Introducing 50 Treasures of the East Midlands

A new Fifty Treasures book has arrived!  Fifty Treasures of the East Midlands Area was published in late September, bringing to fruition a project that had been two years in the planning. At the East Midlands Area meeting in March 2024, a determined group sat around a table and plotted how to revive the project, which had been abandoned the previous October due to insufficient support. The group consisted of representatives from Charnwood, Derby, Grantham and Trent Valley, and it was decided to proceed with an aggressive completion date of the October Area Meeting. Glenda Rousseau of TAS Grantham was a hugely efficient and motivational project leader.

Loans for the printing costs came from eight societies to match a £2,000 loan from Area, and the project was off!

In April the project team met, consisting of Glenda, fellow Granthamian Suzanne Slack, Liz Harris of Derby who, with fellow attendee Mike Smith had battled to get the book published previously, and Vivienne Jarvis from Trent Valley. The team reviewed the original images and drew up lists of definite and possible inclusions. To achieve the October date, the printer ZPQ (who had prepared previous Fifty Treasure publications) had advised that we would have to submit our 50 Treasures by the end of June. We agreed to concentrate on lesser-known Treasures, and to avoid National Trust and English Heritage properties.

Once we had decided on our 50 Treasures, the team was tasked with providing images and text for the new inclusions.  Much support was provided at this stage by members of other Societies in the Area.

We then standardised the citations, corrected spelling and punctuation, and the job was done!  Wendy James of ZPQ deserves especial mention, as she regularly provided proofs for us to peruse, and was enormously helpful in building the book, choosing the image for the cover early on from those we had submitted.

Members of the project team all found the project enormously exciting and fulfilling and celebrated with coffee and cake at a hostelry within yards of one of the Treasures!

In the photo: Angela Peck, Sarah Hampden Smith, David Brown, Suzanne Morris, Vivienne Jarvis, Christine Sheardown, Glenda Rousseau (Project Leader), Liz Harris, Anthony Peck (Area Chair)