THERE have been birthday celebrations, life-time awards, captivating magic, and intriguing talks in a busy month for Crompton and Royton Rotary Club.
The Club celebrated 62 years since they were formed with a special meal at the Bella Vista Restaurant, with 50 members and guests gathering to enjoy the occasion.
A highlight of the evening was presenting a Paul Harris Fellow Award – the Highest honour one can give to a member of Rotary – to long-standing member Eric Meanock.
The award celebrates his outstanding contribution to the work of Rotary, the Crompton and Royton Club and the local community.
Eric was presented with a personalised certificate with a presentation folder and a lapel pin.
At the event Peter Turner, a magician, kept guests amused with close-up magic tricks and then gave a talk using volunteers to show how magicians use their skills and the power of psychology and misdirection to create the impossible.
Meanwhile, at their weekly lunchtime meetings at the Puckersley Inn, the Club welcomed two guest speakers to entertain their members.
Dr Sarah Price, head of the Heritage Collections Education team at the Durham University Museum, gave an illustrated presentation about her recent visit to the USA.
There, she investigated their University Museums provision, for example at the prestigious Harvard and Yale institutions.
Her main learning came from the way USA museums use the displays as part of the curriculum to involve students and how they are better at attracting funding from alumni.
But it is not all one-way learning as the UK museums are more creative in the way they display artefacts and have interactive displays.
Sarah also gave her impressions of the vast 9/11 memorial and Museum that is now standing at Ground Zero in New York.
At another meeting, Leon Macleod, a well-known local historian, provided members with an update on his research into the history of the Thornham and Narrowgate Brow areas of the district.
Using old photos of the area it was fascinating to see the area around the Turks Head was a small village of cottages which were demolished in the 1960s.
There was also a large number of small mills, coal mines, gravel works, breweries and factories making bricks and fabric of which there is little trace left.
This area was the world centre for producing corduroy due the highly skilful local workforce until machines were built that replaced the handcraft.
Leon also spoke of the rivalry between Rochdale and Oldham, who had different widths of track for their trams which required people to change trams at the summit if you wanted to travel from one town to the other.
uu The Rotary Club of Crompton and Royton carry out community work and also support a range of local and international charities and projects.
They meet at the Puckersley Inn every Wednesday lunchtime from 12.30pm-2pm, and their meetings include a range of interesting speakers.
For more information, visit their Facebook page /CromptonandRoytonRotary or call president Andy Czakow: 01706 840266.