MINUTES OF THE September 2018 MEETING OF PACKINGTON VILLAGE HISTORY GROUP PVHG
held in Venue 35 – the Memorial Hall Meeting Room – on Tuesday 25th September 2018 at 7:30 pm
Present: Chairman Robin Boucher, 6 members. and guest Terry Hammond
Apologies received from:- Diane, Doug, and Nev.
Minutes of the previous meeting were approved and signed.
Robin welcomed Terry Hammond who brought the meeting up to date with the World War 1 commemoration events in November:
- A copy of the programme for the Saturday evening Music Hall entertainment was circulated.
- Terry explained that regrettably the actors reading the soldiers’ story would not be in military uniform, as the cost of hire was prohibitive.
- It was with some regret that members heard the film to be shown on Friday night the 9th November was not a war film. The possibility of whether a war film could be shown at some other time over that weekend was discussed, but at this stage of the arrangements it was not thought to be possible.
- Robin has been searching the archives for suitable photographs for the display in the Memorial Hall and showed members his findings. Some were of the village as it was during the l914/18 period, as well as some of the village soldiers and sailors who served in the first world war.
- The display stands required to house the photographs for the display can be kindly supplied by Sue.
- Members thanked Terry for his hard work on this WWI commemoration project
Robin reported he had organised the replacement Packington display poster for the museum and had succeeded in obtaining a grant from the Packington Parish Council for this purpose. Thanks were expressed by members for this. The new poster is now on display at the museum. The question of what should happen to the old poster which was brought from the museum, was discussed and it was decided to keep the top portion of photographs which would be added to the archives.
Members who had taken archive boxes over the summer for thinning reported their progress, Sue had achieved almost 50% as newspaper reports were hand written as well as typed, this being just one example of unnecessary archive space being used. There was much discussion regarding what should be kept and what constituted genuine historical information to be kept.
Robert suggested approaching the memorial hall committee requesting space in the meeting room for the group to use at any reasonable time, but it was pointed out that the trust had to adhere to rules laid down and therefore this request was unlikely to be granted. As playgroup are no longer using the memorial hall, storage space is now available, members felt the memorial hall committee should be approached asking if the history group could place their archives in such a space.
It was therefore proposed a representative of the history group be on the memorial hall committee. Robert was proposed by Stephen and seconded by David, passed unanimously and agreed to be our representative. Future meetings were discussed and Robert suggested an invitation be sent to Paula Dring to speak on her research of the first Packington Baptist Minister. This was agreed.
Robin had received a letter from Wendy Frear who was requesting help from the history group and Robin will reply, inviting her to speak at our November meeting.
The village is slowly changing, population and buildings, therefore photographic evidence for the archives is essential showing these changes and it is hoped Richard Jones would be willing to take the necessary photographs.
The meeting closed at 9.30. The next meeting is on Tuesday 30th October, 2018 at 7.30pm