NEWSLETTER 7th August 2021
Summer Outings. Isobel has been working hard throughout the covid restrictions to arrange our summer outings, and
we can now confirm that the visit to Stoneleigh village will take place on 27th August. This is our first opportunity for over 18 months to meet in person and we hope to see many of you again as we start to resume normal service. As we will be mainly in the open air wearing masks is not mandatory, but some members may feel more comfortable taking precautions. That is a personal choice. Meet at 6.30 at The Green where there is a rustic bench under a tree. It may not accommodate all who attend so be early for a seat! As a useful landmark there is a red telephone box opposite the bench.
For car parking: it is suggested that you aim for the signposts to the church and park by the meadow in Vicarage Road. You get there from The Green by passing in front of the telephone box and the lovely stone almshouses, and the meadow is a 100m or so on the left-hand side. Consider car sharing please, to limit the parking in this small village.
The walk will be led by Sheila Woolf, whose delightful talk on Cordelia Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey many of you will remember. The trip will include a visit to the church as well as examining the outstanding examples of vernacular buildings in the village. Refreshments unfortunately will not be provided. The cost is £5.00 per head. Those who have already paid but cannot attend this rescheduled trip will be reimbursed, or their money credited against future events. Members and friends who have not pre-paid can pay at the event. Could everybody intending to come please let Isobel know asap so Sheila can ensure the parking arrangements are adequate and what size of group to expect. Please contact Isobel on isobel.mirador.gill@gmail.com or phone her on 01926640426.
On Wednesday September 8th David Freke will lead an afternoon walk, from 2.00pm to 4.00pm, around the fields at the Warmington Herb Centre to the sites of the recent excavations there. The excavations unearthed a Neolithic (2500BC) burial, a massive Iron Age ditch (700BC to AD43), several Roman buildings and two large 1st century coin hoards, now on dispay in Warwick Museum. The local topography is the key to understanding how prehistoric, Roman and later communities lived and exploited this landscape, and it has implications for the wider region. The cost will be £5.00. The Herb Centre Café will be open, and can provide a tea at an additional cost (tbc).
Please contact Isobel on isobel.mirador.gill@btinternet.com or phone her on 01926640426 or phone David Freke (frekedj@globalnet.co.uk; phone 07876 290044) to book a place. As with the Stoneleigh visit, payment can be made at the venue, but we will need numbers for the trip and the café.
Just a reminder that booking is necessary for both trips, please email or phone David Freke (frekedj@globalnet.co.uk; phone 07876 290044) or Isobel Gill (isobel.mirador.gill@gmail.com) to book a place. You can pay by cheque made payable to Kineton and District Local History Group, sent or delivered to Ted Crofts, 5 Bank Close, Butlers Marston, CV35 0NL, or by BACS to our bank business account, name: Kineton and District Local History Group, sort code: 40-43-19; acc. no. 71281992. Please be sure to include your full name so we can correctly attribute your payment! Or you can pay at the venue.
As most of you will be aware it is considered not viable to book a coach to Croome Park this year so reluctantly this trip is postponed, and may be reviewed for 2022.
September Evening Talk. Our next talk in the Village Hall on Friday 17th September will be by Michael Coulls and Alan Jennings describing the Warwick and LeamingtonTramways.
This operation started in 1881 running trams from outside the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick to Leamington Spa Station. Until 1905 the cars were horse drawn but from then until 1930 the route was electricity powered. The only surviving car is horse drawn Car no. 1, preserved in an unrestored condition in the National Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire. 
The original paintwork is faded but the words LEAMINGTON AND WARWICK TRAMWAY COMPANY can still be seen on the side. Some members may recollect a wonderful Group coach trip in 2007 when we also visited Arkwright’s Cromford Mill nearby. At present there are no covid related restrictions on the use of the village hall, so we expect to present a normal evening illustrated talk. If this situation changes we will immediately inform our members and friends, and set out whatever precautions or arrangements may be needed to allow the talk to go ahead.
Report on May 21st Zoom talk by Dr Stanley Ireland of Warwick University. A total of 36 households logged in representing 43 participants. Dr Ireland described the two South Warwickshire Roman Coin Hoards found locally in recent years, concentrating on the most recent one of over 450 silver denarii recovered as part of a more extensive archaeological excavation. Both hoards have been acquired by Warwick Museum and are on display. Dr Ireland has carried out the formal identifications for the Museum and recognised some extremely rare items amongst the second assemblage. Of particular interest are the 30 plus coins which derive from AD 69, the “Year of the Four Emperors” which followed Nero’s suicide. Emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian followed one another in quick and violent succession, with Vespasian emerging as the stabilising individual whose reign lasted 10 years. He taxed urine (essential in the tanning trade) and financed the Colosseum. Fair exchange?
Dr Ireland pointed out the political messages hidden in the symbols and scenes stamped into the coins. The cap of liberty with a dagger symbolised the freedom from tyranny claimed to result from the assassination of Julius Caesar; a cornucopia obviously promised a return to plenty and wealth. The portraits of the emperors are also revealing, Otho wears an elaborate tidy wig, Vitellius is fat with a double chin, Galba looks military and pugnacious and Vespasian wears a victor’s wreath. Altogether the hoards represent an early period of the Roman occupation of Britain, and their deposition poses some questions about the purpose of their burial, and wider issues about the site of the find. The questions from the participants at the end of Dr Ireland’s talk reflected some of these issues – eg how much was a denarius worth? A legionary earned about 200 denarii per year compared with a present UK private soldier’s £20,000 pa. The 1st hoard contained 1,156 coins, the second one about 450, so their combined value in today’s money would be about £150,000. Of course, this calculation is not really valid given the widely differing values of goods and services between Roman and modern society, but it does suggest somebody had access to some serious cash.
2021 Programme update:
Aug. 27 Sheila Woolf: Guided Tour of Stoneleigh, meet at 6.30pm at The Green, Stoneleigh
(NB change of date}
Sept 8th David Freke: A walk in a prehistoric and Roman landscape at Warmington,
meet 2.00pm Herb Centre car park
Sep 17Peter Coulls: Warwick and Leamington Tramways
Oct 15 Michael Luntley: From This Ground: songs and stories about 19thcentury Warwickshire agricultural workers
Nov 19Ellie Reid Dressing up the Past: the 1906 Warwick Pageant and the 20th century pageant movement in Warwickshire.
Dec 10 Christmas treats
2022
Jan 21 George Derbyshire: Arts and Crafts in the Cotswolds
Feb 18 James Ranahan: The Photographer’s Gaze: Viewing Warwickshire Since 1839
Mar 18 AGM
Official covid advice and regulations may change for better or worse in the coming months, so we will be assessing the programme one meeting at a time and we will confirm each event when we are reasonably confident that we can run it. Even in a strict lockdown we intend to continue virtual meetings online on the regular dates, but they may not be by the speakers or on the topics set out in the current 2021-22 Programme. Please be patient if an eagerly awaited talk is postponed. We will try to re-schedule any speaker not suited to the Zoom route. Our Zoom presentations have all been recorded and we will discuss showing these in the Village Hall to members who do not have access to Zoom.
Planned Kineton Village Day Saturday 10th July – cancelled. The Kineton Art Group and Kineton Camera Club hoped to set up a village “get together” for village groups and clubs to promote their activities following the long lockdown over the past year. This was to be associated with the Centenary Re-dedication of the War memorial, originally unveiled on July 10th 1921. K&DLHG members intended to mount an exhibition in the churchyard, joining other village organisations. I understand that there may be an attempt to revive this idea for 2022.
Other Society News
Warwickshire Local History Society
K&DLHG is affiliated to WLHS and our members are entitled to join their meetings.
Many other local societies are running their talk series via zoom! Check the Warwickshire Local History Society website for up-to-date lists. https://www.warwickshirehistory.org.uk
Council for British Archaeology West Midlands
CBA West Midlands have also given details of local history and archaeology podcasts.
Amongst several podcasts about the region CBAWM has recently released podcasts by Dr Roger White of the University of Birmingham on Wroxeter Roman city and the Roman West Midlands. https://historywm.com/podcasts
Other local on-line offerings:
Birmingham Museum virtual tour https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/virtual-tour
Herefordshire Museum and Art Gallery Life through a Lens virtual tour https://www.herefordshirelifethroughalens.org.uk/virtual-exhibitiontours/
Warwick Castle Virtual Tour https://historyview.org/library/warwick-castle/
A fascinating account of local WWII German POWs can be found with this link.
Don’t forget to check our own website at:
Kineton and District Local History Group (kinetonhistory.co.uk)
KDLHG Committee
Chairman David Freke
Vice-Chairman Roger Gaunt
Secretary Ilona Sekacz
Treasurer Ted Crofts
Outings Secretary Isobel Gill
Other committee members
Catherine Petrie
Peter Waters
Alex hitchman
Rosemary Collier
Pam Redgrave
George Lokuciejewski
The committee met via Zoom on 29th June.
Ted reported that we have 45 paid-up members, our finances remain in a healthy condition, and the newly achieved access to our Paypal account revealed that we have nearly £100 from the sale of the Village History book online. Ted reported the donation of £60.00 from Gill Ashley-Smith to be put towards costs of archiving. An invoice for £486.00 for the next 4 years was received from our internet service provider, and it was agreed that we should explore the costs of annual payments [post meeting note: the invoice is in line with our previous payments, and considerably cheaper per year than annual payments, agreed to pay it] Our recently published book of essays by Peter Ashley-Smith has not sold many copies during lockdown, but the resumption of our evening talks in September should get sales moving again. The other outlets in the village have also been affected by lockdown but should be revisited as things open up. It was agreed to wait a little longer before offering the book on line. Alec suggested the Community Library as an outlet for sales. Pam suggested recording the book or extracts of it, a suggestion to be explored further.
Claire and Isobel confirmed the meetings and outings arrangements to date (see Programme section above Lucie has added a counter to record the hits on the web site, and Roger reported that we had an average of 150 “hits” per month, many from non-members, some from as far away as Holland and Australia. The time spent on the site varied from one and half to three minutes.
Date of next Committee meeting. tbc
DF 06.08.21
Contact: David Freke
Email frekedj@globalnet.co.uk
07876 290044