William Byrd @ Stondon: This Evening. Our Special Talk to commemorate Byrd

William Byrd @ Stondon: This Evening. Our Special Talk to commemorate Byrd:   Fri. 30 June: 7.30-9.30pm The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local Histo Tickets, Fri 30 Jun 2023 at 19:30 | Eventbrite  A final opport...

William Byrd @ Stondon: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local Histo...

William Byrd @ Stondon: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd: A Local Histo...: Tickets are now on sale for our talk about Stondon Massey's great composer. The event will be held on Friday 30 June at St Peter & S...

William Byrd @ Stondon: William Byrd Festival 2023 at Stondon Massey Church

William Byrd @ Stondon: William Byrd Festival 2023 at Stondon Massey Church:  

2023 Programme

 Our 2023 programme:

23 Feb: '1926' - our speaker is our Chairman, Martyn Lockwood

23 Mar: Annual General Meeting

27 Apr: 'John Ray' - Jennifer Rowland

25 May: Napoleonic Invasion Plans - Neil Wiffen

22 Jun: 'Jersey under the Jackboot: the occupation of Jersey during WW2' - Patrick Griggs

27 Jul: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd (c1540-1623): A Local History' - Andrew Smith

26 Oct: 'The Prison at Hill Hall' - Anne Padfield

23 Nov: Pre-Christmas meeting. Talk to be confirmed.

Admission: Members £1, Non-members £5

Annual Membership: £15 (Family: £30)

High Country History Group

 We have been back in our usual meeting place for just over a year following the pandemic.  Our 2023 programme will be posted here soon.

Lockdown Easing but Still on Zoom

The High Country History Group continues to meet monthly but on Zoom pending the ending of the current and unusual situation.  To become a member of the Group please and to receive links to meeting please contact us via the link. 

High Country History Group on Zoom

Keeping contact with our Members is a priority during these unprecedented times.  We will continue to produce the Journal quarterly, making it available by email to those who have this facility and in printed form to those members who are not online.

We experimented with a forty-minute informal meeting on Zoom on the day of our last scheduled meeting, 23 April, with some success.

This coming Thursday, 28 May, in a change to the originally advertised programme, Andrew Smith will talk about 'Rogationtide around Stondon Massey' showing a short film in Zoom and talking about Revd. Reeve's day of reenacting the beating of the bounds in 1909 using a document from 1828.

Members have received an invitation.  To join the High Country History Group please contact via this page.

High Country History Group. Meetings Suspended Until Further Notice

19 March 2020

Dear members

Suspension of meetings of

High Country History Group due to coronavirus outbreak

You will all be aware by now of the need for social distancing in light of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent a peak in demand from our health service.  We have seen within the last couple of days the closure of public buildings, including museums, and postponement of events such as Concerts.  Church buildings are also closed for Public Worship (although many church communities are being creative and doing things differently).

So sadly, you will not be surprised to learn that for the time being the High Country History Group will not be meeting.   Our AGM and talk for next week, 26 March, is therefore postponed.  Our meetings are therefore suspended “for the duration”, referencing the words used in 1939.

I will remain Secretary and Acting Treasurer until we hold an AGM, and Martyn will remain Chairman.  Our Committee will meet online by email as necessary.

We will continue to produce The Journal quarterly.  The March edition will be posted to you.

I therefore invite you to pay your membership fee for 2020/21 to help with this expense.  If you can do this online that would be appreciated otherwise a payment by cheque is acceptable and will be cleared when I next go to town and visit the Bank.  The membership form was attached to the AGM Papers, although I emphasise again the postponement of the AGM.

Although we meet only eight times a year, I am very conscious of the loss of social contact this will bring to many.  One of the strengths of these social groups is the opportunity to get together and share the things that we have in common, which might not only be an interest in history.  Doing things together is something most human beings do very well.

So I am going to ask you to do something. 

Next Thursday, when we will not be able to meet, would you mind sitting down and writing something for the Journal?    

Some ideas.   

Writing of your childhood memories. 

Boris Johnson says the country is on a wartime footing with government intervention in the economy as well as restrictions of movement. To what extent is that true? 

Did you live through the Second World War. What was it like?  Did people panic buy and hoard toilet rolls?

Or, are there any historic parallels with the Covid-19 outbreak?  I am thinking about ‘Foot and Mouth’ (2001); ‘Spanish Flu’ (1919), ‘Great Plague’ in London (1665) and Eyam Derbyshire (1665), the ‘Black Death’ (1348/49), not that many of you will remember the latter.

These are not essays, but just ideas.

Please send them all by email (or post to me). We can publish anonymously if you wish.  I know many of you are not writers but doing this together would be a lovely thing to do, and help us stay connected to one another.

My intention is to keep in contact with you as a Group.  If you do have a need please contact me.

With kind regards

Andrew Smith

Secretary

High Country History Group

High Country History Group Programme 2020

Update: 19 March 2020.  Due to the coronavirus outbreak our meetings are regrettably suspended until further notice.

Talks/Events – High Country History Group

2020

Date	Topic	Speaker
27 February	Tudor Education in Essex	Tony Tuckwell
26 March	Annual General Meeting	Committee
23  April	The Inns of Court	Rosemary Tiffen
28 May	The Plant Hunters	Maggie Piper
25 June	The Home Guard	Neil Wiffen
23 July	Life and Death in  the Workhouse	Dr. Mark Carroll
22 October	William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement.	Mark Lewis
26 November

Blackmore Area Local History: Ancestry DNA

Blackmore Area Local History: Ancestry DNA Result: The results are in. My wife bought me an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas, perhaps to settle a query as to how much local heritage I have. ...

High Country History Group Programme 2019

The High County History Group meets on the fourth Thursday evening in the month at Toot Hill Village Hall, starting at 8pm.  Membership is £10 annually (£15 family membership).  Entrance fee to meetings £1 (Visitors £3), except AGM and Christmas when special refreshments are served members £2 (Visitors £5).

Our programme for 2019 is as follows

Date	Topic	Speaker
28 February	Postcards from the Front 1914-1919	Kate Cole.
28 March	Annual General Meeting.  ‘Empire Under Revolt’.  Amateur film shot by ‘Captain Ronald Reed in India, 1930-1932’ deposited at the Imperial War Museum	Andrew Smith
25  April	‘Tower of London and its prisoners.’	Brian Darcy
23 May	The Princess Alice Disaster 1878	Martyn Lockwood
27 June	The Darcy Spice Apple	Neil Wiffen
25 July	The National Memorial Arboretum	Maggie Piper
24 October	Talk to be announced	Anne Padfield
28 November	Blackmore Anniversaries	Andrew Smith

Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore. Remembrance 100. 'For King and Country:...

Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore. Remembrance 100. 'For King and Country:...: The book goes on sale following the talk. Free entry. Donations welcomed for the Royal British Legion.

'We Will Remember'. Thursday 22 November 2018

The High Country History Group commemorates the centenary of the end of the First World War with a talk to be given by Martyn Lockwood, its Chairman, entitled 'We Will Remember' at Toot Hill Village Hall at 8pm on Thursday 22 November 2018.  Admission £3 (Members £2) includes wine and mince pies. 

More Essex Churches. 'Then and Now'. 25 October 2018

The next meeting of the High Country History Group is on Thursday 25 October 2018, 8pm, at Toot Hill Village Hall.  Preceding the talk will be a short Extraordinary General Meeting with the proposal to change the financial year end from 28 February to 31 December annually.

We have a home-grown speaker this time.  Andrew Smith, Secretary in his role as Hon Archivist of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History has been delving again into two volumes of Victorian Essex churches photographs to present a second instalment of 'Essex Churches Then and Now. Part of a potential trilogy.

'Remembrance 100' Community Commemoration. St Laurence Church, Blackmore. 1-21 November 2018

Remembrance 100 – Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green

In August of 2017 parishioner Jenny Dodd suggested that we mark 100 Years since the Armistice by covering the porch of St Laurence Church, Blackmore, with knitted poppies made by members of the community in Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green. She was hopeful that people would knit a few each and if we were lucky we would get around 1500 or maybe even 2000!

Remembrance Sunday still seems to resonate with the majority of people and the project has evolved. It has captured the imagination, not only of local people and groups, but also people from Spain, Canada and New Zealand who have been knitting poppies for this significant event.

From the 1^st of November until the 21^st over 6250 knitted poppies along with a further 1000 poppies made from plastic bottle bottoms will be displayed on the church and in the churchyard. A ‘Poppy Trail’, around areas of the churchyard, will evoke emotion as people journey around a moving and informative experience. Along the trail there will be information points with facts and background material relating to the First World War, the British Legion and the significance of the poppy along with moving poems both old and new. The trail will visit the graves of local people who died in, or as a result of, the war. The final two stops on the trail will allow people to reflect on the scale and enormity of the sacrifice made by millions of service people worldwide and those of the local community.

From the 8^th November until the 13^th, floral tributes sponsored by local people, groups and businesses will be on display inside the church. Created by local people, these will pay tribute to individuals, and depict scenes and aspects of the war.

On the 9^th of November at 7.30 in the evening a talk ‘For King & Country: Blackmore during the First World War’ will be given in St Laurence church.

There will also be an act of remembrance at Our sister church, St. Peter & St. Paul’s Stondon Massey on Saturday 10^th November at 5:30pm which will be a chance to reflect on the 100 years since the armistice with music, poetry and art.

 

All events are free but any donations will be given to the Royal British Legion.

Our key aims for this Remembrance 100 event are to remember those who have given their lives in the first world war and all subsequent wars, to highlight the works of the British Legion and raise money for their continued work and to help everyone to understand the enormity of the sacrifices made and continue to be made to preserve our way of life today.

The scale of the cost of human life in the First World War is astounding. Coupled with those who suffered life changing injuries and the suffering of the families, friends and indeed sometimes whole communities this is something that we should all remember and reflect upon. Wars have not ceased and these sufferings continue. Our service men and women risk their lives on a daily basis often in peace keeping roles in other countries. We owe them and all who have served before them a great debt for our freedom and the way of life we enjoy in our country.

There is no cost to remember. The price has already been paid. At the going down of sun and in the morning we will remember them.

Blackmore Area Local History: Doddinghurst Talk on Remembrance Day, Sunday 11 No...

Blackmore Area Local History: Doddinghurst Talk on Remembrance Day, Sunday 11 No...: History Talk in All Saints Church.  11 November 2018. 2.30pm. Admission £4, including tea and cake.

Blackmore: First World War Centenary Commemoration

For King and Country: Blackmore during the First World War

Sunday 11 November 2018 will be a significant day in the life of this country because it marks 100 years since the end of the First World War.  At 11 o’clock that day millions of people will pause, stand around local War Memorials, to remember the cessation of hostilities in which over 888,000 lives were lost.

Blackmore is commemorating the weekend with a remarkable and moving tribute by covering the exterior of the church and the path leading from the Lych Gate with thousands of poppies.  Something like 4000 poppies form the commemoration, which have been handmade by many volunteers.

The Church Flower Guild will also be providing a beautifully themed Flower Festival.  

Also in preparation is a talk about the life and times of the people of Blackmore during the First World War.  The talk will be held on Friday 9 November.  It will be free, followed by tea and coffee.  There is will a retiring collection.

The Church will be open to view the Remembrance Displays from Thursday 8 November to Tuesday 13 November. Times daily 10.30am – 4pm except Sunday, 12.30 - 4.00pm, and Tuesday 10.30am – 12.30pm.

The Remembrance Sunday service will begin, as usual, at 10.45am at the War Memorial continuing at The Priory Church of St Laurence after the observance of two minutes’ silence.

In commemoration of the centenary of the end of the First World War

For King and Country: Blackmore during the First World War

The Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore

Friday 9 November

7.30pm

A talk by local historian Andrew Smith

which will include photos and extracts from diaries, letters etc.

The Bardfield Painters. Thursday 28 June 2018.

Fed up with football on TV messing up the schedules?  Want to escape the nonsense and do something more interesting instead?  We have the answer.

On Thursday 28 June at 8pm Jacqui Eykelbosch will be giving a talk on The Bardfield Painters.  The village of Great Bardfield during the mid-twentieth century became a well-known artists’ colony, among them Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious.

Members £1.  Visitors £3.  Book stall and refreshments as usual.

This is a fixture you won’t want to miss.

Andrew Smith

High Country History Group

ESAH160: New Book Stock: 'Essex full of profitable thinges'...

ESAH160: New Book Stock: 'Essex full of profitable thinges'...: ESAH160: New Book Stock: 'Essex full of profitable thinges'... : Condition: New.   £2 each + P&P.  Final opportunity to buy Ken...

ESAH160: Surplus Book Sale #7. Essex Review

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