The University of North Texas has a Mary Webb Collection. Some fascinating items on display here.
Look out for our new © Mary Webb Society leaflet
Cromwell´s proved to be a popular destination with a record 40 members booked. Gladys Mary welcomed everybody and reminded us of how Mary Webb knew Shrewsbury and its many historic buildings, some totally unchanged. She also described the Meredith Christmases at The Grange where Mary would play the piano while the family gathered round to sing carols.
Gladys Mary also read the poem, `To Mother´ (Christmas 1920) which is a touching account of Sarah Alice Meredith who is often seen as cold and distant.
Cromwells in Shrewsbury
To Mother
Within the doorway of your room tonight
I stood, and saw your little treasures all
Set out beneath the golden candlelight,
While silver chimes haunted the evenfall.
Here was the robin, very round and bright,
Painted by one of us with fingers small,
And childish presents, bought with grave delight,
For many an ancient Christmas festival...
Christmas Lunch 07
The venue, the food and service were all excellent and the event was the perfect finale to a successful year for the society.
We look forward to an equally interesting and exciting programme for 2008 and to welcome members, new and old.
AGM s can be poorly attended as people are reluctant to travel to a "boring" business meeting, so over recent years we have attempted to combine the meeting with another feature to make it as interesting as other events in the calendar. This year's meeting was no exception. Programme
Gladys Mary opened her talk stating that Mary Webb may well have branched out into play writing and was very interested in this art form.
Whilst living in London, Mary was invited by Edwin Pugh to see the play "Taffy" written by her good friend, Caradoc Evans at the West End. After the play Mary was invited backstage to meet the cast. Pugh commented on Mary's childlike pleasure in wandering onto the stage.
As a young girl she loved to write plays for her siblings and local children to perform and would enjoydressing the children up in costume. At the age of just 12 she revived the May Day fete at Much Wenlock.
Some of the adaptations of Precious Bane are:
Mary Keith delighted us with a fascinating presentation of her role as musical director of the Pentabus production, including singing some of the songs.What an enthusiastic truly talented lady. She undertook the mammoth task of training all the local choirs which included producing a CD for rehearsal.
For those of us fortunate enough to catch one of the shows they were unforgettable, incredibly imaginative and very much in-keeping with the novel. They received excellent reviews too: The Times theatre critic described the evening as "sublime", The Guardian stated -" outdoor shows don't come better than this"
