Our next talk on Friday 21st February is The History of the Warwickshire Hunt by William Deakin. The hunt in Warwickshire has had a huge impact on the countryside, and specifically on Kineton since the mid-19th century, when Little Kineton became the home of the South Warwickshire Hunt kennels. William Deacon was involved with the hunt for 40 years and has seen its activities and evolution. He will show how hunting changed from private landowners keeping their own packs of hounds to the situation today. Whatever one’s view of hunting its history has social, economic and environmental impact which can be seen today in the landscape and the development of Kineton.

Doors open 7.00pm for teas, coffees and the all-important raffle, the talk starts at 7.30pm

Report on our Friday 17th January meeting. Alex Harvey gave us exactly what it says on the tin, an immersive vision of underground Warwick, related to the buildings above. The technology is impressive, as he and his colleagues squeezed down manholes, crawled along tunnels and climbed St Mary’s church tower to take thousands of photographs to create virtual reality images and videos. If this didn’t get them high enough then a drone would provide a bird’s eye view. Alex Harvey is a founder and director of RiVR, a company specialising in digitally surveying historic buildings and other structures and recreating them in Virtual Reality so that participants can feel that they inhabit the space. Alex’s enthusiasm for the technology was matched by his curiosity for what this can reveal of our past, and its potential for engaging a wider audience. If you want scale models of St Mary’s, or the whole town, or QR codes on shop fronts to view virtual museum objects in 3D, or the experience of looking close-up at graffiti in a tunnel, then he’s your man. He was suitably cautious when considering what the tunnels were for, when were they made and who made them. But the more he discovers and records the better informed our interpretations will be. .

The Archive. Colin has completed the cataloguing and repackaging of the paper archive in archive
standard materials, a huge job, which will ensure the preservation of the archive. Many thanks. . . .

Forthcoming K&DLHG events

Date	Speaker	Title
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
20th June 2025	6:00-7:30pm	Ettington guided tour
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)

20 February. Warmington Heritage Group Tower Capsule Deposits by Beat Kumin. Village Hall 7.30

22 February. Wellesbourne and Walton Local History Society The War Graves in Stratford Cemetery by Ewan Cuthbertson, 7.30 Wellesbourne Village Hall. £3.00 visitor fee.

10th March. Kenilworth History and Archaeology Society AGM then The Wonderful World Women of Baddesley Clinton by Jill Kashi

12 March. Long Itchington History Group Leamington Sky
Gardens by Natalie Rothwell & David Smart . Community
Centre 7.30 £3.00 per meeting

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: https://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;
acc. no. 71281992.
Please include your full name so we can correctly attribute your payment.
Members note that if you pay by cheque make it payable to:
Kineton and District Local History Group, and send or delivered 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

There has been no committee meeting since 6 January as reported in the January newsletter. 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 next committee meeting is set for 6th March 2025 at 7.00pm, again to be hosted by Colin