By Peter Watson
In the months since the last update we have passed an exciting milestone – more than 500 people have now visited this website, from as far afield as the US, Canada and Brazil, across Europe and of course the UK. A clear pattern is emerging of spikes in readership after articles appearing in alumni magazines. While we have been working to alert college magazines to our project, some colleges will only run articles if they are submitted by former members of that college – so if you are in touch with any friends from colleges we haven’t yet managed to alert, do please let them know in case they are willing to assist. Five hundred is a great number but there may be many hundreds more who haven’t yet heard about the archive, and who may wish to contribute, or just to enjoy reading about it. Spread the word!
Over the summer we received two responses to the Homertonian magazine letter, from Barbara Curry (nee Kay) and Jane Bramhill, who took part in different camps in the 70s. Their contributions can be read here and here. More recently, Angus Tulloch (Clare) got in touch with memories of camps he attended in Austria and near Leeds, and fundraising.
Gordon Edwards and I have both sent round-robin emails to lists of contacts gathered through this project. If you would like to receive an occasional message to keep up with the project then please email via this link with your details.
Children's Holiday Venture Archive 
Hello Peter,
Marjorie (Marj) Bannister here, ex-Homerton, CHV 1966
First of all, apologies for taking so long to reply to the article I read in the Homertonian magazine last summer. It was good to see those photos but I think you’ll find that one has been labelled incorrectly – I am the one in the middle of the three in the photo with the caption ‘Judi Venner walks in the woods with two children’!!
Despite pretty miserable weather for the duration of our time in the Black Forest in August 1966, we had an interesting time. The things that stick out most in my mind are:
1. The loo tent blowing down in a storm one night…with me in it!
2. Spending the night in a sub-camp, our tents mysteriously collapsing in on us (an annual antic, I gather) ~ at the time, we suspected the extremely innocent looking cows with their lovely bells in the adjacent field!!
3. Thick fog coming down immediately after children had been deposited at various points around the camp area with maps and compasses in order to engage in an orienteering exercise and we having to set up a rescue mission, both on foot and in minibuses. I recall some children finding the whole thing a great adventure: they had hidden from police cars, etc. and some even spent the night in a farmhouse, after which they bragged about sleeping under duvets!
4. Cries from the children of ‘England hat gewonnen’ after we beat Germany in the World Cup!
5. Hornets which we found nesting in a hole on the mountainside and whom we christened ‘Prima’ and ‘Nix’
What have you been up to for the past 50 years? It would be good to hear from you some time (but please don’t take 6 months or so, as I have!),
Marj x
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