NEWSLETTER 6th December 2021
Christmas Treats. Our Christmas meeting this Friday 10th December [note it’s the second Friday, not the usual third one] is our biennial opportunity to hear short pieces by our members before consuming mulled wine or soft drinks and mince pies. This year we have three contributions. Anitra Hall will entertain us with a piece entitled “What’s in a Name?” Many of you will remember some years ago the dry humour of her account of her genealogical researches. Sue Hammon has given me the title “The Mystery of Khiva” and despite Googling Khiva’s location (it’s in Uzbekistan – where’s that?), and a hint from Sue that a vital aspect of European culture is involved, I remain agog to hear her explore the mystery of this place. Brian Morgan took up the challenge which I was issued at the start of the pandemic, and has kept a journal to record the last extraordinary 20 months. In the footsteps of Daniel Defoe he calls his talk “The Ramblings of an Old Man During the Pandemic”. I hope as many of you as possible will come to this pre-Christmas meeting, the last K&DLHG gathering of 2021.
At present there are no mandatory covid-related restrictions on the use of the village hall, so we expect to present a normal evening. However, we advise that masks be worn, and that the hand washing facilities be used. Seats will be spaced, although not at the previous 2m distance. Please wrap up warmly as the hall will be ventilated.
Report on November 19meeting. Ellie Reid, a Local Studies Librarian at Oxfordshire History Centre, and an independent researcher, gave a comprehensive description of the role played by Warwick’s pioneering 1906 pageant in the local, and wider, manifestations of the 20th century pageant craze. In her well-illustrated talk entitled Dressing up the past: the 1906 Warwick Pageant and the 20th century Pageant Movement she showed how persistent publicity over many months was crucial for the huge success of the event. Local dignitaries, such as Lord Willoughby de Broke and patrons of the South Warwickshire Hunt, took leading roles in hired costumes, while lesser parts were inhabited by members of the wider community in costumes created by teams of seamstresses. As many as 44,000 people saw the pageant, performed for a week in the grounds of Warwick Castle under the direction of Pageant Master Louis Napoleon Parker. A dozen episodes illustrated the sometimes mythic history of the town, including a scene involving the infamous Dun Cow, represented by a giant smoke-breathing head, designed by local artist John Bolton. The success of the Warwick pageant stimulated many other towns to mount their own local celebratory events, and Parker became a peripatetic Pageant Master, much in demand.
The popularity of pageants waned in the thirties and post WWII, with Birmingham’s rain-affected 1938 event making a loss of about £10,000. Against this is Kenilworth’s 1939 celebration which made a profit of £1,500, and included microphones and pyrotechnics. The Festival of Britain included a pageant, and the spectacular 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony was essentially a pageant. Ambridge staged a pageant in 2016, in a way which recalled the pageant in Mapp and Lucia, where village politics and personalities proved as compelling as the ostensible historical theme. The current appetite for costumed re-enactors at historical tourist venues has a faint echo of the pageant, albeit much diluted.
Our President Bob Bearman noted that the late Peter Ashley-Smith had researched and published an article about the Warwick 1906 Pageant in Warwickshire History in 2006, a debt which Ellie fulsomely acknowledged; indeed she had included a copy of Peter’s article with her fascinating display of pageant memorabilia. Gill Ashley-Smith gave the vote of thanks with her characteristic panache.
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Membership. If you are, or would like to become, a Member of the group, your 2022 subscription (still £10pa!) will be due in January 2022. Our Treasurer Alec Hitchman awaits! You can pay by cheque made payable to Kineton and District Local History Group, sent or delivered to Alec Hitchman, The Hills Farm, Pillerton Hersey, WARKS, CV35 0QQ, or by BACS to our bank business account:
name: Kineton and District Local History Group,
sort code: 40-43-19;
acc. no. 71281992. Please be sure to include your full name so we can correctly attribute your payment!
Or you can pay at a talk.
2021-2 Programme update:
Dec 10 Christmas treats
2022-3
Jan 21 George Derbyshire: Arts and Crafts in the Cotswolds
Feb 18 James Ranahan: The Photographer’s Gaze: Viewing Warwickshire Since 1839
Mar 18 AGM
| 22 April | Alan Benjamin | ‘The History and Music of Morris Dancing’ with instrumental accompaniment. |
| 20 May | Anne Langley | ‘Early allotments in Warwickshire’ a major institution of Victorian village life |
| 16 September | Norman Hyde | ‘Tennis the Leamington Way.’ the oldest tennis club in the world and its importance to Leamington over 170 years. |
| 21 October | Roy Smart | ‘David Beatty – The Last Naval Hero’ fame and celebrity following the Battle of Jutland, the greatest naval battle in history. |
| 18 November | Rosemary Collier | The History of the Royal Horticultural Research Institute, Wellesbourne |
| 9 December | VARIOUS | Christmas meeting |
| 20 January | Beat Kumin | ‘For a Good Cause – Church Ales and Early Modern Drinking Culture.’ |
| 17 February | tbc | tbc |
| 17 March | 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.
Other Society News
Warwickshire Local History Society
K&DLHG is affiliated to WLHS and our members are entitled to join their meetings.
Many other local societies are running their talk series via zoom! Check the Warwickshire Local History Society website for up-to-date lists. https://www.warwickshirehistory.org.uk
British Association for Local History. The Group is also a Member of BALH and they run lectures and talks which are open to our members.
Their next, talk available virtually is The Human Cost of the British Civil Wars given by Prof Andrew Hopper on Thursday 9th November, 7.00 – 8.30pm.
Details:
One of a series of digital skills workshops and webinars hosted by BALH in 2021.
The BALH Annual Winter Lecture
The British and Irish Civil Wars (1638–1652) are now taking centre stage as a critical event in the welfare history of Europe. During these conflicts, the Long Parliament implemented a national pension scheme for those who had suffered ‘in the State’s service’. Maimed soldiers no longer able to work, bereaved war widows and orphans too could petition Justices of the Peace for a pension on a local level, through the county quarter sessions courts. For the very first time, this signified the state’s acceptance of a duty of care to both its servicemen and their families. The impact of war-related deprivation was widespread, given that civil-war population loss in England and Wales was around 3%, with even higher percentage losses in Scotland and Ireland. This lecture will showcase evidence from the Civil War Petitions Project’s website in order to assess how this system of military welfare operated, how claimants fashioned themselves as deserving recipients of relief, and how the victims of the war looked back on their experiences.
Check out their website at: balh.org.uk
Warwickshire in WWII
The link below takes you to a fascinating article about WWII in the locality, keep going to the end to read about PoW Camp 31 at Ettington.
Other local on-line offerings:
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/
Don’t forget to check our own website at:
Kineton and District Local History Group (kinetonhistory.co.uk)
KDLHG Committee
President: Robert Bearman MBE
Chairman David Freke
Vice-Chairman Roger Gaunt
Secretary Ilona Sekacz
Treasurer Alec Hitchman
Outings Secretary Isobel Gill
Programme Secretary Claire Roberts
Other committee members:
Rosemary Collier
George Lokuciejewski
Catherine Petrie
Pamela Redgrave
Peter Waters
Committee News. The committee met at Pamela Redgrave’s home on 15th November. Alec outlined the continuing satisfactory state of our finances but reported that the transfer of access to our PayPal account to him from Ted was still a problem. Roger, Alec Ted and Lucie are attempting to resolve this. The 2022-23 programme was discussed and a short list drawn up for Claire to pursue. In the matter of the archive in October we submitted a new application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for help with financing the proposed archive room behind the stage. We hope to hear whether we have been successful before Christmas. Roger reported that the number of visitors to the web site continues to rise each month, with hits 60% from UK, 20% from the US, 12% from China(!) and others from Hong Kong and Zimbabwe.
Date of next Committee meeting: 17th January (tbc), 7.00pm, at Pamela Redgrave’s home by kind invitation: 8 King John’s Road, Kineton, CV35 0HS
DF 06.12. 21
Contact: David Freke
Email frekedj@globalnet.co.uk
07876 290044