With thanks to the help of a willing committee and the support of
our regular attendees I believe this has been the most active and
successful year for our Slimbridge Dowsing Group. Since I was standing
here exactly one year ago, we have held twenty-five dowsing meetings
plus many unscheduled days out on the fields and river bank where
we have been conducting archaeological dowsing surveys to discover
where buildings and other objects have been in the distant past.
However, it has not all been good news. Sadly, we have lost two
of our members although they will not be forgotten. Michael Lakin
and Colin Davis, two of our most loyal and enthusiastic supporters,
died during this period. I attended both funerals and offered sincere
condolences to Elizabeth and Barbara.
Our membership goes through phases where attendance fluctuates – some
long-standing members drift in-and-out while new members attend most
events. This is the same in all clubs and societies. Thankfully we
have a solid core of regular attendees. I must thank Ann Jones for
phoning round to remind members before each meeting.
The Slimbridge Dowsing Group Newsletter was introduced this year,
and it has proved to be very popular and a great success. Thanks
to Trish Mills for this and the other ways she publicises our activities
in the local newspapers and my website.
I am fortunate in having my daughter’s partner Simon as my
Webmaster. He posts all Trish’s reports of our events
in a prompt and eye-catching manner. I am often receiving complimentary
comments from visitors to the website – as well as many requests
for my dowsing services!
Let me highlight just a few of the interesting events this year. Visiting speakers
have covered subjects as diverse as “Crystals” by Toni Hunt, “Kinesiology” by
Janet Nicholls, “Bach Flower Remedies” by Daphne Adams, “Reflexology” by
Isobel Willmott, “Spirit Release” by Irenka Danielewicz-Herbert, “Sacred
Geometry” by Ced Jackson, “Dowsing in the Garden” by Prof.
John Flavell. Thanks to Peter Gibson, Barry Goldring and Arthur Marrow, our “home-grown” speakers
have also taken part, touching subjects such as Water Divining, Earth Energies,
Geopathic Stress and Lost Objects. Barry and Peter also gave talks about two
of our archaeological dowsing projects at the BSD annual Conference at Cirencester. They
and I have also given talks to other organisations. Arthur now leads the “Engineering
Dowsing” of the BSD Water & Site Dowsing Group.
We have held joint events with other organisations. We visited Avebury Stone
Circles with South Herefordshire Dowsers in the summer. One of their members
came to our Berkeley Castle dowsing day, and I heard him at their AGM singing
the praises of the professional standard of our archaeological dowsers. The
Taw & Torridge Metal Detectorists visited Slimbridge in August, and we
were able to compare our predictions of buried metal objects with their results.
We demonstrated our activities at the Thistledown Environmental Centre, the
Dursley Town Festival and the Slimbridge Horse Show.
I have tutored Water Divining courses here, and encouraged students to accompany
me to sites where my clients wanted to know where to drill water boreholes.
One student obtained remarkably comparable results to that of my own. The
proof of accuracy will be shown when drilling takes place. I will be tutoring
another Health & Healing course on 21st of this month. I feel it is important
to pass on these ancient skills to younger generations – and that covers
all members of this Dowsing Group.
In finishing, I must pay special tribute to our hard-working committee for
their help in making our meetings run smoothly. You will have noticed some
of their activities: Jim Greatrix is always the first one here to open up
and prepare the room for the meeting. Ann Jones always has a welcome cup
of tea or coffee with a biscuit to greet people as they arrive. Barry and
Peter take the register – and your entrance fee. Barbara deals with
the secretarial duties – and always prepares a good display for public
events. Arthur helps members and visitors to improve their dowsing skills
at the end of most meetings. Trish takes notes during the meetings, no matter
how unexciting some of them may have been, and turns them into eye-catching
articles, which are regularly given full prominence in the local Dursley
Gazette. I’m sure there must be many members who have joined as a result
of reading those articles.
And so I thank the committee and members for their help, friendliness
and enthusiasm during the past year and look forward with confidence to another
successful year ahead.
Thank you!
