Intergroup History
Many groups have started up and then passed into history. Chris D remembers attending a meeting at the catholic church in Donnington. Another group held meeting in the scout hut at the back of Adams Grammar Newport. A few have tried to get a group going in Whitchurch but they have not lasted.
There are a few groups in Shropshire I have little background data on. If anyone has information about these groups please email the details.
The groups that I would like information on hold meeting in the following towns,
Whitchurch, rumoured to be a new one started, I do not have any information about this group.
Ludlow, meetings held on Tuesday and Fridays. These meetings have been going a long time. Now with both Welsh Borders IG and Shropshire IG.
Market Drayton, meetings were held in the church hall next to the British Legion. They have now moved to the Methodist Church hall. Meetings are held on a Friday night and tend to over run. In the Potteries IG.
Newtown, meetings are held at the Catholic Presbytery on Wednesdays. Joined Shropshire IG around 2002.
Welshpool, this group held its meeting in the hospital grounds for a number of years. It left there not long after the death of Albert, he was mainly responsible for looking after the meeting. It moved around for a while but is now located at the Catholic Church in Newtown, meeting held on a Wednesday evening.
Bishop Castle, meetings held on a Thursday evening at the Church Barn. In Cheshire IG.
Oswestry, Holy Trinity Church Hall, Salop Rd, meetings held on a Monday evening. In Cheshire IG.
Much Wenlock, Methodist Chapel, King St, meeting held on a Wednesday evening. This was a new meeting started in 2009. This group was short lived and closed down a few weeks after starting.
Cleobury Mortimer, The meeting was started by Robert and Paul in November 2009. Although the local area is served by meetings in Ludlow, Bridgnorth, Kidderminster and Stourport, there were, at that time, no meetings on Wednesday evenings in any of those locations. It was felt that Cleobury Mortimer was roughly in the middle of those four towns, and there was room for a meeting on a Wednesday. The meeting enjoys loyal support locally and entertains visitors from further afield on a regular basis.
If you would like to add data to any group history or about another group in Shropshire that is not listed then email chair.shropshire@aamail.org.
The more data given then the more likely it is that dates will be correct and the history of that group will be preserved.
Oakengates Meetings
The groups in Oakengates started about 1980 and meetings were held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, then a bit later a Sunday meeting started. For a short while, there was also a Wednesday dinner time come and go meeting, this meeting was started by Kevin to give those who were out of work somewhere to go. Together with the hospital meetings held in the grounds of the Wrekin Hospital, held on Mondays and Fridays they were the only meeting in the newly formed Telford New Town.
The early Oakengates meetings were quite small and were held in one of the Social Services offices with access to the kitchen for making tea. Towards the end of their stay at the Social Services offices, the meetings had grown to 30-40 strong most nights. They were now held in the main meeting room. Sometimes suffering acts of vandalism, it was not unusual to have to clean up glass from broken windows and inform the caretaker before the meeting could start. Luckily this did not happen too often. With the crowded conditions and people smoking up to 10 cigarettes in an hour and a half meeting it is not surprising that many a conscience meeting was called to see what could be done about the smoke, by the end of the evening you were lucky if you could see across the room. Another favourite subject for the conscience meeting being interruptions to shares by people making tea or by the tea being brought round.
It was just after we obtained permission to install a smoke extractor that it was announced that the building was to be knocked down to make room for the doctors surgery next door to expand. Despite all the drawbacks many look back on the meetings held in these offices has being strong on AA principles and run according to the guidelines. They are looked back on with fondness and gratitude for the support offered.
When the Social Services building in Oakengates was knocked down in about 1997 the groups had to move. They could not find anywhere suitable in Oakengates that all three meetings could be held, and rather that split up moved to the Community Centre in Leegomery. The groups remained at the Community Centre Leegomery for a few years but never really felt at home.
The meetings were often disrupted by the youths who hung around outside and it was intimidating to walk though these youths to get to the meeting.
When the Salvation Army built its new citadel in Oakengates around 2002 the group was offered a room, it took no persuading to convince the group members that it would in their best interests to move back to Oakengates. All three groups moved at the same time and it was very nice to have meetings that were relaxing. The only disruptions that occurred were caused by those attending the meeting.
On Saturday 16 September 2006 the Shropshire mini convention took place at the Salvation Army Citadel and despite clashing with the Al-Anon convention in Birmingham it was a success. The Salvation Army allowed the use of whole of the building, including the church for the main meeting. They even went as far as to record the top table shares.
In 2008 a new group started in Oakengates. They held meetings on Monday afternoons in the Methodist Church Hall, Stafford Street. This group lasted a couple of years.
If you can add any information that would improve the history of any of the Shropshire groups please do so by emailing, chair.shropshire@aamail.org.