A large number of people, some 55 members in total, turned out for the 14th Annual General Meeting of The Badsey Society on Friday evening. Maureen Spinks was re-elected Chairman, Valerie Magan was re-elected Secretary and Tony Wood was re-elected Treasurer.

After the business part of the meeting, the annual Tony Jerram Award presentation was made. The award is given each year in memory of the late Tony Jerram (1937-2008), the first Chairman of The Badsey Society, and is awarded to somebody who the members feel has contributed to the good of the local community. There were five contenders for the award but, at its meeting in January, the Committee was unanimous that the award should be made posthumously to Richard Phillips, who died suddenly in October at the age of 67. Maureen spinks, the Chairman, said that with Richard's untimely death, The Badsey Society had suffered a great loss. She felt it was fitting that this year's award should go posthumously to Richard, as if it had not been for him and for Tony Jerram, none of the members might be sitting there that evening. When Richard moved to the village in 2000, he very quickly set up the award-winning website, www.badsey.net, with access to all the parish records, census returns and old photographs. At the time, there were very few village history websites of this kind. Richard also persuaded Terry Sparrow, the author of "A Brief History of Badsey and Aldington", to write a second edition, and Richard offered to do the design. Richard's neighbour in Badsey, the late Tony Jerram, was aware that grants were available for such projects. On discovering that Worcestershire County Council would only give grants to a Society and not to an individual, it was decided to form a Society - and thus The Badsey Society was formed in 2002, with Tony as the first Chairman and Richard as the first Secretary. Since then, the Society has gone from strength to strength. Richard was involved with the design of all four Society publications, contributed greatly to the Enclosure Map project and was involved with the market gardening DVD. A humble man, he did not seek the limelight, but his death has left us deprived of the many projects he might have been involved with in the future.

Following a short interval, Brian Smith, the Aldington poet, read from a selection of his poems, aided and abetted by Will Dallimore.

For further information about The Badsey Society, please contact the Secretary, Valerie Magan, on 832100.