AS THE VILLAGE HALL IS UNAVAILABLE BECAUSE OF THE NEW NOVEMBER LOCKDOWN, THE TALK ON NOVEMBER 20th WILL TAKE PLACE AS AN EXCLUSIVELY ZOOM PRESENTATION. OUR APOLOGIES TO OUR MEMBERS WHO DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THIS SERVICE.
There have been unhappy failures in our Zoom presentations from the Hall, and we appreciate your patience through them. My thanks to those who gave feedback on their experiences. We now believe that some at least of the problems were the result of not fully understanding how to manage the dual nature of the presentations – both projected on the Hall screen and simultaneously shared via Zoom. We hope that the more straight-forward November set up of a single host (me!) sharing with participants (you!) will work effectively. We hope your patience has not been exhausted, and that you will grant us another try at getting it right. We will send you an email on Thursday 19th with the Zoom invitation to join our November 20th meeting at 7.15pm.
16th and 17th century graffiti on the porch of Wardington church (highlighted in red )
The November 20 meeting. The short notice of the lockdown, and our reluctance to subject another visiting speaker to the risk of a less than satisfactory evening, has meant that your Chairman will fill the November slot. His title is Graffiti in Local Churches: devotion or desecration? This topic is a very recent area of study and still holds many mysteries. The discovery of graffiti in churches often requires the detailed examination of overlooked surfaces, and searches in nooks and crannies, although, surprisingly, many examples are in plain view, just not expected or acknowledged. The date of a mark is often difficult to establish, or is controversial. Who made them and how? And, ultimately, what do they convey? Mindless vandalism, covert religiosity, personal markings, magical invocations, publicly sanctioned expressions of communal acts of faith — all these have been proposed as motivations. The presentation will take us into many churches now temporarily inaccessible due to covid regulations, and will hopefully prompt us to visit them when the restrictions are eventually lifted.
Report on 16th October meeting.. The 18 members attending in the Hall were treated to a wide-ranging illustrated talk by Keith Westcott. Those at home were less fortunate as we struggled again to get the Zoom system to deliver the talk to their computers. My apologies to you, and to our speaker. Those of you who stuck with it at least heard Keith’s talk, but lacked his illustrations. Keith turned out to have come by a circuitous route to archaeology and history, from diving on historic wrecks to metal detecting. He recently set up training courses with Oxford University for detectorists to learn responsible procedures for systematically detecting and recording finds. The account of his recent discovery of the massive Roman villa on the fields of the Broughton Estate demonstrated his ability to read the landscape, find and appraise the existing evidence, and carry out field work.
Artist’s impression of a British Roman villa, Historic England. Picture: Ivan Lapper
He collated these various strands to predict the likelihood, and location, of the previously unsuspected villa, and then instigated the fieldwork to prove its existence. Much work remains to be done to follow up the discovery.
Keith is also involved in a project to co-ordinate of Roman studies on a regional scale. This aims to bring together and make available the records and the fieldwork carried out in several midlands counties, whose boundaries cut across Roman territories in an arbitrary fashion. It’s an ambitious scheme, and we hope it succeeds.
Other Matters
All members who had paid for the cancelled outings have been re-imbursed. It may be possible to reschedule the outings for 2021.
The November lockdown has forced a further modification of our programme presentations one meeting at a time and we will confirm each event when we are reasonably confident that we can run it. As predicted last month in a strict lockdown we intend to continue virtual meetings online on the regular dates, but as for this month, they may not be by the speakers or on the topics set out in the 2020-21 Programme leaflet. Please be patient if an eagerly awaited talk is postponed. We will try to re-schedule any speaker not suited to the Zoom route.
Other Society News
Other societies are exploring ways of reaching their members, and members who can use the various virtual meetings apps can usually join them.
Tuesday 17th November 7.20 for 7.30 start. Warwickshire Local History Society is hosting a virtual talk by Professor Jonathon Reinarz of Birmingham University entitled Forged by Fire: Burn Injury and Identity in Warwickshire. K&DLHG is affiliated to WLHG and our members are entitled to join their meetings, so visit the WLHS webpage, which will take you to “future events” where you can sign up via their event organiser Evenrite. The WLHS site also lists the talks being arranged via Zoom by other local societies and organisations, most of which are free.
KDLHG Committee Matters.
The committee met via Zoom on October 27th. The treasurer reported that our finances have changed little since March, and are satisfactory, with no need to review the subscription for 2021. Sales of Peter Ashley-Smith’s book were just about to break even financially before the lockdown and that remains the position. The HLF application for a grant to build the Village Hall archive room was submitted just before the Covid crisis began, and was turned down to allow all HLF funds to be directed to covid charities. We will re-submit when HLF is prepared to receive bids for our sort of project. In the meantime our store at Arc remains in use. Ruth and Brian Morgan have made a useful donation to the archive project. The poor experiences of the September and October talks was considered and ways of improving future presentations. The programme for 2021-22 was discussed and Claire Roberts tasked with following up suggestions. Catherine Petrie was thanked for undertaking to submit our programme to the various local newspapers and other outlets, in addition to providing and distributing the posters as usual, in a bid to widen our membership. The next meeting of the committee was planned for November 24th via Zoom at 7.00pm.
DF 13.11.20 Contact: David Freke email frekedj@globalnet.co.uk 07876 290044