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
A session on Monday 8th August 2022 at 2:30 pm to 5 pm at Memorial Hall
Packington Village History Group (PVHG) is looking to expand its records of the annual summer Carnivals held in Packington between the first Carnival in 1973 until the millennium. The History Group would like to obtain first-hand accounts of how the annual Carnival started, how many people were involved in the organisation of successive Carnivals, and what impact the Carnivals had on our village community.
To start the ball rolling: PVHG has booked Packington Memorial Hall on the afternoon of: Monday 8th August 2022 from 2.30pm to 5.00pm to assemble as many personal recollections, and as much photographic material of past Carnivals as we can.
Packington Carnival 2005
We would ask anyone interested in attending to give some thought to the following questions…….as far as you can remember!!
1. What was your involvement with the Carnivals and when did you start being involved? Were you on the organising committee at any point? How many Carnivals did you attend in this period? (a) as a child? (b) as an adolescent? (c) as an adult?
3. What was your favourite part of the Carnival events? Have you any specific memory (memories) of a particular Carnival you would be happy to put on record?
4. Did you ever take part in a Carnival Procession and if so, what was the theme of the float you were on, or were involved with?
5. Have you any photographic or film record of Carnival events in this period which you would be happy to share with your local History Group? Do you know of other people who might be prepared to share their memories, including photographs, with PVHG? Maybe someone who used to live in the village but has now moved away.
If you have suitable photographs, 35mm transparencies, or cine film of Carnivals in this period that you would be happy to share with us please contact one of the following:
Robin Boucher randbboucher at googlemail dot com
Nev Bray nevbray at hotmail dot com
Adrian Mongredien adrian dot mongredien at gmail dot com
As soon as possible please so that plans can be made, where practical, to download your pictures prior to the event.
If we obtain enough material of general interest PVHG may put on an exhibition at the Memorial Hall this winter for villagers and local residents of all ages to come and see our records of last century’s biggest annual social event in Packington. So, please check out your memories, your family photo albums, your lofts and attics for long forgotten photographs, colour slides and 8mm film and any other memorabilia of this now bygone age, and get in touch.
Robin Boucher, chair of PVHG, made the following report of 2021 activities to the Annual General Meeting on 25th January 2022:
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 from the position of secretary, Sue Brown agreed to take on the role for the next couple of years. Thank you, 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 at pvhg.uk. Some 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 2021; the PVHG publicity machine rolled into action (thankyou Robert and Sue) and the book 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.
At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of PVHG on Tuesday 25th January 2022, a presentation was made on behalf of the members to our retiring Secretary, founder-member Yvonne Eaton.
Yvonne Eaton displays the cut-glass goblets she has just received from Chair of PVHG Robin Boucher
Yvonne has been a member of our village History Group since its start back in the ’80s, over 30 years ago, and has acted as both Secretary and Treasurer for decades. Many early meetings were held in her home, Beech House on Ashby Road, before the 2009 refurbished Memorial Hall Meeting Room became available, and were renowned for her kind hospitality and provision of welcoming hot drinks and snacks.
She has retired from her rôle as Secretary, but retains her post as Treasurer, which involves a little less work. Yvonne believes the process, of changing our PVHG bank account signatories from her to someone else, might prove far too daunting for her to consider relinquishing this position!
Three decades ago – an early meeting of PVHG stalwarts shows Yvonne in the foreground, with Keith Haines and Nancy Atherton, seated; standing behind L to R are Peter and Laura Cooper,Dorothy Ireland,Doug Pratt and Vera Haines
In a letter to thank the group for the gift she received to acknowledge her many years of secretarial work, Yvonne wrote:
I wish to express my sincere thanks for the generous gift of crystal glasses given by the history group on my retirement as secretary of the group. What a surprise.
I have enjoyed being part of the group from its humble beginnings in the school room, then to Dorothy Ireland's home in the Grange, then to Beech House when Dorothy moved to Ashby, and now the Memorial Hall, long may the group continue.
Please pass my thanks on to all members of the history group."
The PVHG Book-Launch and Signing took place on Saturday 4th December 2021 at the Hall meeting room. An early purchaser, village resident Colin Goacher, is seen above outside Memorial Hall holding his signed first-day cover of the PVHG book “A Way of Life That has Gone“.
PVHG Chair Robin Boucher, seen below, who had himself painstakingly edited the original source interviews – from villagers of two decades ago, discussing their memories of eight to ten decades ago – was signing launch copies of the book in the Meeting Room.
Front cover – “A Way of Life That has Gone”
Copies of the book are available for purchase at £5 – contact Robin Boucher by email to randbboucher at googlemail dot com, or by telephone on 411638. They will also be available:
at the PVHG meeting on 25th January 2022
at subsequent 4th Tuesday PVHG meetings
at the June Platinum Jubilee display by PVHG during the anticipated Sunday 5th June Strawberry cream tea at the Hall.
Our Packington Village History Group PVHG is to publish a new book about life in the inter-war years in our village. The new book is to be launched on Saturday 4th December 2021, at the Memorial Hall meeting room, from 10 am to 1 pm.
Verbal testimony, some of it a whole century old, was recorded in the last century by PVHG, from reminiscences of still-living members of the village. Their vivid recollections form our new PVHG book, “A Way of Life that is Gone“.
The book will be launched on Saturday, and editor Robn 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.
Our final meeting for 2021 will be on Tuesday 23rd November at 7.30 p.m. in the Memorial Hall meeting room, when we will be planning our contribution to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June next year.
We have a list of 1950s words, courtesy of one of our members, Adrian Mongredien, and we will hear from him how he thinks this list could be used.
We are hoping to have available copies of “A Way of Life That Has Gone”, our new publication, but this is not confirmed yet. We will also discuss arrangements for selling it once it is fully available.
There is no December meeting; our next meeting will be on Tuesday 25th January 2022, which is also our Annual General Meeting (AGM)
So who was Raphe Leeson, pictured below? Why do we have his expensive 1587 memorial in our village ? Who was in his family? What did they do?
Village Historian Sue Brown is our PVHG Secretary and Treasurer, and on Tuesday 26th October 2021 at 7:30pm in the Memorial Hall Venue 35 will be giving a presentation on “The Leeson Family in Sixteenth Century Packington“.
The 1587 Leeson Memorial in Packington is our oldest memorial
Non-members will be particularly welcome – our famed PVHG hospitality means that although the passing-round of a plate of free biscuits is banned under virus protocols, we can still provide hot tea or coffee to attendees.
