To celebrate the Queen's Jubilee, interested parties were invited by Geoff Chick to attend a meeting at the Fairford Centre to discuss setting up various groups that could benefit the community and make full use of the facilities.
 
Eileen Normington, Jenny Dennis and I volunteered to set up an Art Group, later to be called the Fairford Art Society. We started by meeting, in the downstairs room at the Centre, on Wednesday afternoons and some Saturdays, when we would set upa still life and Jenny and I would give help to beginners. Eileen was a very enthusiastic beginner. Other more experienced artists used the opportunity to paint and mix with others with a shared interest.
 
As new people joined, including some very talented artists, we formed a committee and established monthly evening meetings. In the summer, weather permitting, these were held out of doors. We became more organised and voted on a chairperson, secretary and treasurer - we now had a membership fee and a constitution. Sallie Seymour had joined our little group of founder members and we grew in strength. Geoffrey Edgeler, a working artist, designed our first logo.
 
Our first exhibition was held in the downstairs Church room at the back of the Centre building. It was successful and more people joined. Due to the increased number of paintings submitted our next exhibitions were held in the Centre itself. We bought second-hand screens from another Art Group, which proved very heavy and difficult to store, so we later invested in some new screens. Tony Cutler, very helpfully, offered to store them in one of his barns and transport them in his trailer.
 
Later exhibitions, because of better light and more space, were held at Coln House School - firstly in the Dining Hall and later in the larger School Hall. Membership increased by people from the surrounding villages and even Witney and Swindon. One member from Lechlade went on to form the Lechlade Art Society.
 
In the early days our more experienced or qualified members gave demonstrations or ran working sessions for the other members, but after we became more financially sound we were able to pay for other artists to come. We now had an exhibition secretary and a programme secretary. We were also exhibiting in the doctors' surgery and at Easter as well as in the summer.

It is a joy to know that the Art Society is now able to use the beautifully restored Fairford Centre and is retaining the yearly programme of demonstrations and exhibitions.