HAPPY NEW YEAR
Our meeting this Friday 17th January takes us underground, overground, wondering freely about what lies beneath the streets and houses of Warwick, and elsewhere. Our speaker Alex Harvey is a founder and director of RiVR, which specialises in digitally surveying historic buildings and other structures and recreating them in Virtual Reality so that participants can feel that they inhabit the space. This talk focuses on the historic tunnels under Warwick which he and his colleagues have been exploring and recording for several years. What were these tunnels for, when were they made and who made them? Alex will be revealing all on Friday, we hope that you will join us. Doors open 7.00pm for teas, coffees and the all-important raffle, the talk starts at 7.30pm
of Roman costume
Picturam a: Jvliana Dispensator (Gill Stewart)
Report on our Friday 13th December meeting at the village hall, when Paul Thompson entertained us with a dive into the expansion and contraction, under successive Emperors, of the Roman festival of Saturnalia, the Roman midwinter celebration, marked by parties, gift giving, and the disruption of social norms. In authentic costume he debunked several myths about the “Romans” and their dress, using volunteer Claire to demonstrate that the toga actually obliges the wearer to become one-armed, in order to keep the yards of curved cloth from falling off. The Roman mid-winter celebration of Saturn influenced subsequent Christmas traditions – the green tree, gift giving, the white bearded “old man”, parties and revelry, and even the extended festive season. A wonderfully relaxed and amusing presentation, with props galore. After such tales of Roman merriment, we enjoyed our own traditional fare of mince pies and mulled wine provided by the Committee.
The Archive. Colin has arranged to purchase archive quality storage materials to safeguard the longterm survival of the paper archive. Repairs have been completed to the room adjacent to the archive room which was damaged in the pre-Christmas storms. The archive was unaffected.
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 2025 | tbc | Outing tbc |
| 18th July 2025 | 4:30pm-7:00pm | Harbury heritage collection and guided village tour |
| 9th August 2025 | 11:00am-1:00pm | Burford Tolsey Museum and guided town tour |
| 19 Sept 2025 | Ginny Davis | The Mysterious Death of Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley |
| 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 | Bob Booth | The Sweet Life in Bourneville: the Cadbury and Bourneville story from 1878 |
| 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)
27 January Marton History Group A History of Secret Marton Village Hall 7.30
28 January Stoneleigh History Society 1816 – The Year Without a Summer by David Morse. Village Hall
7.30.
31 January Welford and Weston Local History Society. In search of Health- early services in
Warwickshire 1820-1900 by Dr John Wilmot. Village Hall 7.30
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.
Membership for 2025 is £15. Visitor entrance will be £4.00 per meeting from January 2025. Cash or cheque payments can be made at any meeting.
If you would like to become a member of the group, our 2025 membership year starts in January. If you
attend 4 or more of the 9 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 met on 6th January, hosted again by Colin Such. Roger Gaunt, our Vice Chair, announced that he was intending to retire from the committee at the March AGM
The committee has 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.
The 2025-26 talks programme has been completed and two of the summer outing have been arranged (see forthcoming events above), Alec’s treasurer’s report showed satisfactory income and expenditure figures, and very helpful income continuing from raffle and refreshments. Colin has been extremely successful in selling Peter Ashley-Smith’s book, and the Joe Gerring book. The treasurer was asked to investigate online banking for the Group. A delegation visited the Village Hall with the Village Hall Trustee’s chair to consider the future of the Group’s cupboard where our equipment was stored until covid. We have responded to the’ VHT’s request for comments regarding the VH facilities, and we suggested permanent overhead projection gear and reliable sound equipment, and we would support any application for relevant funding to provide these. We need to confirm that our insurance through our membership the British Association for Local History (BALH) remains appropriate. The next committee meeting is set for 6th March 2025 at 7.00pm, again to be hosted by Colin