The History Page

In October 1973, Brian Stratford, who was at that time the landlord of the Golden Bell public house in Church Square Leighton Buzzard, placed an article in the Leighton Buzzard Observer (L.B.O.) newspaper, about his collection of Penny Blacks, He ended the item with a plea that he would like to meet fellow philatelists with a view to forming a local society.

In November 1973 the L.B.O. carried a small item stating that "Leighton Buzzard is to have it's own Philatelic Society". as a result of the publicity given in the article of the previous month, there was to be a meeting at the Golden Bell on December 5th 1973 at 8:00 pm. Fourteen people turned up at the Golden Bell on the night.

As a result of the meeting it was agreed that a Philatelic Society should be formed in the town and the Committee were as follows:
Chairman; Brian Stratford
Secretary; Brian Riach
Treasurer; Brian Stratford
Committee; L Lack, D Wetherall, B Bonnington

It was decided that meetings would be held on the first Wednesday of each month with the exception of July and August (as they have been ever since) Subscriptions were £ 1.00 per adult member and 25 p for juniors.

The first official meeting of the Society took place in January 1974 at the Conservative club in the High Street and Roy Palmer gave a seasonal display of Christmas Issues, For the remainder of the season meetings were held at the Swan Hotel in the High Street and were as follows; February 74 Great Britain by Mr Stratford, March, Six of the Best, April Auction, May Visit by the Luton P.S. when a talk and display on "Scouting" was given by Mr Tom Holton, who was later to become an active member of our Society. At the AGM in June the Committee were re-elected except that Mr Bonnington departed and was replaced by John Reid and Mr Jakeman, and although not mentioned in the minutes it appears that Mr Terence Palmer took over as acting Secretary and Mr Roy Palmer as acting Treasurer at some time before the 1975 AGM.

In September 1974 the Society had moved to a new venue in the coffee lounge in the High Street and met there until June 1980.

At the 1975 AGM Mr B. Stratford was re-elected Chairman, Mr T Palmer Secretary, and Roy Palmer as Treasurer. The Committee comprised; Mr D Wetherall, Rev Leonard Lack and Mr John Reid.

At the 1976 AGM it was reported that 25% of the members were Juniors.

From 1980 the Society met at the Vandyke Community College, later moving to Hockliffe Street Baptist Church and most recently to St Barnabas Church Hall in Linslade, now renamed the Community Hall.

The Society took part in the 700th Anniversary of All Saints Church staging a stamp exhibition and sponsoring a commemorative cover. £ 293 was donated towards the renovation of the tower clock face.

The Society celebrated it's 25th anniversary at the New Year social in 1998, Members of four other local Society's were invited and David Boyd of Phillips Auctions was invited to give a talk on his experiences in the profession.

During the evening Leonard Lack was presented with a certificate granting him life membership to the Society.