MR Arkell (Review March 26) stated that the present Ruardean Woodside Hall Committee wouldn't want to be recognised, and would probably be offended if it was suggested. Neither do we want recognition. This is not what this is all about!
People who try to do something to enhance the lives of others, like the Hall Committee and the Darby & Joan Club, do so because they want to.
Over the 50 years that the Darby & Joan Club members signed the cloth, it was to represent being together, creating memories, a community helping each other. It wasn't done because one day they thought it would hang on a wall.
But the fact that it was treated to preserve it and framed professionally is a real bonus. There is a chance to celebrate past membership with a unique roll of honour.
Don't forget readers, there used to be a chapel and two public houses on Woodside. The Jovial Colliers and The Roebuck, are now, except for the names in the housing estate, just a distant memory.
We are fortunate to have a school, shop and Post Office. In these changing times who knows for how long!
This cloth is about the little bit of heritage we have left and that is why it should hang, inobtrusively, on the wall it was taken down from.
We are asking that a memorial cloth be allowed to hang in a Memorial Hall. – June Ingmire on behalf of Ruardean Woodside D&J Club.