The Rotary Club of Arbury 

CLUB HANDOVER at WESTON HALL

  29 June 2006

Mick Larder, who has been President of Arbury Rotary Club for the last year hands over the reins of the club to Krishna Prasad, Consultant Urologist at George Eliot Hospital.  Mark Salmon will be Vice-President. 

During the last year the club has been involved in several local projects including Blood Pressure Days, Kids Out to Drayton Manor for Oakfield School, and the Safety Show at Bulkington.   Internationally the Club has provided hundreds of emergency boxes for disaster areas with the help of children from Whitestone School, Gun Hill School, Nuneaton Sea Cadets and the 1^st Weddington and 2^nd Nuneaton Brownies. 

Mick Larder, the Outgoing President said “It was really great to see the local children supporting the Club’s efforts to help others who are less fortunate or have suffered from disasters and it has been a pleasure and an honour to have been President of the Club for the last year”.

The Rotary Club of Arbury decided some time ago to commemorate the 100^th birthday of Rotary International, with specific projects for Nuneaton, and 3 were decided upon.

The biggest is the awarding of a series of Bursaries for students at the local King Edward VI College. These Centennial Bursaries are for students who go on to study for a degree after their Advanced Level course at the College.    The first Bursary was awarded for September 2004 to Nuneaton student Laura Willdig, to study at the University of Wales.

Immediately after securing the A level grades to start her course, King Edward VI student Emma Massey was named as the recipient of the bursary for 2005.  The Award is worth £600 over her 3-year degree course at the University of Teeside.  Laura and Emma attended the Rotary Club Meeting at Weston Hall Hotel, Bulkington and both addressed the Club after receiving their cheques from Club President Mike Larder.

 A further Award will be given for September 2006 and again for the next few years. The students in King Edward VI College are encouraged to work in the community on a voluntary extra-curricula basis. The annual Bursary is awarded to the applicant deemed to have provided most worthwhile service in Nuneaton and Bedworth during the 2 years of the Advanced Level course.

The worldwide Rotary movement, Rotary International, was 100 years old on February 23 2005 and the Rotary Club of Arbury celebrated with a Dinner for the members, their wives and members of the Inner Wheel of Arbury.

The event was held at the Weston Hall Hotel in Bulkington. The After-Dinner Speaker was Alan Priddy, a Rotarian from Portsmouth, who has done all sorts of long voyages in a power boat, set numerous records and has been world champion 39 times in various events. Fairly recently, he travelled round the world in a power boat he described as a 23 ft. fuel tank, with 4 seats, no beds and no toilets.


The President of the Rotary Club of Arbury, Rotarian John Mills, presented Commemorative Rotary Centennial Plates to Mrs. Sue Phillips, the President of the Inner Wheel Club of Arbury and to Mr. Wyn Thomas, the manager of the Weston Hall Hotel. The members of the Rotary Club received Commemorative Medals.

The whole enjoyable evening was planned by Arbury President-Elect, Rotarian Michael Larder.

The 100th year of Rotary International has just ended and the Centennial Presidents of the Rotary Clubs of Arbury, Bedworth and Nuneaton visited the floral clock alongside the Council House in Nuneaton.  The Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council had agreed to the Rotary Club of Arbury request that the floral bedding should commemorate 100 years of Rotary in the world and this was one of the Arbury Club’s projects for Nuneaton. 

The photograph shows Immediate past presidents John Mills from the Rotary Club of Arbury, Brian Merry from the Bedworth Club and John Shirley from the Nuneaton Club.  The flower background to the clock is set out to show the Rotary badge and has the words: ROTARY 100 YEARS

The third project in support of Nuneaton refers to the Nuneaton Heritage Centre.

The premises in Avenue Road were originally the Chilvers Coton Free School founded in about 1735 by Lady Elizabeth Newdigate for the purpose of educating "30 of the poor of the Parish".  After many different uses the building was taken over in 1998 by the Chilvers Coton Centre Trust and has continued ever since as the Chilvers Coton Heritage Centre

The clock had not worked properly for some years and when the Nuneaton Carnival Committee donated £150 to the Heritage Centre some 3 years ago, costs of refurbishment and of a new clock were investigated. As a result, the Rotary Club of Arbury and the Rotary Club of Nuneaton have donated £600 each for the purchase and erection of a new clock, which is now in position on the peak of the roof of the building overlooking the car park and the Craft Centre. The town's Clubs joined forces to donate the clock, as part of both Clubs celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the formation of the worldwide organisation, Rotary International.

A commemorative plaque was unveiled on 12 June by the Chairperson of the Heritage Trust, Mrs Beryl Kerby.  Also in attendance were representatives of the 2 Rotary Clubs and the Carnival Committee who were shown on the photograph.