PLEASE NOTE DECEMBERS MEETING IS ON THE SECOND FRIDAY OF THE MONTH TO AVOID CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES: SO ITS THIS WEEK! FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER

Our meeting this Friday 13th of December, at the village hall, will delve into the Roman precursor of Christmas. Doors open 7.00pm for teas, coffees and the all important raffle. The talk entitled Io! Saturnalia starting at 7.30 will be by Paul Thompson.

Paul will describe the Roman midwinter 7-day celebration of Saturnalia, marked by parties, gift giving, and the disruption of social norms. After being primed with tales of Roman merriment we will enjoy the conviviality of mulled wine and mince pies. We hope that you will join us in this run up to your own Christmas revelries.

Report on 15th November talk about William James by our member Roger Butler. Roger gave us a brilliantly illustrated short history of the interrelated developments of the canals and the railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to set the scene for the innovative work of William James. His contribution was as a surveyor and entrepreneur. He worked with George Stephenson, surveying the difficult route of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, the first viable passenger line. He felt his contribution was usurped by Stephenson who developed the line while William was in prison for debt.
He was busy in many parts of England, with involvement with at least 13 major railway lines. Locally he promoted the Stratford to Moreton-in-Marsh tramway, as well as having a major interest in the Stratford
Canal. Roger showed us the surprisingly numerous relics of the tramway still to be found in the countryside between Stratford and Moreton-in-Marsh: – buildings, placenames, and footpaths still following the old track. Gill Stewart led the vote of thanks, drawing on her own fieldwork researching these fragments of William James’ works.

The Archive. Colin has secured a grant of £349.00 from the Warwickshire County Councillors Grant Fund through Councillor Chris Mills, to purchase archive quality storage materials to safeguard the long term survival of the paper archive. Many thanks to Chris Mills, and to Colin for his timely application.

Forthcoming K&DLHG events

Date	Speaker	Title
13 Dec 2024	Paul Thompson	Io Saturnalia
17 Jan 2025	Alex Harvey	Immersive Tech to Explore Medieval Tunnels in Warwick and Elsewhere
21 Feb 2025	William Deakin	History of the Hunt in Kineton
21 Mar 2025	AGM & Martin Sinot-Smith	37th AGM followed by Daily Life in Tudor Times
25 Apr 2025	Maggie Wood	Ralph Sheldon and his Wonderful Tapestry
16 May 2025	John Frearson	The History of the Kaye and Nelson Lime and Cement Works, Southam and Stockton
June, July August	tbc	Outings to Harbury, Burford and Ettington tbc
19 Sept 2025	tbc
17 Oct 2025	Jackie West	The Restoration of Ladbroke Church
21 Nov 2025	Bob Bearman	Stratford in 50 Buildings
12 Dec 2025		Members’ evening Christmas Treats
16 Jan 2026	Travor Langley	Thomas Oken, Warwick’s Great benefactor
20 Feb 2026	tbc
20 Mar 2026	AGM & John Parnell	AGM A History of the Circus

Other Organisations’ Events
Please check the Warwickshire Local History Society’s Other Societies’ Events page for a list of other
meetings of local history interest. You can access it here: Other Events (warwickshirehistory.org.uk)

British Association for Local History. The Kineton Group is a Member of BALH and they run lectures
and talks which are open to our members. Contact www.balh.org.uk for upcoming talks available virtually.

Don’t forget to check our own website at: Kineton and District Local History Group

Membership.
If you are, or would like to become a Member of the KDLHG, our 2025 membership year starts in January
and will cost £15. Visitor entrance will be £4.00 per meeting from January 2025; if you attend four or more
of the nine meetings we hold every year then Membership is the best option!

We would urge those who can, to please pay by BACS to our bank business account:
Name: Kineton and District Local History Group
Sort code: 40-43-19
Account Number. 71281992.
Please include your full name so we can correctly attribute your payment.

Please make cheques payable to: Kineton and District Local History Group, and send or deliver to:
Alec Hitchman, The Hills Farm, Pillerton Hersey, WARKS, CV35 0QQ
For queries contact Alec on alec.hitchman@btinternet.com

KDLHG Committee

President:	Dr Robert Bearman MBE
Chairman	Professor Rosemary Collier
Vice-Chairman	Roger Gaunt
Secretary	Gill Stewart
Treasurer	Alec Hitchman
Outings Secretary	David Freke
Programme Secretary	Claire Roberts
Archive Data Manager / Membership Secretary	Carol Clark
Archivist	Colin Such

The committee has met on 18th September in the Community Archive Room, and on 12th November hosted by Colin Such. Ilona has stepped down from the committee after 17 years, the last 9 years serving as our Secretary. The committee recorded their appreciation of her contribution to the smooth running of the group for so long, and future historians will be indebted to her for the “Snapshot” of the village she organised in 2008, with the multitude of photographs and items she collected, now safely housed in the Archive. We have also lost our Membership Secretary, Pam Redgrave, who has also stepped down from the committee. She will be sorely missed, but her legacy is the re-organised and up to date membership list, and her enhanced PR arrangements, which have done so much to keep our numbers healthy. Carol Clark has taken over the membership side of things.

The committee has again fallen to skeleton crew numbers, and we are keen to recruit new people to
help run the group, volunteers would be welcomed and can be co-opted before the AGM, so please
consider joining us.

Many of the discussions in the last two committee meetings have been to finalise the 2025-26 talks
programme, now virtually completed by Claire (see forthcoming events above), and to consider the details of managing the archive, ably overseen by Colin. The next committee meeting is set for 6th January 2025, again to be hosted by Colin at 7.00pm