Dear Members.
Our last meeting was, "The Story of a Buckinghamshire Village" the film show put on by courtesy of Peter Gardner & Philip Smith, it was a resounding success, once again, those that missed the evening did miss an excellent moving picture show. Quite coincidentally the films opening sequences started at Hedgerly & Stoke Poges, the extreme south of the county, this was where my Grandfather & Grandmother started their lives. Gran was born in Holly Bush Lane, Hedgerly. Not that any of you wished to know that.
The interviews of ' Ol' Maudie' and Ol' Jack Cook, both of whom most of us remember well. Those two interviews alone are priceless, they capture the dialect & attitude to life of those two Sherington characters absolutely perfectly. I hope that Peter has that footage of film well guarded, it will need to be resurrected every 10 -20 years.
Also you will have seen on that film, the village documents, These were written, by hand in 1796, there are twenty five of them joined together with solicitor's pink tape, and wide green tape with red wax seals, and signed by umpteen senior members of the village.
These all relate to the enclosure act, when the government decreed that unfenced common land could be claimed and fenced. Solicitor's clerks or scribes were paid for what they wrote, by the square foot, so the more flowery the language, the more money they were paid.
The safety & storage of these 25 documents & the one, even larger, enclosure map, have caused me some concern for as long as I have known about them. Up until now there has been no record of what is written on the parchments, so if they were lost by fire or whatever, the information would have been totally lost for ever. But now thanks to the Millennium Fund via Milton Keynes Museum, all 26 documents have been electronically copied & are being processed onto CDs, paper copies will be made available for the Parish Council (the owners) and ourselves, so we shall be able to examine without risking more damage to the originals. Also the CDs can be copied & lodged in various places to ensure the information will never be lost. It is also hoped that these will, in time be transcribed into easily readable script. Then maybe the PC will see fit to lodge the originals with the Public Record Office, along with the church documents, so that they can be kept & preserved in controlled conditions, they do deserve this treatment being 310 years old. There is not a lot older in this village.
We are plodding on with the transcription of the school log books, to date 666 pages have been transcribed from volumes 1 & 2. 1892 - 1924. These will need to be indexed finally & will form the most valuable asset to anyone researching their Sherington family. About 1500 A4 pages finally, at a guess.
Volume 1 has now been finished and indexed. Snippets from these could prove very entertaining reading, "Verminous heads were prevalent" in the early 1900s.
"October 17th 1901…..Scholars have earned ½ days holiday. No one having been late since last Tuesday entitled them to this, by arrangement with the Managers".
For the Christmas party it has been suggested that members might like to bring along any pictures that they have, drawn or painted by Sherington artists, or by themselves, or if not by Sherington artist, then a Sherington scene. We can display these on our display boards, members will not be expected to give a talk on their pictures, unless they wish to. We can discuss this at the November meeting along with any other ideas that you may have.
The society has also purchased a small machine called a " Comb Binder" it was on offer at Staples at the right time & price (reduced from £64 to £50 ). This has enabled us to bind together all the small sets of pages 25 to 50 sheets in a more manageable way. All the censuses are now done in this manner, this does enable people to look at each years census as a separate booklet, and open up to lay flat on the table as the spines are much more flexible. Hopefully it will be an asset to us.
Sometime next year Dianne Sutton will be giving us talk on "Our Murder" and the committee has decided to purchase another 50 copies of the booklet. We have been sold out for at least a year & if we have a talk as an open meeting we shall probably sell quite a few copies. I have also been asked on several occasions for a copy.
The next meeting will be a general meeting Tuesday Nov.12th.
The one after that, will be the Christmas Party Tuesday December 10th,
Don’t forget to buy & sell your COMMUNITY CAR raffle tickets, earn the undying gratitude of your friends & relations
N.A.