NEWSLETTER 11th February 2021
AS THE VILLAGE HALL REMAINS UNAVAILABLE THE TALK ON February 19th WILL TAKE PLACE AS AN EXCLUSIVELY ZOOM PRESENTATION. OUR CONTINUING APOLOGIES TO OUR MEMBERS WHO DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THIS SERVICE
Our February meeting on Friday 19 will be a presentation, via Zoom, by Professor John Hunter describing the progress of The Making of Tysoe Project which formally commenced almost exactly a year ago, just before the first covid-19 lockdown. This is an ambitious project which aims to integrate and expand the many strands of information about the historical development of Tysoe parish.
The project looks at the people who lived in the area in prehistoric, Roman, medieval and later times. Key themes are the early settlement patterns, the evolution of the three hamlets, the role of the church, ownership and patronage throughout the centuries, and the ways in which society integrated with its surrounding landscape and resources.
It involves landscape survey, geophysics, place-/field-name records, population profiles, structural analysis of the church and other buildings, documentary searches, archaeology and history. All this will continue in parallel with recording church iconography, village memorials and well heads/springs together with the collation and digitising of vulnerable records, photographs and genealogical information housed variously around the village.
The object is to carry out an audit of Tysoe’s heritage, to safeguard what is important or special and ensure its availability for future generations. It is anticipated the project will create a new guide book for the church, tourist information literature, a web-based archive of data and photographs, appropriate academic papers and, most importantly, a resource that can accessed by anyone and which can be built upon in the future.
Some of this information is already available, the result previous research and collecting, but needs collating and analysing.
Professor Hunter is a resident of Tysoe and has been active in ensuring that the heritage of the village is acknowledged when decisions are being taken which can affect the historical significance of the environment. He has spoken to us before in his capacity as a forensic archaeologist so we can expect a stimulating talk. A Zoom invitation will be emailed to members of the Group and friends on Thursday 18th February. The talk will be recorded, and when the Village Hall becomes available again it will shown to Zoom-free members.
Report on the 15th January talk by our founder member David Beaumont, who presented the work of transcribing claims for compensation following the 17th century civil wars. His work contributes to an ambitious county-wide project initiated by Dr Maureen Harris with the support of the Friends of the Warwickshire County Record Office and the Dugdale Society. The very first page of the Kineton accounts reflects the involvement of the village in the wars, as it details the various troops who were quartered on the inhabitants, including the Earl of Essex’s before and after the battle of Edgehill in 1642, and Cromwell’s troops in 1645. After David’s talk Brian Lewis stumped us all with a question about the date of the siege of Banbury, but this Kineton page mentions “Colonell Fynes and his company when they went to besiege Banbury quartered here [Kineton] one night in July 1644”, so that answers Brian’s query! David also transcribed the Tysoe and Oxhill accounts; a typical one from Tysoe is Henry Eglington’s for the costs of accommodating 15 troops in December 1642, only a few months after Edgehill. We were privileged to have the local accounts set out for us so clearly by David. .The Dugdale Society is planning to publish the edited transcriptions with an analysis by Maureen in due course.
2021 Programme correction: The date given in the last Newsletter for April’s talk was a misprint, the correct date for the talk “Back Tracks” by Colin Clay and Phil Taylor is April 16th. Thank you to the keen eyed who spotted this!
2021
February 19 Professor John Hunter: The Making of Tysoe Project: the story so far.
March 19 AGM (see below)
April 16 Colin Clay and Phil Taylor: Back Tracks: detecting the past
May 21 Michael Luntley: From This Ground: songs and stories from 19thcentury agricultural workers (a performance, so subject to covid restrictions)
June 11 Sheila Woolf Guided Tour of Stoneleigh, subject to covid regulations
July and August Summer outings, to be confirmed
September 17 Peter Coulls and Alan Jennings: Warwick and Leamington Tramways
Oct 15 tbc
Nov 19 tbc
Dec 10 Christmas treats
2022
January 21 tbc
February 18 tbc
March 18 AGM
Official covid advice and regulations may change for better or worse in the coming months, so we will be assessing the programme one meeting at a time and we will confirm each event when we are reasonably confident that we can run it. Even in a strict lockdown we intend to continue virtual meetings online on the regular dates, but they may not be by the speakers or on the topics set out in the current 2021-22 Programme. Please be patient if an eagerly awaited talk is postponed. We will try to re-schedule any speaker not suited to the Zoom route.
The 2021 AGM
In March our 2021 AGM will be conducted by preliminary emails and posts, with a Zoom meeting on March 19th to receive the results of committee nominations and ballots, the Treasurer’s report and the audited accounts, the Chairman’s Report and any other business members may want to raise.
The present committee is perilously low in numbers, comprising just 8 members. This is not sustainable and we urge members seriously to consider joining us in steering the Group’s activities and ensuring that we continue, and continue to represent your interests. The committee work is not onerous, we meet on average 5 times a year for less than 2 hours. If you feel you could contribute please consider putting your name forward for the new committee at the forthcoming AGM. Contact me (details below) or any committee member if you have any queries.
Other Society News
Warwickshire Local History Society
K&DLHG is affiliated to WLHG and our members are entitled to join their meetings.
February Talk via Zoom on Tuesday 16 February at 7.30pm, when Adrian Walter will speak about ‘Non-conformist Education and Outreach in Stratford-on-Avon and District 1860 – 1930’.
Please see the website for a summary of the talk and the forthcoming WLHS programme, and click on this link to register your attendance for the February talk:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/warwickshire-local-history-society-lecture-tickets-138259348433
WLHS Annual General Meeting via Zoom on Tuesday 20 April at 7.15pm, followed by Professor Chris Dyer who will speak about ‘Immigrants in Warwickshire: a mobile population 1200-1525′.
Many other local societies are running their talk series via zoom! Check the Warwickshire Local History Society website for up to date lists.
Council for British Archaeology West Midlands
The CBA News from the Past will be held this year as a free on-line event on Saturday March 6. The day will be hosted by Wessex Archaeology and will feature an appearance from Phil Harding. The day is free….see link below
CBA West Midlands News From the Past Digital 2021 online conference Sat 6th March 10.00am to 4.30pm. Click on the link below for details of programme and how to register to join the meeting.
https://www.archaeologyuk.org/cbawm/meetings.php#news
CBA West Midlands have also given details of local history and archaeology podcasts.
Amongst several podcasts about the region CBAWM has recently released podcasts by Dr Roger White of the University of Birmingham on Wroxeter Roman city and the Roman West Midlands. https://historywm.com/podcasts
Other local on-line offerings:
Virtual Tour of Shrewsbury Castle archaeological excavations
http://psg.shropshire.gov.uk/virtual-tours/?id=2903
Birmingham Museum virtual tour https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/virtual-tour
Herefordshire Museum and Art Gallery Life through a Lens virtual tour https://www.herefordshirelifethroughalens.org.uk/virtual-exhibitiontours/
Warwick Castle Virtual Tour https://historyview.org/library/warwick-castle/
Explore Staffordshire Tithe maps, recently made available online. Both the maps and the apportionments can be viewed on this newly published resource: https://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/search.aspx?SearchType=2&PageIndex=1&ThemeID=774
Walk around the UNESCO Black Country Geopark . If you’re local to the Black Country there are many Geosites to walk and exercise in within the UNESCO Black Country Geopark (and for everyone else once lockdown is over)
https://blackcountrygeopark.dudley.gov.uk/sites-to-see/
KDLHG Committee Matters.
The committee met via Zoom on 26th January. The need for more committee members was emphasised by the fact that only 6 of the committee were available for this meeting. The Group’s finances remain healthy, the matter of subs for 2021 will be decided at the March AGM. The December presentations by members about their Memorable Christmases was well received and gave an insight into the widely varying experiences of our community. We considered the speakers needed to fill the 2021-22 programme and a number of candidates were identified for following up. The outing to Stoneleigh for 11th June 2021 was confirmed, subject to covid restrictions being lifted, but the August coach trip planned for Croome Park Worcestershire was put on hold awaiting a positive view of the future. The archive arrangement with Ark Storage is expected to remain in place for some time.
The next committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 2nd at 7.00pm via Zoom
DF 11.02.21
Contact: David Freke
Email frekedj@globalnet.co.uk
07876 290044