Club Chronicle

25 July 2024: The year of 270 days

Our Programme Officer, David Axon, was today’s speaker.

The year of 270 days was 1752, when the United Kingdom switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.

The Julian Calendar was introduced into these islands after the Roman conquest of 55 AD. The concept of seven-day weeks was not introduced until the time of the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD. After the Romans left the Anglo-Saxons who succeeded them continued to use the Julian Calendar with the weekday names we continue to use today.

The Catholic countries on mainland Europe adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. By that time England had split from the Roman Catholic church and continued to use to old Julian Calendar. This caused problems over dates when trading with the rest of Europe. They had to be specified as either OS or NS (Old System or New System). Attempts were made to bring the English calendar into line with the continental one but these were defeated in Parliament twice, in 1649 by the Puritans and in 1699 by the Church of England. The reform was finally agreed in 1751, to come into effect the following year. In 1752 the country went straight from Wednesday, 2 September, to Thursday, 14 September, losing eleven days from the year. The legislation also moved the start of the year from 25 March to 1 January. (Apparently this change can be traced back to ancient Rome, where the Senate elections took place in January.)

This meant that nearly three months was lost from 1752, giving the figure of 270 days. However,the legislation also redesignated what had been the end of 1751, 1 January to 25 March 1751, as 1 January to 25 March 1752, so perhaps 1751 should technically be regarded as the short year.

The legislation was very detailed providing, for example, directions on the treatment of annual contracts (which had 11 days added to them).

Nevertheless the reform was very unpopular. One of the objections was that it was a surrender to Popery. There were widespread riots, with people being killed in Bristol.

The City of London bankers refused to pay their tax on 25 March 1753 because of the short year. The payment date was therefore changed to 5 April, which still marks the end of the tax year today.

Senior Guests’ Summer Party

Our Senior Guests’ Summer Party took place on the afternoon of Saturday, 29 June 2024, in the Chelmsford Cathedral Chapter House as usual. We fed and entertained 25 guests of mature years. In many cases we also collected them from their homes and took them back afterwards.

As each guest arrived they were handed a glass of sparkling elderflower cordial with a strawberry at the bottom. We had a number of tables set up for them.

The afternoon started with entertainment provided by Steve Moriaty, the husband of our member and District Governor Elect Anne Moriaty, and their daughter Pippa. They sang a variety of songs which would have been well known to those attending.

They then took a break while we served the guests with sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and other light refreshments. The kitchen was staffed by some of our lady members and they and other members made sure all the guests had something to eat.

When everyone had eaten their fill we held a quiz while the tables were cleared. Steve Moriaty set the questions and Graham Furnival acted as Question Master. The winner managed to get a very creditable sixteen questions right out of twenty. There were prizes for her and for the next two places. Three guests shared third place.

After that Steve and Pippa took the stage for more songs, inviting the guests to join in the more familiar ones. The afternoon ended just before 16:30 with the final song that has become traditional on these occasions, “We’ll Meet Again”.

Our thanks to Alison Moses for acting as organiser this year, to all the Club members who helped on the day in various ways, and to the Cathedral vergers for getting everything ready for us.

Spring Jumble Sale 2024

We held our annual Spring Jumble Sale on Saturday, 20 April 2024 - at the Danbury Village Hall as usual. Members attended in the morning to sort out the jumble into categories and set up the tables and the auction for the more valuable items. The photograph shows the hall when this work had been completed.

The jumble sale itself took place in the afternoon, manned by volunteers from our Club and from the Village Hall. The total sales came to £517.20, an excellent result. Our thanks to all who helped on the day setting-up, helping on the stalls and clearing up afterwards. It was a very successful day.

Rotary Young Musician District Final

The District 1240 Final of Rotary Young Musician was held at Brentwood Cathedral on Saturday, 2 March 2024. There were nine competitors sponsored by Clubs around the District, including three sponsored by us. Others in attendance included the Mayors of both Brentwood and Chelmsford, the District Governor and District Governor Elect (our own Anne Moriaty), many other Rotarians and others who had come to support competitors.

The performers’ standard was very high indeed. The adjudicators had a difficult task deciding on placings. The winning vocalist was Rose Buggle (sponsored by us and by the Rotary Club of Brentwood). The runner-up was Katherine O’Hanlan (also sponsored by us). Our instrumentalist was unplaced.