ON OCTOBER 23, the society held a dinner at Redditch Golf Club, celebrating twenty-five very successful years presenting a variety of talks and events.

The society’s next meeting was a talk by Bernard Mills from Kay’s Heritage Collection about the fascinating history of Kay’s Catalogue. He traced the company’s inception in the late 1700s as a business selling watches and clocks, to the very successful company it became by the 2000s known as The Shop in a Book. Whatever you wanted to buy – Kay’s Catalogue was able to sell it.

They moved premises two or three times; the original shop was based in Broad Street which is still there. At some point, the company moved to Foregate Street, then to Shrub Hill and finally to the wellknown building in The Tything.

It was so interesting to see the history and changes in people’s fashions, which were mirrored in the catalogue’s collection each year. It was a huge organisation at one time with branches in Glasgow, Lancaster, Leeds and Bristol.

Eventually Kay’s was taken over by GUS, a mail order organisation and sadly finally ceased in 2007, ending 210 years of trading.

The society’s Christmas Party is at Feckenham Village Hall on December 8, 7.30pm. With Christmas songs and quiz organised by Richard Churchley