It us with great sadness we learn of the passing of Dennis Matthews of Gilmorton. Dennis was a founder member of the history group way back in 2015. He was born and raised in Gilmorton and in his earlier years ran the local butcher’s shop in Main Street. Dennis was a huge contributor to our archives and at our events he could often be found sitting with Muriel Smith and Neville Robbins chatting about “those good old days”. We would often just place our audio recorder on the table to record all those tales of the past. He used to say he couldn’t talk to people but once he started it was difficult to stop him. He will be sadly missed by the history group and our condolences go to his family.
Our first event for 2022 entitled FOOD FOR THOUGHT went down very well (literally) and looked at food, recipes, rationing and traditions from past to present, school dinners and with loads of displays and artifacts. Jenny Morris gave the group a talk about school dinners, recipes, rationing and shopping. The highlight of the two days though was the cookery demonstrations by Lavinia Moyes. On both days she created and served up Woolton Pie from WW2, a steamed pudding, a Simnal cake and Coronation Chicken. Very little was left over and a huge thank you goes to Lavinia for all her hard work. Others provided chocolate haystacks, butter biscuits and even jelly and blancmange. An extremely tasty event to say the least.
With Spring well and truly on the way we now looking forward to our next 2 events for 2022.
The first of these will be the launch of the TIME CAPSULE on Tuesday April 12th at 7.30pm and again on Wednesday 13th April at 10.00am. As indicated in the last newsletter this is still early in the planning stages, but we have many ideas on the burner. This will be ongoing through the year with the final closure at our event on 8/9th November. Village groups/organisations have received their personal invitation with an open invitation to all residents to get involved. The time capsule will reflect village life during the years 2020 – 2022 ranging from Covid lockdown to the support for war torn Ukraine. Just pop along and bring your ideas and suggestions.
We have now finalised our June event entitled THE QUEENS GLORIOUS REIGN. We have changed the original dates (June 14/15th) to Tuesday 31st May at 7.30pm and Wednesday 1st June at 10.00am. This brings us in line with the Jubilee celebrations and kick starts the week off getting everyone in the mood for the rest of the village celebrations. We do hope to include videos, flags and bunting with our displays all about the Queens reign from the Coronation to the current Jubilee. As always, if you have any memorabilia you would like on display, please let us know.
In the background we had been looking to organise a coach trip to Loughborough Bell Foundry who were instrumental in refurbishing Gilmorton Church bells back in 2013. Unfortunately, we have had to abandon the idea. The high cost of hiring the coach coupled with the entry fee, lack of toilet and refreshment facilities and with limited access to the foundry all made it a nonstarter.
Don’t forget you can renew your membership at any of the events giving you free access to any regular event, a monthly newsletter, early notification and first choice of any tickets to any special event, trips etc.