History of RREC Wessex Section

The Section came into being at a meeting held on 9th December 1989 at the Devonshire Arms pub at Long Sutton near Langport in Somerset. The Section was originally named Salisbury and Area - though this was quickly changed to Wessex reflecting, perhaps, that much of the the area was once the historic Saxon Kingdom ruled by Alfred the Great.

The current catchment area is roughly from Lyme Regis up to Taunton, then up to the M5 to Burnham across and up to the M4 between Chippenham and Swindon, down towards Andover, down to the east side of the Southampton estuary but excludes the Isle of Wight. The boundary then follows the magnificent coastline back to Lyme Regis.

In simple terms we cover the whole of Dorset and part of Hampshire, some of Somerset and most of Wiltshire - but, inevitably, there’s a whole hinterland around our borders that RREC members in other Sections might find enticing. We certainly hope so.

We’re taking the opportunity to make the Wessex Section of the RREC more relevant to the busy way we live our lives today.

So we’ve launched the Section’s first website - which we hope you will find is filled with engaging material and important member information plus full details of all of our events.

And we have a regular emailed Newsletter to keep you right up to date with everything that is going on in the RREC Wessex Section.

So here’s to the next 50 years.

(Author Brian Palmer - with thanks to Chess Ferrier)