The Birth of MEG

The Birth of MEG

(The Milford Environment Group)

1991 to 2011

So, what has Michael Fish got to do with the birth of MEG aka the Milford Environment Group?

Therein lays the tale that Keith Metcalf tells in his latest 44 page A4 mini-book on the formation of the group at the end of the 1980s.

He has been helped by the first and last chairpersons of the group; Sandra Ebbetts and Anne Jenks, with a little bit of help also from the former chairman of the Milford-on-Sea Wildlife Recording Group (WRG) Tony Locke.

Click image to enlarge

Keith opens the book by recalling the 15th October 1987 when BBC television weatherman; Michael Fish told the nation that in answer to a woman’s telephone call earlier in the day to the BBC offices, when she asked whether there was a hurricane on the way, unforgettably, Michael Fish said live on TV; “Don’t worry there isn’t”. The rest of course is history with 115mph winds of the Great Storm taking the lives of 18 people across southern England, uprooting an estimated 15 million trees and devastating the Pine Wood at Sharvells Copse.

With the Milford Environment and Wildlife Recording Groups amalgamating in January 2012, Keith recalls the historic records of MEG prior to the two groups joining together. The records have been taken primarily from MEGs minutes, which were recently handed to him by two of its former stalwart chairs; Sandra Ebbetts and Anne Jenks. Keith takes up the story from here.

“Having been handed box loads of papers by Sandra and Anne that included minutes, publications, press cuttings, maps, parish council minutes, letters, management plans and many old photographs, I thought that rather than just archive them, I should write a short summary of their content.” Keith goes on to say; “Whilst, these documents will finally be handed over to the Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society, I thought it unlikely that anyone else would make the records available to a wider local audience, hence this account of how, 30-years ago, MEG came into being and what they did for the environment, the nature reserves, wildlife and the local community, their work of which has since been carried on by the Milford Conservation Volunteers (MCV) since January 2012.”

Copies of the book are available directly from Keith by emailing him at keithmetcalf@btinternet.com giving him your postal address and contact details.

This limited edition book will be available from 1st July at £7.50 per copy: Free delivery to any household in Milford-on-Sea or, postage elsewhere, at cost.