CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER 9 DEC 2019
CHRISTMAS TREATS Friday 13th December 2019
Our Christmas meeting this year will welcome members Roger Butler and Brian Lewis, each of whom will give short illustrated presentations on a subject close to their hearts, both with a watery theme to suit the recent weather conditions. Roger will show us how things were on the local canals more than half a century ago with On the cut – canals in the ‘60s and Brian will expound on the history of Kineton’s water supply
Then, before we can fall on the traditional mince pies and mulled wine, Kineton’s Other Dramatic Society (KODS) will perform a short playlet with a Victorian Christmas theme;
Sherbert Holmes and the Curious Case of the Missing Gavel
A radio-style Dickensian playlet
a WatersFrekeSekacz Production
featuring
Sherbert Holmes, Dr Whats-On, Prof. Neal Creakily,
Liona Cheesecake, Mrs Bella Beaton, Tad Crafty,
Miss Gatherine Peascods and distinguished Guest Narrators
Then there will be mince pies and mulled wine like Christmases Past, Present and, we hope, Future.
And on the subject of Christmas Treats, a reminder that Peter Ashley-Smith’s book “Capturing Kineton’s Past” will be available to purchase (£9.99) at Friday’s meeting, a perfect Christmas present!
Topics in the 2020-2021 Programme will include 18th century local churchyards, the Edgehill light railway, public art, using remote sensing to locate features of the past, Warwick’s first factory, the discovery of the Broughton Castle Roman villa, the history of the Lord Leycester Hospital and the local results of the recent project to transcribe the Civil War compensation claims.
Report on November 15th talk by Helen Lloyd, entitled Oral History: extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Helen is well known for her work for the BBC and the National Trust, in 
particular her recordings of people who lived in Birmingham’s “back-to-backs”. She vividly demonstrated the importance of capturing the experiences of “ordinary” people, which might otherwise go unrecorded and unappreciated. Her examples included children and even a titled lady describing the English upper-class dinner ritual of not so long ago. A query from Gill about whether she would edit words or phrases which are now considered inappropriate (she wouldn’t) led on to a discussion about the possibility of bias in the record in favour of politically correct attitudes. Helen described a deliberate attempt to redress this perceived imbalance by seeking out a racist to record, with mixed results. Her point was that the recordings are valuable because they try to reflect the way people actually think, and sound. Another issue was the long-term security of the recordings, given the rapid changes we have seen in sound recording technology. There is the risk of historic recordings being lost either through deterioration of the medium or as the equipment to play them becomes obsolete. Our own oral history recordings are indeed on out-dated mini-discs. Helen conceded that in the future video clips might have a greater role, given their current ubiquity. Ilona led the vote of thanks for a stimulating and entertaining evening.
[Note the ongoing national WWII Oral Histories project below]
Other Events
Southam Heritage Collection’s 2019 Christmas Exhibition at Southam. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 10.00 – 12.00. Ends Christmas Eve. Free
World War 2 Oral Histories. A website founded by broadcaster and historian, Dan Snow, and author and broadcaster, James Holland, WarGen (http://wargen.org) is a crowd-sourced online repository of oral-history from the people who lived through World War 2. As well as containing varied stories from this fast disappearing generation, this group is now looking for individuals to join their volunteer team as interviewers in their local communities. They are also eager to hear from people who might have their own stories to tell. If you are interested in either becoming an interviewer or sharing your story, please contact Shane Greer at shane@wargen.org
KDLHG Committee Matters. The committee meeting on November 18th heard from Ted about the final resolution of our bank account issues with HSBC. The 2020-21 talks programme has been finalised. The trips and outings remain to be finalised. With the much appreciated assistance of our President Bob Bearman and the generosity of Gill, the Ashley-Smith Archive has been moved to a storage unit pending a more permanent home, hopefully in the Village Hall. The conditions attached to the archive project planning and building regulations approval meant a considerable hike in the estimated cost, and it was agreed to appoint a fund raiser to help raise the necessary funds.
Roger Gaunt has started the work of scanning some of the files to ensure that they remain accessible locally. Although no longer a committee member David Beaumont continues to monitor the emails, for which we are very grateful. An extra meeting was arranged on Dec 3rd for a rehearsal of the Christmas Treats play prepared by Peter. The 2020-21 Programme card will be available at the January meeting.
Next committee meeting. The next meeting of the committee will be on 20th January 2020 at 7.00, at Catherine Petrie’s home. Note the earlier start time.
DF 09.12.19