Tales from the Summer 2023

Society members and guests met to explore some of the little gems often hidden in Huntingdonshire, and a little beyond.

On the evening of the Wednesday 7th June we had an evening stroll around Needingworth under the expert tutelage of Peter Cooper.

The afternoon of Wednesday 28th June, we visited the medieval church in Diddington to explore its history and that of the village. Afterwards we descended upon Holy Trinitiy Church in Great Paxton to explore its history, and tea and cake with the church council members.

Thursday 20th July we ventured a little outside of Huntingdonshire to explore the Nottingham to Grantham canal and its importance to the industrial development of the Vale of Belvoir. (A hearty lunch in the Dirty Duck pub was most welcome!)

The adfternoon of Thursday 24th August we had an afternoon in Northborough to explore the medieval church, the Manor and the history of the buildings on Church Street.

On Saturday 2nd September, in a joint excursion with Cambridge Antiquarian Society and the Churches Conservation Trust, we had a personal tour of Lincoln Cathedral.

To read more about the excursions, please click on the link [excursion report]

Membership Renewal for 2023 Now Due

If you haven’t renewed your membership already and wish to do so then please contact David Smith by email info@huntslhs.org.uk or by phone 07886 640177. Membership this year is £10 for Single and £15 for a couple.

If you wish to join the Society please download the membership form, found by selecting the membership tab at the top of the page, and send the completed form and payment to David Smith, details on the form.

Almanack – New Year 2023 Published

A supplemantary edition of the Almanack covering the Society activities and lectures planned for the first half of 2023 has been issued.

In addition to our normal first Tuesday in the month lecture programme we have introduced two daytime activities in January and February.

January 19th an afternoon at Huntingdon Archives to view some of publications, documents and maps on the architecture of the Huntingdonshire landscape. Due to the available space in the Archives we have had to limit the numbers to a maximum of 20 people. There will be a small charge of £5 per person for tea and biscuits and cost fo the Archives.

February 22nd and afternoon at Huntingdon Methodist Church with MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology). MOLA representatives will give a short presentation and then lead us in a workshop to study a number of finds and research material related to the excavations alonmg the route of the new A14 road. Please note numbers wil be limited to 20 for the workshop. There is no charge for this event

If you want to book a place on any of these listed events please email David Smith on info@huntslhs.org.uk.

 

Goodliff Awards 2022

The Society is delighted to announce the Goodliff and Family History (genealogical) awards towards the following projects:

Mike Addis – for ‘The Victorian Entomologist@ – a personal project to teach children about the 19th Century discover of the natural world.

*Huntingdonshire Archives – for an archivist to re-catalogue to modern standards the first instalment of the records of the Duke of Manchester’s Kimbolton Estate.

The Norris Museum – to work with local youth charity KICK to create a local history ‘story mat’.

*Peter Cooper – for a will tramnscription (from records at TNA) and analysis project for Holywell-cum-Needingworth and making this available on website.

*Annie James – for further instalment of work on Huntingdonshire convicts who were transported.

The Cromwell Museum – for redesigned display of exhibits in the museum dealing with Cromwell’s early life, including new acquisitions.

Martyn Smith – for an A3 printer to support his Huntingdonshire Cyclists’ project

Dr. Ken Sneath – for publication of a volume of essays by different scholars on the ‘Long Reformation’ in Huntingdonshire.

Godmanchester Museum – for additional boards for display of cpied family photographs from local people.

Dr. Stephen Upex – to publish a facsimile editon of Edmund Artis’s seminal archaeological text ‘Durobrivae’

Huntingdon BID – for external display boards in Literary Walk Huntingdon on literary figures with Huntingdonshire connections

Ramsey Rural Museum – for audio-visual equipment to give introductory infomation about the museum collections

(*) Awards using in whole or in part the account created from transfer of funds by the former Huntingdonshire Family History Society aimed at projects of genealogical interest.

Over the 25 years we have been able to make some 250 awards, distributing over £150,000 to support projects promoting the history of Huntingdonshire. In 2020, arising from the amalgamation of the Huntingdonshire Family History Society with the Cambridgeshire Family History Society, some of its assets were transferred to the Goodliff Fund to fund an annual genealogical award. 

For details of awards made this year and previous years see the Goodliff Award tab.

We are now accepting applications for awards in 2022. See the Goodliff Awards tab for the application form and information on how to apply.

New President of the Society named, Mr David Cozens, MBE agreed to be our President

We are delighted to announce that our Vice-Chairman, whom we reckon the premier local historian of Huntingdonshire, David Cozens, MBE, has accepted the committee’s invitation to fill this important place in the Society’s public profile. David was our Chairman from 1974 – 2009, has written many books and contributed articles to ‘Records of Huntingdonshire’, the Society’s publication, and elsewhere, organised excursions including the original series of May weekends. David has also been a superb ambassador for Huntingdonshire’s history for more than 50 years.  

Christmas 2020 Social Event – Change to Programme

Due the current Covid19 restrictions we concluded that to carry on with the concert by the Military Wives Choir was not possible, so the planned Social for the 4th December has been cancelled. Not wanting to cancel the whole Social we have decided to host an alternative evening of entertainment, using Zoom Meeting Rooms, on the evening of 9th December, starting at 7:30pm, as usual. Our Vice Chairman, David Cozens, will talk to us about the Edison Bell Company of Huntingdon and he will provide us with some historical festive musical entertainment from his extensive collection of 78rpm records. 

Answers to the Quiz in the Winter 2019/20 Almanack Supplement

Here are the answers to the Quiz ‘Who Might Use These’ that were in the Winter 2019/2020 Almanack Supplement.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                      G                                               H                                           K
 
G: Coprolite wagon – can be seen at Ramsey Rural Museum
 
H: Culinary water sprinkler – on display at the 2019 History Festival re-enactment camp
 
K: Sculptured faces – on the frontage of NatWest Bank on Huntingdon High Street
 
We will have another quiz in the next copy of the Almanack Supplement, to be issued Summer 2020

Message from our Chairman – Impact of Covid-19

Dear Huntingdonshire Local History Society member,

It will come as no surprise to you that due to the Covid-19 pandemic we have had to cancel our Annual General Meeting due on 15th April and our President’s first lecture to us, with presentation of Goodliff awards, on 20th May.  We hope to re-arrange both for the Autumn, but it is too early yet to say when that will be and our President’s lecture will depend when he can fit us into his busy diary, no doubt even fuller now with postponed events. 

The Cambridge Historic Churches Trust conference on 18th April and Cambridgeshire Association for Local History conference on 2nd May, of which I promised to circulate details at our last meeting, have similarly been cancelled. How quickly the world has changed!  CALH and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society have cancelled its meetings into the summer.

We were in the process of arranging excursions and have a visit to Spalding arranged for Wednesday 10th June that is now also likely to be postponed.  That makes the lecture by Dr Stephen Parissien on Palace House Newmarket in the Huntingdon Town Hall on Wednesday 8th July our next meeting.  This event is in connection with the Huntingdonshire History Festival but even if the Town Hall has reopened for use it will depend to some extent on whether the Festival will go ahead.  A decision on that will be made no later than May.  During July we also have planned an evening visit to Leighton Bromswold church for Thursday 23rd July, followed by the opportunity for dinner at The Green Man. There’s no harm in putting these events in your diary now, but with a question mark.

The Goodliff Awards scheme continues. The deadline for applications is just one week ahead, on 31st March. The committee will assess these without meeting, which may take a little longer but applicants can expect to hear by the end of April at the latest if they have been successful. 

We hope to produce a summer Almanack with excursion and/or meeting details as soon as it is safe to reorganise these.  Meanwhile we will endeavour to keep you up to date with developments, and David Smith will publish the latest information on the society’s website.  We are also thinking of sending out an occasional bulletin of some sort, which might just be some local history thoughts and jottings, so contributions to that would be welcome. Either get a friend to email them to me or give me a ring.

You will be pleased to hear that we have booked the Huntingdon Military Wives’ Choir for our Christmas Social at the Town Hall on Friday 4th December.  Let’s hope and pray that we shall be through this awful period by then and we will all be still here to enjoy it.

With very best wishes to you and your families during this anxious time,

Yours sincerely

Philip Saunders

Chairman