NEW YEAR NEWSLETTER 7 Jan 2020
HAPPY NEW YEAR, and remember your annual subscriptions!
Our first meeting of 2020 is on Friday 17th January at 7.30 in the Village Hall, Subscriptions (£10.00) for the 2020 season are due, with the programme card for the year. Visitors of course are always welcome at £3.00 on the door. Topics in the 2020-2021 Programme will include this month’s talk on 18th century local stone masons, the Edgehill light railway, public art, using remote sensing to locate features of the past, Warwick’s first factory, the recent discovery of the Broughton Castle Roman villa, the history of the Lord Leycester Hospital, the local results of the recent project to transcribe the Civil War compensation claims, and the preliminary results of the Making of Tysoe historical project..
For our first 2020 meeting David Freke will give an illustrated talk entitled Elegy on Country Churchyards: the art of 18th century local village stone masons. The Group’s survey of St Peter’s churchyard, initiated by Peter and Gill Ashley-Smith in 2010, was the start of this study. It has led to investigations into local genealogy, geology, politics, religion and art history. The thread which binds these elements together has been the search for the many men (always men) who made the thousands of 17th and 18th century memorials which still survive in our local churchyards. These memorials constitute the largest body of vernacular art of the period, far outnumbering folk art objects in galleries, and much more accessible. As Gray’s Elegy might have put it: “Some mute inglorious Mason here may rest” and the hope is that some may not be so mute nor so inglorious when their work is better appreciated.
Report on our Christmas meeting. Braving the superstitious date of Friday 13th our members Brian Lewis and Roger Butler each gave short illustrated presentations on a subject close to their hearts, both with a watery theme to suit the December weather. These were followed by a performance by the committee of a radio-style playlet concocted by Peter Waters. Firstly though, Brian explained the history of Kineton’s Water Supply, showing how some bumps and features still visible in the landscape at the west end of the village and on Pittern Hill once were parts of a water supply system constructed in the 19th century and modified in the 20th. The role of Lord Willoughby de Broke in supporting some of these works may not have been quite as altruistic as might first appear, with the hunt kennels in Little Kineton being a major beneficiary of his efforts. Brian tracked down both the documentary and the landscape evidence of the development of the system and its replacement by the modern mains.
Roger’s talk On the Cut, canals in the ‘60s was illustrated with pictures taken by pioneers of canal boating, often showing scenes of dereliction of the canal system in decline. Relics of its heyday could still be seen – canal-side shops, bargees doing their washing on the towpath, coal wharves etc. Roger often coupled these historic photos with his own recent pictures (as always beautifully shot) from the same viewpoint, showing how much has changed in half a century, now tidier, more commercial, busier and sometimes completely unrecognisable. The 1960s view of Banbury’s General Foods Sports and Social Club with an adjoining field growing a cereal crop was a particularly striking contrast to today’s scene. Our thanks to both Brian and Roger for their well-researched and illuminating contributions to the evening.
Which is more than can be said for the final part of the meeting. Tripping over the clutter of mikes, cables and props, Kineton’s Other Dramatic Society aka the committee – aided by Jane Waters in an original Victorian dress (the most authentic element of the whole sorry saga) – the committee stumbled through a doggerel script purporting to be a Victorian who-dun-it, with dreadful puns and mangled syntax. It was farrago of nonsense about a lost gavel, involving mispronounced place-names, a thinly disguised parody of Conan Doyle’s famous detective addicted to sherbet, with some inappropriate violin abuse, all fed through a Dickensian mincer to emerge as a tale, full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing. Congratulations to all involved for the sheer nerve of it, and to the membership for refraining from catcalls and brickbats. Afterwards, with much relief, to quote a line from the performance, the membership fell on the traditional mince pies, provided by the committee, and the mulled wine prepared by Ilona, served by Mark and Jackie Walker.
Other News
Our proposal to extend the mezzanine in the backstage area of the village hall has been endorsed by the Village Hall Association Maintenance Sub-committee so we are now starting fundraising. Work is expected to take place during the summer lull in Hall activities to minimise disturbance to Hall users.
The book of Peter Ashley-Smith’s essays continues to sell well in the village, and will be available at £9.99 at the meetings, as well as at Flower Thyme, Bishops Estate Agents, Seccombes Estate Agents and Fishers Hair Studio, Bridge Street. Our thanks to David Beaumont for monitoring these sales and replenishing supplies.
Other Societies’ Events
Tuesday 14 January. Kenilworth Historical and Archaeological Society A Darker Side of Warwick Graham Sutherland 7.45pm Senior Citizen’s Club, Abbey Fields. £2.00 on the door.
Thursday 16 January. Warmington Heritage Group. Tweets from an Ancient Desert. Michael Macdonald 7.30 Village Hall, Warmington.
World War 2 Oral Histories. A website founded by broadcaster and historian, Dan Snow, and author and broadcaster, James Holland, WarGen (http://wargen.org) is a crowd-sourced online repository of oral-history from the people who lived through World War 2. As well as containing varied stories from this fast disappearing generation, this group is now looking for individuals to join their volunteer team as interviewers in their local communities. They are also eager to hear from people who might have their own stories to tell. If you are interested in either becoming an interviewer or sharing your story, please contact Shane Greer at shane@wargen.org
KDLHG Committee Matters. There have been no committee meetings since the December 2019 Newsletter
Next committee meeting. The next meeting of the committee will be on 20th January 2020 at 7.00pm at Catherine Petrie’s home. Note the earlier start time.
DF 07.01.20