On Friday 15th for meeting at the village hall, the doors will open at 7.00pm for teas, coffees and the all important raffle. The talk, starting at 7.30, entitled William James – Stratford’s Pioneering Railway Engineer, will be given by our member Roger Butler.
In the early 19th century William James was involved in innovative work in developing the very first steam engines and railways. He worked with George Stephenson on the railway between Liverpool and Manchester, the first viable passenger line.
He was busy in many parts of England, with involvement with at least 13 major railway lines. Locally he promoted the Stratford to Moreton-in-Marsh tramway, as well as having a major interest in the Stratford Canal.
Those who have heard any of Roger’s previous presentations will know that we are in for a well researched and relaxed evening, illustrated by his always excellent photographs.
Report on Friday 18th October meeting. The talk by David Morse was
entitled A Dive into Leamington’s Photograpic Archive. David is Vice Chair
of Leamington History Group and has been researching Leamington’s social
history for many years. His talk outlined the major project being undertaken by
the Leamington group to collect, archive and interpret the photographic legacy of
the town. As the group’s archivist, David described the stages of developing
such a resource: collecting historic photographs through appeals and publicity;
sorting and cataloguing the resulting collection of 5,000 individual items into a coherent order; interpreting what they show, to contribute to the narrative of the town; and making the material available, to enhance the experience of living in an historic environment. David demonstrated this ambition through his talk with examples of before and after shots of corners of Leamington now unrecognisable from their earlier appearance. At Kineton we are now embarked upon a similar project within the Archive, and the Leamington experience is an example of how it can be done.
Report on 20th September talk by Maggie Wood. Maggie Wood was formerly Keeper of Social History for the Warwickshire Museum Service, and she took inspiration from a collection of local 19th-century smocks held at Warwick Museum, tracing the stories of the individuals who once wore them.
Smocking was a form of stitching to gather the usually linen fabric of a smock to make it stronger, more flexible and more waterproof. She promised some surprises, and one she developed was the attitude to illegitimacy in the late 19th century. The authorities – the Church, the legal system – stigmatised illegitimacy, but one of the characters followed by Maggie had several children out of wedlock by different fathers but lived with her parents and was not the social outcast depicted in the moralising tropes of the period. Maggie has analysed local marriage and birth registers to show that 41% of brides were pregnant at their weddings, and 10% already had a child. Clearly the attitude to sex outside wedlock was surprisingly more relaxed in the general population than that of the authorities. That Maggie presented an entertaining and informative evening about the people and conditions in our area more than a century ago was no surprise to us.
Forthcoming K&DLHG events
| Date | Speaker | Title |
| 15 Nov 2024 | Roger Butler | William James – Stratford’s Pioneering Railway Engineer |
| 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, July August | tbc | Outings to Harbury, Burford and Ettington tbc |
| 19 Sept 2025 | tbc | |
| 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 | tbc | |
| 20 Mar 2026 | AGM & John Parnell | AGM A History of the Circus |
Other Organisations’ Events
Thursday November 21st Warmington Heritage Group The Warmington Judd Family and where it has
taken me, by David Judd 7.30pm in the Village Hall
Please look up 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)
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;
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 | Carol Clarke |
| Archivist | Colin Such |
The committee has met on 18th September in the Community Archive Room, and on 12th November hosted by Colin Such. Ilona has stepped down from the committee after 17 years, the last 9 years serving as our Secretary. The committee recorded their appreciation of her contribution to the smooth running of the group for so long, and future historians will be indebted to her for the “Snapshot” of the village she organised in 2008, with the multitude of photographs and items she collected, now safely housed in the Archive. We have also lost our Membership Secretary, Pam Redgrave, who has also stepped down from the committee.
She will be sorely missed, but her legacy is the re-organised and up to date membership list, and her enhanced PR arrangements, which have done so much to keep our numbers healthy.
The committee has again fallen to skeleton crew numbers, and we are keen to recruit new people to help run the group, volunteers would be welcomed and co-opted before the AGM, so please consider joining us.
Many of the discussions in the last two committee meetings have been to finalise the 2025-26 talks programme, now virtually completed by Claire (see forthcoming events above), and to consider the details of managing the archive, ably overseen by Colin. The next committee meeting has been provisionally set for 7th January 2025, again to be hosted by Colin at 7.00pm