Wem Town Hall holds exhibition shining a light on the community during the mayoral year of Pauline Dee in 1985/86

Shropshire Star

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00:00So we're here at Wemm Town Hall and we're here with former mayor. Introduce yourself.

00:05I'm Pauline Dees.

00:06And Pauline, you've got family with you. Who have you got with you?

00:09This is Julian, my younger son, and this is my youngest granddaughter.

00:13And there's a rather fantastic photo exhibition on which features kind of the events of your mayoral year.

00:21Yes, well I was the first female mayor in Wemm.

00:25And this was 40 years ago, can you believe it?

00:28And I was the only woman on Wemm Town Council with 11 men for several years.

00:34So people have always said they wanted to see these photographs.

00:38Which I've got this big album which I was very kindly donated by the local press.

00:43So my son persuaded me to let them be shown.

00:48And eventually she agreed.

00:49Eventually, with a bit of arm bending.

00:51So they were a collection from, there was a gentleman we should give a shout out to, wasn't there?

00:56Yes, absolutely. John Drongel.

00:58Yeah.

00:58And he ran a press office just a few feet away from here at the top of Chapel Street here in Wemm.

01:05And he was a much loved Wemm.

01:07And he'd come to Wemm, I think just before World War II as an evacuee.

01:12Exactly, yeah.

01:13And he stayed in Wemm and dedicated his whole life to the town.

01:16And he reported on Wemm for a district for many, many years, for decades.

01:23And he was also instrumental in the sporting life of the town as well.

01:27Yeah.

01:28Fundraising for the sporting life of Wemm.

01:30And your memories of that mayoral year, it's a busy year when you're mayor, isn't it?

01:35I mean, quite often mayors, I'm told, they get to the end of the year when they say, I've put on weight as well, you know.

01:41A lot of events.

01:42I love weight, I love weight.

01:43Because if somebody invited me to open an envelope, I would go.

01:49As long as the envelope was in Wemm.

01:50Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:52Civic duties.

01:53Yeah.

01:54But it's good times though, yeah?

01:56Oh, it was wonderful because my charity was the Seven Hospice.

02:02Because Wemm was the first time to set up a support group for the hospice.

02:07And then we all, and it also was for a bath, a special bath for Westlands, which was an elderly people's home.

02:15So it was great.

02:17And I had amazing support.

02:19Because it wasn't just Wemm.

02:21Like people out at Newtown, they raised funds for me.

02:24And we had dog shows.

02:27So we got lots and lots of money in.

02:29So we were really happy to be all together.

02:33And it was such a wonderful atmosphere.

02:35And then, of course, because we had so much to celebrate that year with the doomsday celebrations,

02:41that we, it just brought the whole town together.

02:46The BBC cameras coming to town.

02:48Yeah, they did.

02:48Yeah, what was that little tale you were telling me about?

02:51The historic links between Saxon and, what was that little tale?

02:55So there was a wonderful Wemmian called Charlie Thorley.

02:59Him and his wife, Kath, were dear friends to many people in Wemm, including ourselves.

03:04And the BBC got in touch with Charlie Thorley.

03:07Charlie then introduced the BBC's Michael Wood to Pauline as mayor of Wemm.

03:14Because Michael discovered Wemm had unique links to the doomsday book era.

03:19He brought to Wemm a descendant of the family that took Wemm after 1066.

03:29So a Norman descendant and a Saxon descendant as well from before 1066.

03:36And it was thought this was, Wemm was perhaps one of the only towns, perhaps the only town in England where they were able to do that.

03:44So hundreds of Wemmians organised a huge eight-day festival.

03:52And one of the culminations of that festival was a reunion unlike any other.

03:59When Dr. Arden from Virginia Water shook hands with Pierre de Pontu from Normandy, who was still farming the same farm they farmed in 1066.

04:10And came over specially in 1986 for the 900th anniversary of the doomsday book.

04:14And Dr. Arden said to Monsieur de Pontu, glad to have met you again after 900 years.

04:20And it was just an incredible moment, wasn't it?

04:22We had nine playlets for 900 years of Wemm history, played all along the high street.

04:28But that wasn't the only anniversary that year, was it?

04:31Yeah, but they did have the market.

04:33We did, that whole town was closed down.

04:35And we had, there were hundreds of people in the town.

04:38And had a really wonderful market.

04:38All in medieval costume.

04:40Yeah.

04:41And the Wemm Jubilee Band, very, very special Wemm institution, composed some music for it.

04:47And they were essentially the soundtrack for the whole festival as well.

04:52And then that year was also the 10th anniversary of Wemm Judo Club, led by Roly Lee.

04:58It was also the 10th anniversary of the FEMES Wemm twinning.

05:03FEMES was our twin town in the Champagne region of France.

05:07Oh, yeah, that's lovely.

05:08So there was a lot to celebrate.

05:10Yeah, it was a busy year.

05:11You chose it, you were picked for a good year.

05:14Oh, my gosh, it was.

05:15It was lovely.

05:16And then being able to go over to France to celebrate the 10th anniversary.

05:20So, yeah, we just, I cannot believe it was the most wonderful year of my life.

05:26And you really felt that the whole town came together and they were so happy to be doing something.

05:32But that's Wemm, you see, where everyone matters.

05:35Yeah.

05:35So this exhibition's on until 35th October.

05:42But there's a special event coming up on Friday, 12th of September.

05:45Just talk us through what's going to be happening with that.

05:47That's right.

05:48Well, when we finally persuaded Mum, Pauline, Grandma, to agree to this exhibition, I suggested

05:56that we put some of these, this memorabilia on the big screen.

06:02So we're going to do this snapshot of one year in the life of Wemm in 1985-86.

06:08We're also going to look at some other special events.

06:13So my late dad, Terry, Pauline's late husband, was the local North Shropshire fire prevention

06:20officer and Wemm station officer who organised with a lot of help from a lot of people, including

06:27his colleagues at Wemm fire station, the tercentenary of the great fire of Wemm.

06:33So Wemm had a huge fire in 1677.

06:36And as every Wemm schoolchild knows, it was Jane Cherm, set fire to her cottage roof in

06:44Leek Lane and the whole town, nearly the whole town, burnt down.

06:49And so dad led the commemoration of that with a huge exhibition of vintage fire engines

06:55and the Towering Inferno movie at Wemm Hall.

06:58Yeah, all the fire services were all involved.

07:00All the fire services were all involved.

07:03So we're going to have photos of that.

07:04We're going to have photos from the 1990s as well as Pauline and Terry with the different

07:11hats that we're wearing, working with hundreds of Wemmians to make the town even more beautiful,

07:18even more attractive to people who wanted to invest or come on holiday.

07:23So looking a little bit at the 90s as well.

07:27Fantastic.

07:27What a lovely way to celebrate community.

07:31Isn't it?

07:31Yeah.

07:32That's what I just love about my late father-in-law, Sam Dean, he actually lived in our house in

07:40Diggs because we live just down the road there in Chapel Street.

07:44And he was in Diggs in our house all those years ago.

07:49And he said, because he used to come over here from, they lived in Bicton and they used

07:53to come over and play cricket.

07:55Yeah.

07:55And they'd come and play cricket here.

07:57So he was, well, and he also was under manager of a grocery store across the road there.

08:04Is that Philips' store?

08:05Yeah, Philips' store, which is now the Royal Charity Shop.

08:08Yeah.

08:08So, you know, there was that connection.

08:10Yeah, yeah.

08:11And just remind us again, what does Wem stand for?

08:15Where Everyone Matters.

08:17Yeah, I like that.

08:18That's what we want to celebrate.

08:19Yeah, I've not come across that.

08:21I shan't forget that, Where Everyone Matters.

08:23So the exhibition, guys, 400 Wemians, 40 years ago, on to the 30th of October.

08:30But get yourselves down to this special event this Friday, 12th of September.

08:34Thank you, guys.

08:35Thank you for sharing those memories.

08:37Thank you very much.

08:38Thank you very much.

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