 80 people attended the lecture on the Battle of Pilleth given by Mr Geoffrey Hodges. A lot of searching and pleading goes on to produce these contrasting lectures concerning Radnorshire; so I ask members to support the speakers and come along to hear them. I am happy to report that arrangements for two of the three lectures for 1994 have been finalized and by the time of the A.G.M. the third should be in place. Ideas for future speakers and topics will be most welcome, so please contact me directly. 1993 was the year that the National Eisteddfod of Wales visited Radnorshire for the first time. The Society's contribution to the Eisteddfod was the publication of an anthology of poems, tales, anecdotes, legends, and articles associated with Radnorshire under the title Llyfr Gwyrdd Fferges- the Green Book of Fferges. This enterprise was completed after a lot of hard work by Mr Dai Hawkins and a Sub- Committee, and they are to be congratulated on putting Radnorshire on the map for the many who attended the Eisteddfod knowing little or nothing about our County. The Transactions were produced, packaged, delivered, and posted in good time and several members have commented on their interesting contents. 1994 promises to be another interesting year for our Society. Membership has risen to over 500 and plans are well prepared for a programme of interesting lectures and outings. J.Selwyn Honorary Secretary TREASURER'S REPORT Balances are £ 1340 less than at this time last year. The total cost of printing and posting the Transactions was £ 3295. The cost of producing one copy of the Transactions is £ 5 85 plus 75p postage, and costs are