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Preen News 2017

This Year’s Reunion.

The 2017 Reunion will be held on SATURDAY 10th June, starting at 10am. It will be a

Kings Stanley Reunion and will feature some of the Kings Stanley Preen families. It is being

organised by Andy Stevens (email: andy@preenfamily.org) and Angela Clarke (telephone

01299 250627) and will be held at a venue in Gloucestershire as close to Kings Stanley as

possible.

As soon as the details have been finalised, they will send out a Flyer to advertise the meeting.

It will contain full details and a booking form and will be sent out early in 2017. Please allow

them time to arrange this and do not contact them until after Easter.

We intend to launch the Kings Stanley Volume of the

Preen Family History at this meeting. Although it is not

quite ready now (January 2017), work is progressing

well and it should be finished in time. Writing the

History of the Preen Family has been a massive

undertaking, but with the completion of the the Kings

Stanley Volume we shall have three of the four

volumes completed and hope that another two years

will suffice to complete the remaining volume (Volume

One: The Early History (before 1660)).

The three volumes of the History will be on sale at the

reunion along with all the other books produced over

the years, some of which are only on sale at the

reunions.

I hope to see many of you at this reunion.

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Last Year's Reunion

The 2016 reunion was held on SATURDAY 11 JUNE 2016 from 10am to 5pm. It was a

Cardington Meeting and featured Family F08, "the other Cardington Family". On several

occasions we had featured the descendants of John Preen 1734-1848 and Hannah Gallear

who lived in Cardington and many of whose descendants are still with us. However his

cousin Thomas Preen 1756-c1830 also lived in Cardington and his family was the subject of

the 2016 reunion.

The meeting was held in Leebotwood Village Hall because it was not possible to find anyone

to do the catering in Cardington. The Leebotwood ladies provided an excellent buffet which

was much enjoyed. As usual, the meeting started at 10am with the welcome and introductions

and this year the booking fee also included a Programme Booklet containing information

about Family 08 and the places in and near Leebotwood associated with them. The meeting

was well supported with 23 members being present, as shown in the group photo. After

lunch, the Rev Philip Bytheway led a tour round places relevant to family F08, while Sue

remained in the village hall to discuss the Archive with those who preferred this.

Thomas Preen, the father of Family 08, had two sons, Samuel Preen (1789-1866) and James

Preen (1801-1885). The baptism records have different mother’s names suggesting that

Thomas was married twice and his sons were half-brothers. Samuel became a butcher and

married Elizabeth Williams in Cardington in 1811. They lived first in Cardington, then in All

Stretton, then at Comley in Cardington and finally in Little Stretton. James was a farmer or

farm-labourer. He married Elizabeth Davies in Cardington in 1821. He lived in Enchmarsh or

Hollyhurst, both in Cardington parish but on its border with Leebotwood and both he and his

wife were buried in Leebotwood. The booklet described them and their descendants, some of

whom emigrated to America or Australia.

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Publications

Work continues on the Kings Stanley volume of the History of the Preen Family and we

expect to complete this by June 2017. Once published, it may be ordered from our website,

via Amazon or from any bookshop.

I have now completed the set of booklets relating to past reunions, with the first Cardington

booklet covering 1996-2008 and each of the others relating to a single reunion. The set is:-

Family Reunions 1996-2008 The Preens of Cardington Part One.

Family Reunion 2009 The Preens of Kings Stanley

Family Reunion 2010 The Preens of Mill Street Bridgnorth

Family Reunion 2011 The Preens of Cardington Part Two

Family Reunion 2012 The Preens of Leebotwood

Family Reunion 2013 The Preens of Preens Eddy

Family Reunion 2014 The Preens of Dunley

Family Reunion 2015 The Preens of Carshalton

Family Reunion 2016 The Preens of Cardington Part Three

These cost £5 each and may be ordered from our website. Copies will also be on sale at the

reunions, when they will cost £5 each or £20 for any five copies.

In addition I will continue to publish other booklets by other members of the family in a

similar format and which will be sold from our website and at the reunions. These include:-

My Life in the Childrens Homes in Shrewsbury 1936-1948 by William Albert Preen

My Cardington Childhood by Grenville Gay

Tall Tales from Hadley by Derek Gambie

Preen Gossip Column by Derek Gambie

There are also other books which were not published using LULU. Sadly we still do not have

a Sales Manager to sell these books and so they can only be sold at our reunions.

Susan Laflin: Editor

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FAMILY NEWS

In July I was delighted to hear from Wendy Davies (Family 32) who told me what happened

to Benjamin Preen (1818-1887) a son of John Preen and Martha Bird. I had lost him

completely because I didn't realise that he had gradually changed his name from Benjamin

Preen to Benjamin William Preen to William Davies and so the death, in 1818, of William

Davies was the same person. He had moved into Birmingham and worked, first as a groom

and then as a gardener. Wendy was his great-grand-daughter by his second wife Janet

Davidson. Thank you Wendy for the information and welcome to the family.

This year I have news of several members of Family 04. At the reunion I met Beryl Ellis,

grand-daughter of Florence Adelaide Preen & Thomas Llewellyn Jones from Arddleen. She

provided information about the Preens living in Arddleen as well as several photographs.

Thank you Beryl, I hope to see you again when we next have a reunion in Shropshire.

In August I was contacted by Christine Stockall, great-grand-daughter of Laura Emma

Stockall who married Arthur Preen from Walls Bank, Cardington. Laura Emma had a son

Charlie Stockall, born before her marriage to Arthur Preen and also two daughters (Glennis

Preen who died young and Irene Preen) as well as Philip Preen. Arthur and Laura met when

he was working in Northwich and they were married in the Register Office there. Arthur

returned to Walls Bank after his father's death in 1918 but Laura seems to have divided her

time between Walls Bank and her own relatives in Northwich. After Arthur's death, Laura

inherited the cottage at Walls Bank, but sold it and moved north, dying at Oldham in 1965.

There are still some unanswered questions, but we are making progress and I'm very glad to

meet Christine.

One sad piece of news. In September, Geoffrey Owen Preen (F04) contacted me with news of

his brother's death. Colin James Preen, son of Philip Preen and grandson of Arthur and

Laura Emma Preen was born on 16 April 1947 and died on 2 September 2016. He was

brought up in Dalham in Suffolk by his parents Philip Preen and Grace Ella Pryke. He

married Carol Badcock and they lived in Dullingham near Newmarket with their four

children (Philip, Adrian, Kelly and Beverley). Colin died of cancer and was cremated in the

Cambridge Crematorium on 21st September and then buried at Arthur Rank, Cambridge. He

will be greatly missed by his family and friends and although I never met him, I extend my

deepest sympathy to his family.

Finally in December 2016, I arranged to meet Helen Campo (F03), daughter of Harold

Norman Preen and great-great-grand-daughter of Thomas Preen and Hannah Wall. This was

a great pleasure in spite of the frustrations of the foggy day. We met outside Shrewsbury and

travelled through Leebotwood, Church Stretton, Hope Bowdler and up onto Wenlock Edge.

We paused at the viewpoint on the edge amd luckily the fog was only patchy so we could see

out across the valley. Then we drove down the steep narrow road to Church Preen and visited

the church and yew tree. Returning via Bridgnorth, my attempt to show off the view of the

town from the by-pass bridge was a complete failure - the fog made a thick white wall and we

could barely see the sides of the bridge. We drove along Mill Street and out onto the

Wolverhampton road, where we parted to return home.