Our Packington Village History GroupPVHG is to publish a new book, about life more than a whole century ago, right here in our village.
The new book is to be launched on Saturday 30th November 2024, at the Memorial Hall meeting room, from 10 am to 1 pm.
PVHG chair and editor Robin Boucher will personally sign first-day copies there. DO come and get YOURS!
Synopsis
It is the year 1900. A young Packington man observes village life. He is “very fond of scribbling”. He writes in an endearingly fluent hand of significant changes around him during his twenty-five years of life so far.
Soon, in 1901, two more stark changes. Early in the year after 63 years on the throne, the great Queen and Empress will die. The whole country is bereft. Then, just prior to Christmas that year, a leading light of the village, the revered church vicar, will die suddenly. The whole community is bereft.
Changing Scenes indeed. Thomas OAKEY writes again about his changed village and church life.
After a few more years, a third essay relates yet more changes under way.
Latent till now in the archive of Packington Village History Group PVHG, his three handwritten manuscripts are reproduced here for YOU.
Thomas gives us a unique insight into village life. As he describes ordinary village folk reacting to change, we gain an endearing glimpse into our village and our country at the dawn of the twentieth century.
“Changing Scenes” indeed !
The book will be launched on Saturday, 30th Novemberm, and editor Robin Boucher, chair of PVHG, will be at the launch to sign YOUR first-day cover of the book.
Only 100 copies have been printed – this is YOUR opportunity to own this heart-warming treasure for an investment of just £5.
On the Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, 26th August 2024, our village History Group PVHG provided, in the Memorial Hall meeting room, some background information in a display about the Open Gardens history of our village:
The Full Display – Individual panels are shown below
House Dating Project Display
n addition, a brief summary display was shown, giving details of the project to record build date information, provided by villagers, of when their homes were built.
In mid-August 2024 we have dated 216 buildings, which we believe to be just under 60% of the total built environment of over 400 dwellings.
You can still contribute to this project by easily and quickly giving us your house date, using the form here on this website
At our June 2024 meeting in Packington’s Memorial Hall Meeting Room, PVHG members agreed to having photographic images of themselves made available for posterity,
There were Eleven members present – here they are:
At the start of 2023 we looked forward to progressing work on Packington’s carnivals and to cooperating with the Parochial Church Council to provide boards displaying the history of Holy Rood Church. For various reasons we have not been able to develop these projects during the year; however we hope to achieve more on both in 2024.
In March we heard from Ian Scruton about his work transcribing wills and inventories of Packington people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Recent comments among historians have highlighted the significance of wills left by “ordinary people” as a key source of information about their lives – Ian’s work bears testimony to this and his information was warmly received.
In June I led a walk up High Street, with a good attendance despite uncertain weather. The walk was complemented by a display of photographs and light refreshments and the evening was enjoyed by all who attended.
Over the summer we worked with other organisations on a couple of projects.
The Horticultural Society celebrated its 80th year of shows and I contributed an article for the Society’s brochure/programme.
Then in September, under the nationwide Heritage Open Day scheme, Holy Rood Church opened to the public on what proved to be the hottest day of the year. Sue Brown had provided an excellent display of photos and documents on the history of the church, while I gave a talk about items inside the church which link to Packingtonians from times past. This event attracted a lot of interest.
In the autumn we looked at writings by local farmer Thomas Oakey about Holy Rood Church in and soon after the year 1900.
John Newbold gave us some information about a couple of village families dating back to the 1700’s.
Adrian Mongredien proposed a new project to identify the construction dates of properties in Packington which we look forward to pursuing in 2024.
Thanks to all who have taken part in our meetings – the Group continues to have wide-ranging discussions. Particular thanks go to Sue Brown for taking meeting minutes, contributing to displays and for her efforts in restructuring our archive; to Robert Dilworth for developing our website and for representing us on the Memorial Hall Committee; and to Yvonne Eaton for once more keeping our finances on an even keel.
Packington Village History Group PVHG offers a FREE guided history walk of our village High Street, taking place at 7:30 pm on Tuesday 27th June 2023 (weather permitting!).
Meeting point: just across the road from the Bull and Lion.
The guided walk will be led by PVHG chair Robin Boucher, whose reputation as a fount of knowledge of Packington History is well -deserved.
The meeting point is the location a century ago of Packington’s Reading Room building, now the service road of Heather Lane
Robin will describe historic features of our High Street, some of which are more evident than others:
Perhaps you have seen this odd-shaped stone at the High Street entrance to Hall Lane – do you know what it is called, or what it is for?
There is a story behind many of the historic buildings and features of our High Street, and we who can walk blithely past today may never have realised the way things were in times of yore.
Do come along and join us for this informative event, (did we mention it is FREE?) which leads at its end to refreshments in our Memorial Hall Meeting Room, where a display of High Street information will be available.
Robin Boucher, chair of PVHG, prepared the following report of 2022 activities to the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 24th January 2023:
After the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic, it was a relief to be able to resume our normal pattern of face-to-face meetings in 2022.
During the first months we were planning our participation in Packington’s celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. When the time came this went well; the Platinum Poem was well-received and we presented a display and book stall at the cream tea event. Thanks to everyone who contributed over the weekend.
In the second half of the year we have researched the story of the village’s carnivals, 1973 – 2008. We have now gathered substantial information and started a process of interviews with people who took part. We intend to landmark the fiftieth anniversary of the first carnival during the coming year.
We provided a display and bookstall at the Open Gardens event at the end of August.
During the autumn we have provided substantial new material to Wikipedia’s section on Packington’s history and, at the end of the year, started talks with the Parochial Church Council about publicising the history of Holy Rood Church. We have been pleased to see prospective new members joining the group (and former members returning) – meetings have become lively!
My thanks go to all who have taken part during the year, in particular to Sue Brown for taking minutes, for arranging our displays and for excellent work on the 1921 census, to Robert Dilworth for keeping us up-to-date with technology, to Adrian Mongredien and Nev Bray for their contributions to our carnival project, and to Yvonne Eaton for keeping our finances in order..
Present: Robin Boucher, Yvonne Eaton, Adrian Mongredien, Robert Dilworth, Nev Bray, Sue /Brown.
Chairman’s welcome
Apologies for absence – Ian and Pat Scruton, Marion Wright, David Fill.
Notes from meeting held on Zoom on 23rd February 2021. There were no matters arising but Robin mentioned Yvonne’s long service to the group, having been a founder member and secretary for the past 30 years. He presented her with a pair of crystal glasses as a mark of appreciation from the group.
Chairman’s report
During the first half of 2021 we were constrained by Government restrictions on meetings, due to the Covid pandemic. Some of us met on Zoom while others felt unable to do so. In the autumn we were able to meet face-to-face once more. Despite the difficulties, the year was not without some achievements.
Following Yvonne Eaton’s retirement form the position of secretary, Sue Brown agreed to take on the role for the next couple of years. Thankyou, Sue, for undertaking this work.
While we were unable to meet, Sue Brown and Robert Dilworth worked on production of a list of baptisms and burials which now appears on the Group’s website. 3,286 entries are now available for visitors to examine.
In mid-June, I led a walk up Mill Street. The weather for the evening was beautiful and around thirty people turned out, which was close to the permitted attendance for an outdoor event at the time. The walk was well-received – the appearance of a peacock near the starting-point was clearly a good omen!
Meanwhile I had also started preparing a publication, based on oral interviews which our predecessors had undertaken from the late 1980’s onwards. Group members helped with proof-reading and supportive feedback and the Parish Council made a grant from its Solar Fund towards production costs. “A Way of Life That Has Gone” was published in December; the PVHG publicity machine rolled into action (thankyou Robert and Sue) and it was launched at a signing session in the Memorial Hall. At the time of writing over half of the print run of 100 copies has been sold.
Our autumn meetings included a session looking at the 1735 estate map of Packington and a very interesting presentation by Sue Brown on the Leeson family, prominent in Packington from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. We concluded by starting to plan our contribution to the village’s Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration to be held in June 2022.
Ian had been transcribing some of the wills and Robin would discuss with him the way to take this forward.
Robin also stated that whilst he was willing to stand as Chairman for the coming year he did not consider that he should continue holding the position for a long time.
Treasurer’s report Yvonne reported that we had a balance of £673.43 in the bank. Income consisted of £105 in membership fees, sale of books £233 and £706 from the Solar Fund grant. Expenditure consisted of £72 for the hire of venue 35 from 2020 to date, and the payment to Context for the printing of “A Way of Life that has Gone” of £814.
Election of officers for 2022
Chairman Robin Boucher
Vice-Chairman – to be decided by those present as and when the need occurs.
Secretary Sue Brown
Treasurer Yvonne Eaton
Membership fees for 2022 would remain at £10 for individuals and £15 for couples. The meeting decided that potential new members could attend two meetings before being asked for a subscription.
Dates of meetings for 2022 – Below is a list of proposed dates for meetings in 2022, following the pattern of previous years.
Do you know how many people live here in our village today?
When the Doomsday Book was compiled almost a thousand years ago, there were just ten dwellings in our village – as you can see from this image at The National Archives:
Extract from that page of the actual Domesday Book made in 1086, R column – the full page is copyrighted, but you can look it up yourself online at The National Archives at reference E 31/2/2/10367Transcription – of what the image says, in modern-ish English instead of olde Latin. This is in the page marked Leicestershire, VI, The Land of St Mary of Coventry, The Abbey of Coventry..
PVHG historian Ian Scruton, has been researching our population, and came across an excerpt in Sir Walter Scott’s “The Story of Ashby-de-la-Zouch” published in 1907, saying:
Packington might now be described as a decaying, though picturesque, village. Within living memory no less than forty houses in it have been taken down, whist few, if any, have been built to take their place. That means a decrease in the population of about two hundred persons (Page 434)
Just 6 years earlier, Packington’s population in 1901 had been verified at the census as 473 – just over half our present size.
So how many people do you think lived here in 1851, a century and half ago? Would you be surprised to read that it was 1,294, almost two and a half times more than 50 years later in 1901? If so, where did they all go in those 50 years?
Census records reveal our population through the last two centuries:
1801 summary – 563
1851 census – 1294
1901 census – 473
By contrast, in 2022, we deliver 402 copies of Packington Post to all separate village dwellings. The estimated population in 2020 was 824 , which seems about right at just over two per dwelling.
PVHG founder member, and former village resident, Paul Monk, who was the Head Teacher at our village school from 1983 onwards, did some research, and his results are surprising. He wrote the following, published in an Ashby Museum “Past and Present Journal” dated 12th August 2012
Paul Monk’s Detective Story in the Ashby Museum’s “Past and Present Journal”
Censuses can be tricky things. They are very useful tools for the local historian, but consider their information in isolation and it is possible to reach very strange conclusions. Take Packington, for example. There was a dramatic rise and fall in the population during the nineteenth century which can only be explained by examining external factors.
The very first Census of England and Wales was taken in 1801 (Scotland followed in 1802). In this census the population was counted by households on a parish basis. There were no personal details, such as names, recorded. The population of the Parish of Packington was recorded in the 1801 Summary Report as 563 persons. At this time Packington was a rural village relying on agriculture for the majority of its employment. In 1901 the population of the parish was recorded as 473, about a 20% drop. There had been many economic changes during the nineteenth century but in 1901 Packington was still an essentially rural and agriculturally based village.
However, during the first half of the century the population grew to a maximum of 1294 by the 1851 Census and then declined steadily to 1881 when the population was 1153. Then there was a dramatic slump in the population in the 1891 Census to 498. The answer to this unusual pattern lies in events outside the village and some local geography.
During the majority of the nineteenth century, the parish of Packington was not the same geographical area that it is today. Firstly, some of the village was in Derbyshire and some was in Leicestershire. The “islands” of Derbyshire can be clearly seen on the early Ordnance Survey maps. An example of this is a group of houses around the junction of Mill Street and the High Street which clearly shown as being in Derbyshire. An examination of the field boundaries in Babelake Street is also interesting as it shows alternate fields being in Derbyshire and Leicestershire. During this period Packington was actually known as the Parish of Packington with the Chapelry of Snibston. This meant that there was a part of the parish detached from the village on the far side of the parish of Ravenstone.
It is from these two geographical and ecclesiastical facts, together with events from outside, that an explanation for the population growth and decline can be deduced.
In 1834 George Stephenson opened the Leicester to Swannington line and moved to Alton Grange to oversee his railway and colliery interests. He had recently invested heavily in Snibston Colliery which was developing into a major enterprise. An important mine development needed workers and their families and they mainly settled near the colliery. During the 1830s the population of Packington rose from 730 to 1024, an increase of 71 %.
It can be shown with some certainty that most of this increase of population was in the Snibston area and not in Packington village. White’s Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland is an important primary source for the nineteenth century. It analysed the population of the parish of Packington after the 1861 and 1871 censuses into the population of the parish and the population of Snibston. From this it is easy to see that all the population increase happened in the Snibston area and the population of Packington village remained approximately the same.
But what happened in the 1891 census when the population of the parish suddenly plummeted from 1153 to 498? This was a fall of about 230%!
The answer lies in an important Act of Parliament, the Reform Act of 1884. This act redefined many county and parish boundaries. In Packington all the “little islands” of Derbyshire became part of Leicestershire and were now counted in the Leicestershire Census for 1891. However, more importantly, the Chapelry of Snibston was removed, with all its population, from the Parish of Packington. This meant that from 1891 onwards the population of the parish was only counted in the village and its immediate surrounding rural area.
To interpret the sudden rise and slump in the population has required some local history detective work using several different sources. It was the influence of one of Britain’s greatest engineers and a major boundary reform that can explain the strange population pattern.
References:
David and Charles (No Date): Reprint of the First edition of the Ordnance Survey Sheets 35 and 42
Owen, Colin (1984): The Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield 1200-1900
Victoria County History (1955): Leicestershire Volume III
White, William (Various 19th Century editions): History, Gazetteer andDirectory of Leicestershire and the Small County of Rutland
Footnote: PVHG Founder member Paul Monk is now resident in Northern Scotland, and wrote to us, describing the origins of PVHG in the late ’80s:
The work that I did on the Packington Population was written after we had moved up here to Cromarty.I had a look at the PVHG website this afternoon and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the group was still in existence. I remember how we set it up. Laura Cooper and I suggested that a local history class was set with Jim Slater who worked for Vaughan College, Leicester University. Early members were Laura and Peter Cooper, Dorothy Ireland and Yvonne Eaton as well as me. We held it in the big classroom at the school. One of our first projects was the Publication of the photo book called “Packington Observed”. I wrote three or four parts of this.
Village Carnivals were held annually between 1973 and 2008. This is the Carnival Shield:
Typically, prior to the event itself on a village field or playing ground, a parade round the village of decorated mobile floats was held.
Splendid decoration of the floats by affinity groups or street groups took place:
A trophy shield was awarded to the best float each year – the shield is shown in the picture above at top.
Do YOU know where that trophy Best Float shield is now? Packington Village History Group PVHG would like to place it on display as a souvenir exhibit to mark these special village events.
If you know, or suspect, where the trophy Best Float shield is – or even where it just might be – please let us know!
Please contact the Carnival history project – Adrian Mongredien will be keen to hear from you by email to: adrian dot mongredien at gmail dot com
