Tenbury

So where was he? In a police station in Derbyshire helping the police with their inquiries.

This all came about after a series of coincidences starting when, in 1948, his parents emigrated from The Wirral to Canada.After some time in Canada, Geoffrey returned to England and did his National Service in the RAF in East Anglia. After demob he became a bookseller in London where he met and married Maureen. When their son was born, they decided to move away from the city to bring up a family.

He went to a bookshop to apply for a job, and was asked to return later that day. On his return he was faced with an armed policeman who requested that he should "come along with me".

It turned out that a man had shot and killed a policeman and shot and wounded another in London.

The man was very like Geoffrey in appearance, being the same height and having a moustache and wearing the same type of thorn-proof suits, both having been in Canada at the same time, returning to London at the same time, and even both having had a drink in the same public house.

At the same time that Geoffrey and Maureen moved to Derbyshire, so did the wanted man.

Luckily, for Geoffrey, he had his wife, grandmother, and an aunt in Derbyshire to vouch for him and he was soon released without a stain on his character - but with a very good story to tell.

History does not say what happened to the wanted man, but Maureen and Geoffrey moved to Worcester, where Maureen was ward sister at the hospital. Then they moved to Wychbold and Geoffrey worked in the path lab where he became, in his own words, "a vampire" doing blood tests.

During this time he decided it was being made clear to him that his calling was towards ordination and, after training, he was ordained in 1981 and went to a church in Inkskip, where he remained for the next 14 years.

After retirement they were looking for a small bungalow, as the family had grown up and moved away from home.

They wanted to be within walking distance of the shops, as Maureen does not drive, near to the church but not in the heart of a very big town.

When they heard of the bungalow in Cralves Mead it seemed to them to be the perfect place, so to paraphrase the title of his talk So Here I Am.

We are all hoping that there will be more to follow, we shall have to wait and see. Next month, Jack Bingham from Ludlow will be talking about A Schoolboy's Life in London in the Blitz.

GARDENERS' CLUB: An open garden scheme' to benefit Tenbury Hospital was among new projects considered by members at the AGM last month.

Despite a slight fall in membership over the last year, a bigger than average attendance at the Pump Rooms also heard that activities, especially the quality of speakers and presentations, had been well received but the cost had gone up considerably.

A difficult year for weather had seen receipts for the spring plant sale drop and, although still creditable, the committee needed to come up with various ideas for increasing funds which were then discussed.

A proposal from the floor that the group should organise an autumn plant and produce sale was favourably received and an additional attraction, a 'sharing my garden' table is to be included in the floral arrangement competition.

This will give members a chance to display items of interest from their own patch and the hope is that gardeners will share with others any skills, interests and problems which might spark off a few thoughts and ideas.

After the formalities, Maurice Bracher showed slides of the history of the gardens at Burford House.

Tenbury Gardening Club welcomes new members and visitors to meetings on the first Tuesday in the month at The Pump Rooms.

TENBURY & DISTRICT MILLENNIUM TRUST AGM: Members heard that the millennium town clock was in good working order and had been serviced for the next 12 months.

The apple fruit trees in the Millennium Orchard and the trees at The Burgage and Palmer's Meadow were all doing very well; last spring saw a good display of daffodils and more have been planted.

The meeting expressed much thanks to Nick Dunn, from Frank P Matthews, for arranging the winter pruning and the mowing of the orchard but. thanks to the donation of a strimmer, future mowing problems will be eased.

Elected officers are: chairman - Peter Barrington, vice-chairman - Beryl Bevis, secretary - Mary Matthews, treasurer - Barbara Ogilvie, publicity - Peter Bevis, town council representative - Pat Bradley. Committee members are Kevin Lawley, Sally Matthews and Linda Ricketts.