November 2018 – Packington Village History Group PVHG

23rd November 20182nd April 2019

Minutes of the PVHG October 2018 Meeting

MINUTES OF THE October 2018 MEETING OF PACKINGTON VILLAGE HISTORY GROUP PVHG

held in Venue 35 – the Memorial Hall Meeting Room – on Tuesday 30th October 2018 at 7:30 pm

Present: Chairman Robin Boucher and 7 members.

Apologies received from:- Diane and Doug

Minutes of the previous meeting were approved and signed.

Robin reported:

he had suitably cut the old Packington poster which used to hang in the museum, and kept the photographs ready for archiving.
Paula Dring has replied favourably regarding the request for her to talk to the history group about her research on Reverend Joseph Goadby, the Baptist Minister. It is hoped the February 2019 meeting will be agreeable to her.
Wendy Freer of Pudding Bag productions has agreed to attend our next November 2018 meeting, and will talk on Reverend Thomas Pestell (the younger), Vicar of Packington from 1644, whose career was interrupted by the Civil War and the Interregnum, then resumed after the restoration of King Charles II. There is more on her heritage group’s website, puddingbagproductions.co.uk ; Wendy will also be outlining what she requires from our group.

Robert reported on his first meeting of the Memorial Hall Committee, where he was warmly welcomed, and said how the history group was thought well of, as many of the Memorial Hall committee members had attended the history walks and seen the exhibitions.

The important matter of storage space at Memorial Hall for the archives was thoroughly discussed by members concluding with the proposal that a suitable steel cabinet be purchased by the history group and be situated in the storage room at the memorial hall, subject to the agreement of the Memorial Hall Committee. Robert will put this before the Memorial Hall Committee at their next meeting in November.

It was also hoped that history group members would be able to use the Venue 35 meeting room for the thinning of the archive material. This would be on several morning sessions throughout the beginning of 2019. The question of dissemination of the archive material was further discussed.

The question of future projects was discussed. Sue proposed that medieval Packington would be a very interesting subject to pursue.

The meeting closed at 9.20pm.

The next PVHG meeting is on Tuesday, 27th November 2018 at 7.30pm.

Yvonne Eaton, Secretary

19th November 20182nd April 2019

Can Memorial Hall host our History Group Archive? 20 November 2018

We’ve asked the Memorial Hall Committee to help with storage of, and access to, our 3500-item archive. Here’s a copy of our request to them:

Letter to Memorial Hall Committee:

Packington Village History Group PVHG

From: Robin Boucher 13^th November 2018

To: Mr. Chris Miles, Chairman Packington Memorial Hall Committee

Dear Chris,

Storage of History Group Archive

Following our brief word at the end of the World War One commemorations, I am writing on behalf of the History Group to make a formal request about storage of the archive at the Memorial Hall.

You will remember my previous letter of six months ago on this subject: since then we have put forward Robert Dilworth as our representative on the Hall Committee. I understand that at the Hall Committee’s last meeting, it was suggested that the History Group should put forward a proposal – hence this letter, on which Robert will be able to speak further at the meeting on 20^th November.

The History Group requests agreement to place a large metal lockable cabinet in a suitable location in one of the storage rooms at the Hall, for the long term. This would be used to maintain archive material in a weatherproof and secure place, central to the village. The History Group would need access to the cabinet on an “ad hoc” basis during daytimes and possibly occasional evenings, while seeking to avoid any disruption to other users of the Hall’s facilities.

The History Group’s ultimate wish is to digitise the archive material, making it readily available to residents of the village (and of course to the wider world). However, the Group needs to carry out a good deal of work to prepare for this. If the material is stored at the Hall, the Group wishes to hold a number of sessions during 2019 (probably in the daytime) to undertake this preparation work. These sessions would be in addition to the Group’s schedule of evening meetings round the year.

We are aware that the constitution of the Memorial Hall includes references to the promotion of reading and other educational activities; we believe our intended usage is wholly congruent with these aims.

Robert will attend the meeting on 20^th November hoping to progress our request, bringing queries back to the next History Group meeting on 27^th November if required. I do hope your committee will feel able to support us.

Yours sincerely,

Robin Boucher
Chair, Packington Village History Group

19th November 20182nd April 2019

PVHG Helps Commemmorate WW1 Armistice Centenary

PVHG helped Packington commemmorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War 1, by mounting on the 11th November 2018 weekend at Memorial Hall two displays of local people who had been involved in the Great War.

The single photo image on the right comes from a Packington family:

This photo image is of Private Walter Woodward of Packington, who was a “Mountie”, a mounted trooper in a Canadian regiment. He died in 1915 near Ypres. Buried in the Westoutre war graves cemetery near there, he has a memorial addition at his parents’ grave in our village church cemetery, row A no 24 – the most South-westerly of all our church burial plots: