The third Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Birdcage Walk was held on19th March 2025 in Clifton library.
Minutes of the meeting:
BIRDCAGE WALK AGM 19th March 2025
Clifton Library, Princess Victoria Street, Clifton
Present; The Committee; Paula O’Rourke - Chair, Norman Charnley – Treasurer, Rosalind Olsen – Secretary, James Gibbs, Trevor Blythe, Lesley Woodward
And Members of the gardening group, Ed Radecki, George Bancroft, Verity Sweeney (descendant of Dr Prowse) and Siân Charnley.
Welcome by Rosalind
Report from the Chair – Paula
Paula thanked the team for carrying on during what has been a very busy year for her. She thanked the gardening team for their dedication and reminded us of the situation just over two years ago when she would regularly ask BCC if they could possibly just strim the massively overgrown mass of undergrowth. It was almost impossible to walk into the graveyard. She was concerned that Birdcage Walk would suffer the same fate as other green spaces and be consumed by undergrowth. Now it is a pleasure to walk through and it has been particularly positive to watch the community of people grow around this very special place.
Treasurer’s Report - Norman
Norman reported that there is still the majority of the funds donated by Clifton Garden Society available.
Garden Report – Lesley
The Garden Report was delivered by Lesley. There is a Powerpoint presentation which has the outline of the report. Lesley went through the three aims of Friends of Birdcage Walk explaining how we maintain and conserve the churchyard and what we are doing to create a more diverse range of habitats.
Digital Ancestors
Norman explained the project being run with Caring for Gods Acre and played a section of the promotional video.
Dr. Prowse
James Gibbs and Verity a great great grandaughter gave interesting speeches about a vital figure in the history of St.Andrews to commemorate 100 years since his death.
Election of Officers
All officers were unanimously re-elected for the coming year.