REMINDER ABOUT 2020 SUBSCRIPTIONS – NOW DUE
Tickets for our summer outings will be on sale from this February’s meeting.
On Friday June 5th we will be guided round the historic village of Stoneleigh, led by local resident and researcher Sheila Woolf. Refreshments will be provided. Meet at 6.30 in Stoneleigh, meeting venue tbc. Cost £5.00
On Friday July 10th our member Brian Morgan will lead us round the Moreton Morrell Hall estate, whose history he has researched for a forthcoming publication. Refreshments will be provided. Meet at Moreton Morrell Hall, 6.30. Cost £5.00
Our coach trip this year on Saturday August 15th is to Croome Park, Worcestershire, a Capability Brown landscape and church, with an historic mansion at its heart. The park has been lovingly restored by the National Trust. Included in the grounds is the home of RAF Defford where pioneering electronic development took place in WWII, now a museum. Cost £34 includes entrance fees to park, mansion and RAF museum, and refreshments on arrival. Departs St Peters Church, Kineton 9.00am returns 6.00pm
Our February 21st meeting features an illustrated talk by Andrew Baxter, a speaker familiar to us from his stimulating talk last year on the Edgehill Tea Gardens. Andrew will describe the recent work that he and other enthusiasts have been carrying out on the surviving vestiges of the Edgehill Light Railway. This short-lived enterprise left clear landscape features and some surviving artefacts but has otherwise disappeared from most people’s awareness. We will learn what the light railway project if completed would have meant to the landscape of the area.
Report on our first meeting in the New Year. For our first 2020 meeting David Freke gave an account of the art of 18th century local village stone masons. In fact David started way back in the 17th century to set the scene for the sometimes extremely accomplished 18th century work still visible in so many of our local churchyards. The very style of headstones can illuminate the religious controversies of the period, as well as the status of the patron and the skill (or lack of it) of the mason. The influence of outside events also played a part, with local craftsmen attracted to London in the wake of the Great Fire, and returning with up-to-date ideas and training. A few proudly displayed the arms of the Worshipful Company of Masons of London on their own headstones. Their work is visible to anybody to see in our local churchyards, and it is hoped that better knowledge will lead to better appreciation and better protection of what still survives after 300 years or so of English weather, and well intentioned but often destructive churchyard tidying episodes. Our President Bob Bearman led the vote of thanks, and the membership then adjourned for refreshments presided over by Ilona.
Other News
Our member David Ball has transcribed and published the births, deaths and marriages registers of Newbold Pacey.
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 continuing to monitor these sales and replenish supplies.
Other Societies’ Events
Tuesday 18 February. Warwickshire Local History Society. The Wigson family network during the reign of Elizabeth I Dr Catherine Ennis. 7.30pm Aylesford School and Sixth Form College, Tapper Way, Warwick CV34 6XR.
Thursday 20th Feb. Warmington Heritage Group. The Lost Railway: Henley in Arden and its campaign for a railway. Paul Baker 7.30 Village Hall, Warmington.
Thursday 27 February. Marton Local History Group. “From This Ground” stories, songs and poems about late 19th century agricultural worker. Michael Lumley. 7.30 Marton Village Hall
Thursday 19 March. Warmington Heritage Group. The Itinerary Triangle History and Archaeology Project. Mark Bletchley 7.30 Village Hall, Warmington.
KDLHG Committee Matters. Report on 20th January 2020 meeting. Our Treasurer Ted Crofts reported that 53 members were signed up at the January meeting and that sales of the Peter Ashley Smith book were about to become profitable.
The Village Hall Maintenance Group and TADA had considered the detailed plans for the proposed archive room behind the stage and agreed to support the proposal.
DF reported that Gill Ashley-Smith had kindly donated shelving, a desk, a scanner, an office chair and sundry office materials to be installed in the archive room in due course. Scanning documents was on hold until spring pending a house move.
The summer evening outings were arranged, but the Saturday coach trip was still to be finalised. Croome Park, Worcestershire was agreed as the venue for the August trip. DF to arrange for tickets to be available by February meeting.
Catherine is to circulate our programme to the appropriate local newspaper and other outlets.
It was proposed that following the AGM the should be a presentation related to historic dance.
Next committee meeting. The next meeting of the committee will be on March 2nd at Catherine Petrie’s home at 7.00pm. Note the start time.
DF 15.02.20