A SOCIETY FOR EVERYTHING

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I heard a mention on the radio of a Pylon Society and it struck me how we seem to have a society for everything, catering for all sorts of things, not just in Britain but in other countries too. I thought it would be fun to post now and then on some of the more unusual ones!

I'll start with the Pylon Appreciation Society, run by a well-named lady: Flash Bristow Pylon Appreciation Society
Welcome! Who are we and what do we do?
"It's funny how many people accuse me of being mad or geeky - and then they send me photos or ask for more information!"
It's simple: the Pylon Appreciation Society is a club for people who appreciate electricity pylons. Enthusiasts range from primary school children to retired engineers and include anyone who is interested or inspired by transmission towers. As well as the wealth of information available through this site, if you choose to become a member there are other benefits including the field guide (pictured, being released in instalments), message board, and other resources.

There's a world gallery of pylon photos on Bristow's own site. Enjoy! LINK

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And here's another couple just to show the wide range of interests...

The Society of Ploughmen LINK
The Society of Ploughmen was founded in 1972. It is a registered charity run by volunteers from the farming community. It is responsible for the organisation of the British National Ploughing Championships and for managing the England World and European Ploughing Teams. With more than 250 local ploughing societies affiliated to it and a membership drawn from ploughmen and women from all over the world, the Society is a vibrant, thriving organisation and an influential member of the World Ploughing Organization. However, membership is not restricted to ploughmen and women alone. Anyone can join and there are many members who joined purely out of a love of farming and the countryside.

The Tortoise Society LINK
Tortoises make very great pets, and if you decide to keep them them you maybe inspired to learn more about their conservation and welfare. They are not, however, particularly easy or low-maintenance animals to keep outside of their natural climatic range. Many tortoises that are bought to be kept as pets by inexperienced keepers suffer easily avoidable health problems and premature mortality.

[Stanley]

Here's a report from City Diary in the Telegraph in 2000.
" Going off at half-cock
AN antique rifle society in Airedale is looking for somewhere else to keep its money after Yorkshire Bank closed its account. The Cock, Ball, Nipple and Touch-Hole Club, named after parts of historic firearms (honest), believes the decision may have had something to do with its name. The Royal Armouries in Leeds protests that the words "are not intentionally smutty or titillating. They're proper names which mean as much now as they did when Rob Roy was around".
"The decision had nothing to do with the group's name or its activities," insists a spokesman for the bank. The reason for closing the eight-year-old account was, he says, due to it going overdrawn - by 32p."

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Thanks for that, it can be our next society...
The Cock, Ball, Nipple, and Touch Hole Club LINK
The CBNT (properly called the Cock, Ball, Nipple, and Touch Hole club) is a small, friendly shooting club of around 50 members, for black powder enthusiasts based in West Yorkshire. The club was formed more than 40 years ago and continues to be one of the best clubs for black powder and muzzle loading shooting in the area. The CBNT shoot pistols, rifles and shotguns. Any variety of black powder gun is permitted, be it an original early Purdey or a reproduction Pedersoli, and both breech loading and muzzle loading arms are welcomed. The club shoots four times a month at different ranges in the Yorkshire area and holds regular club competitions as well as inter-club competitions.

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And for something different from cocks, balls and nipples how about...
The Association of Lighthouse Keepers LINK
The Association of Lighthouse Keepers provides a forum for everyone interested in lighthouses, lightships and maritime aids to navigation. Despite its name, being a lighthouse keeper is not a requirement for joining the Association, although a number of serving and former keepers are members. Whatever your interest in lighthouses, you can join the ALK! The ALK holds a large archive of lighthouse related material, and the goal of the Association is to establish a study centre available to members. In striving towards this end, the ALK has helped and advised the setting up of display material at lighthouses open to the public around the UK.

The Association has a wealth of expertise and works with other lighthouse-related societies and organisations, both nationally and internationally. Members come from right across the globe, ranging from Australia to the USA and across Europe. Members are welcome to attend any meeting or activity. Whatever your interest, background, age or ability, you can be assured of a warm welcome.

[Stanley]

If I was a club man that one would be for me! I have long been interested in lighthouses.....



Here's a famous image of La Jument lighthouse off the coast of Brittany. The keeper had heard the helicopter and came out to see it. He said he didn't know the wave was coming but realised and bolted back inside. Years later I saw a TV documentary where the snapper went and found the keeper and gave him a big print of the pic. That was when the keeper told his side of the story.

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That's a great photo!

Here's a suitable follower to the lighthouse society. Have a look at it's Gallery page.
`The Folly Fellowship' LINK
The Folly Fellowship was founded in 1988 as a pressure group to protect, preserve, and promote follies, grottoes & garden buildings. At this time, many follies were in a ruinous condition (although some were built that way) and the genre was largely an historic one that we felt worth preserving. However, since that time, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of these buildings to our landscapes. Many have been restored, and several have been completely rebuilt with local support. Better still, some individuals with imagination and the tenacity to fight the planning process, have begun to build new follies. The rise in popularity of television building programmes has encouraged people to try and squeeze something a little unusual in their back gardens. Follies are no longer the preserve of architectural historians and the very rich. [This site] is intended as a resource to enable you to find out more about the fascinating subject. So if you are writing a thesis on garden architecture, looking for an architect to design you a folly, or looking for ideas to build your own folly, dig in, there’s plenty of inspiration here.

[Stanley]

I've come across them and on a parallel line the National Trust likes follies as well. Some of them are rented out as holiday homes by them. Martha has stayed in a few of them.....

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There's no shortage of follies in Somerset! Have a look at all these pictures... Fab Follies

Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln's birthday so this seems a suitable choice for our next society...
`Abraham Lincoln Historical Society' LINK
The Abraham Lincoln Historical Society has been created by graduate and undergraduate students of the University of Massachusetts History Club. We are a group of enthusiasts who believe Abraham Lincoln was one of the most influential presidents in American history. Lincoln was poorly prepared when he became president but against all odds succeeded in destroying the most abhorrent of all institutions in Antebellum America, slavery.

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Knowing your Taunton connection - I almost mentioned 'Jack the Treacle Eater' yesterday. I came across it when I was doing some radio field strength measurements, nearby in the 1980's. I read somewhere that it was built in part, to provide work for the local unemployed. It's a name that sticks in your mind.

[Stanley]

I was surprised to find, when in NY, that the HQ of the Brooklyn Bridge Appreciation Society was in Amsterdam.....

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I didn't find a society but Wikipedia has many photos and plenty of information on Brooklyn Bridge. LINK

There just had to be society for this...
`British Society of Master Glass Painters' LINK
Since 1921 we have offered a forum for all lovers of stained glass. We promote the highest standards of design, craft and creativity in stained glass. Our mission is to be the foremost authority on contemporary and historic stained glass in Britain. Britain has a rich heritage of stained glass from the Middle Ages to the present day, and British designers and craftsmen continue to make a distinctive contribution to its evolution. Here we explore new windows, historic stained glass and the world of conservation.

Have a look at the links to articles and photos on this page: LINK

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Look up the Worshipful Company of Turners based in London, an old guild still going strong in the Ornamental Turning world.... (LINK)

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`The Worshipful Company of Turners'
800 Years of History
One of the oldest Livery Companies in the City of London, the Turners’ Company was already a guild in the 12th Century. Some 200 years later, Edward III decreed that ‘wooden measures, as well for wine as for ale’ should be made only by ‘turnours’ with marks of their own – and the medieval turners established the English ‘pint’ as an official measure. In 1604 the Company received its Royal Charter from James I. To this day, the Company continues to celebrate and support the ‘art or mysterie’ of turning.

1295 – 1845
The Company is the successor of the Guild of Turners whose exact origins are unknown. Unlike the products of the potter, wooden objects are perishable, so the earliest date of turning is not known exactly. However, turned wooden bowls excavated from peat bogs at prehistoric levels show that the craft is certainly many thousands of years old.

1845 – Present
1845 onwards saw a new spirit of revival, reform and usefulness appropriate to a new age. New men joined the Court of Assistants, many of them destined to make positive and striking contributions to the Company.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS for the Society of Ornamental Turners. I have two ornamental turning lathes made by Johnny Pickles and these lads would give their eye teeth for them! OT is to ordinary turning as three dimensional chess is to the standard game and I have taken care not to get sucked in! Have a look at what they can make and wonder at human ingenuity!

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`The Society of Ornamental Turners'
The Society of Ornamental Turners exists to encourage, develop and promote the study and practice of the art of ornamental turning. This encompasses a wide variety of types of work including traditional English ornamental turning as exemplified in Volume V of Holzapffel's book ‘The Principles and Practice of Complex and Ornamental Turning’, Rose engine turning (both with fixed and rotary tools), Geometric Chuck work and Engine turning on metal.

This work may be carried out using historic machinery from such makers such as Holtzapffel, Evans or Birch (which must first be carefully restored to working order, a task which some members find as pleasurable as the actual ornamental turning), or alternatively modern approaches may be taken either painstaking construction of accurate replicas of historical equipment, or alternatively entirely original approaches (even some CNC), or – improvised from scrap. Fine work has been produced, in the right hands from all these approaches.

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`The Twentieth Century Society' LINK
The Twentieth Century Society was founded as the Thirties Society in 1979 – the year the Thirties exhibition was shown at the Hayward Gallery. The need for a specialised conservation society covering the period after 1914 (the limit of the scope of the Victorian Society, founded twenty years earlier) was increasingly appreciated in the 1970s as understanding and awareness of twentieth century design developed. Read more about our history below.

The Twentieth Century Society exists to safeguard the heritage of architecture and design in Britain from 1914 onwards. The Society’s prime objectives are conservation, to protect the buildings and design that characterise the Twentieth Century in Britain, and education, to extend our knowledge and appreciation of them, whether iconic buildings like the Royal Festival Hall or everyday artefacts like the red telephone box.

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Closely related is the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. (LINK)
They are the go-to destination for specialist advice. Their handbook on pointing is the Bible!

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`Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings' LINK
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) believes old buildings have a future. From cottages to castles and from churches to cathedrals we are here to help buildings and the people who care for them. Through our unique training schemes, courses, advice and research we help people put our expertise into practice.

Founded by William Morris in 1877, the SPAB was established in response to the work of Victorian architects whose enthusiasm for harmful restoration caused irreparable damage. Today the SPAB encourages excellence in new design to enrich and complement the built historic environment. We train new generations of architectural professionals and building craftspeople to shape this landscape with sensitivity and skill, and we play a statutory role as adviser to local planning authorities. In our casework we campaign actively to protect old buildings at risk.

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`The International Sheep Dog Society' LINK
In 1873 the first recorded sheep dog trials were held in Bala, North Wales, but it was not until some 33 years later that The International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS) was formed, following a meeting of English and Scottish sheep-men in 1906. Shortly afterwards the first International Trials were held in Gullane, Scotland and, except during the war years, have continued to be an annual event. Now over 100 years later, the ISDS has well over 6000 members from all over the World.

I was prompted to post the above link because I heard about someone who was collecting money in a dog bowl for The Dog Society. I searched google and couldn't find it but saw the Sheep Dog Society. But it also led me to this interesting page... The Society Dog

[Stanley]

That reminds me of P having his back stretched.......

See THIS At one time we had an informal society in Hebden bridge called The Gay Gricers'.

In Hebden Bridge there was also a Henpecked Club. See THIS.

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Who's a pretty boy then?...
`The Budgerigar Society '
To encourage, educate, publicise, support and regulate the hobby of keeping, breeding and exhibiting budgerigars worldwide ensuring the health and wellbeing of the birds. Since the naturalist, John Gould introduced the small grass parakeet to England in 1840 no other variety of small cage bird has created as much interest as the Budgerigar. And the Budgerigar Society in Great Britain can rightly claim that it is the most well-organised and efficiently run society out of all branches of the cage bird fraternity, with its own headquarters building in Spring Gardens Northampton. The Budgerigar for many years has been acclaimed as the most popular house pet.

The history of the Budgerigar Society (BS) has been eventful since the initial set up in 1925: the BS now has a membership approaching 2,500 with an office, a full time secretary/treasurer to deal with all daily queries, membership, correspondence, minutes of meetings, ring orders, for taking show entries for the World Championship show staged at the Doncaster Dome every September, and many other tasks too numerous to mention.

The Fancy: a term used loosely for the bird keeping fraternity that consists of the Canary fancy, the British Bird fancy, the Budgerigar fancy and the Foreign Bird (including Parrots) fancy. Those who keep any of these types of birds are called “Fanciers”.

[Stanley]

There was a similar society for hens and shows were very popular in this area in the early 20th century.

[Stanley]

This will put the cat amongst the pigeons but see THIS for the Pipe Smokers Club of London......

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No need to say or do anything, its one of those societies which will die out naturally.