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Little Hallingbury
Village History Society
Little Hallingbury - Essex - England
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Little Hallingbury Village History Society
whats on in 2008
The following have been booked for meetings throughout the year.
Lady Diana Kemp-Welsh - ‘A Year as High Sheriff'.
William Tyler - Wellington & Napoleon'.
John Drury - ‘Essex Workhouses'.
Stephen Ruff - ‘Buntingford Branch Line'.
Alan Hart - ‘The Salvation Army'.
For next years AGM we have our friend William Tyler again his talk ‘The Saxon Kingdom of Essex
If you would like to take part in our Roman Villa Site Dig, please send your contact details via following email address :
or phone Sue on 01279 723814 ..
Please Note - 'Villa Dig' has been ongoing for many years - 'Village Dig' was over two days - We have also undertaken 'Roman Coffin Site Dig', but this is not active at the moment ..
Villa Site ..
A new website for local historians.
UPDATE - NEWS & VIEWS
Another year and lots to do, so to start this years newsletter I would like to ask for help. If you have any spare time to help with research (start with your own house or your part of the village) or help with the May Open Day or making tea at our meetings. Any help at all would be appreciated.
Now lets look back over the past year. Our first meeting in Feb was our AGM after the business part of the evening with all the officers being voted back we had a most interesting and colourful talk by Barry Kaufmann-Wright on ‘Wildlife in the Garden'. Barry seems to get the most wonderful wildlife photos, we must thank him for sharing these with us. He must have endless patience.
Bill Hardy came in April his talk ‘The History of Thorley Post' most interesting to see the old photos of the old post office and of course the Thorley post mark stamp. At the end Bill presented us with a post card with a Little Hallingbury post mark. Both Thorley and Little Hallingbury post marks are rare. Perhaps given todays situation we should research the history of Little Hallingbury post office. There is reference to a post office in Little Hallingbury in Kelly's Directory 1845 onwards.
Anne Padfield came in June and gave us a fascinating talk on ‘Hearth and Homes'. Only the very rich could afford chimneys the rest cooked over an open fire with the smoke escaping through the roof hence evidence of sooted beams in 15th century houses. With bricks becoming affordable around 1600 chimneys and bread ovens were built.
In July our speaker was Brian Hilton with a talk titled ‘The History of Irons'. I must say before the talk I did wonder if this would be interesting. I need not have worried, what a wonderful collection I had no idea how many different types of irons there are both in this country and all over the world. This was both interesting and most unusual.
Our visit last year was to Ashdon Museum what an excellent collection this is. An Aladins cave full of local history, set out beautifully. The evening finished with tea and homemade cakes.
‘London to Cambridge by Waterway' was the talk given by David Young. This of course is not the straight London to Cambridge as we know it, but up country across and down to Cambridge. Some very good navigation was needed in some of the stretches, especially the foot tunnel, were you lay on your back and push your way through using your feet on the side of the tunnel.
William Tyler came again this time the talk ‘A War to end all Wars'. He was highly critical of both politicians and generals for the lack of relationship between them. William always comes up with a good talk.
Jacqueline Cooper came to tell us all about the excavations around Clavering Castle. Jacqueline managed to get funding for this project, but like us there is still much more to do.
We ended the year with our cheese and wine. Our chance to chat about all our events.
Our main event last year was the Open Day. As well as the display of our growing collection of history, we had a collection of old tools, a collection of old household items and this year our vintage tractors were joined by some beautiful vintage cars.
We hope the speakers this year will be as interesting and entertaining as last year. We start with our AGM on Monday 11th Feb Anne Padfield on ‘Traditional Essex Houses' The following have been booked for meetings throughout the year. Jonathan Dick - ‘The Mossman Carriage Collection'. Lady Diana Kemp-Welsh - ‘A Year as High Sheriff'. William Tyler - ;Wellington & Napoleon'. John Drury - ‘Essex Workhouses'. Stephen Ruff - ‘Buntingford Branch Line'. Alan Hart - ‘The Salvation Army'. For next years AGM we have our friend William Tyler again his talk ‘The Saxon Kingdom of Essex'.
We are still continuing with the idea of a building at the back of the village hall, but this all takes time, but lets hope we will get there in the end.
Last year we had all the excitement of Carenza Lewis and the Cambridge University Academy who came to the village and dug 12 test pits in our gardens. Carenza will be coming to talk to our society about these test pits and what was found on Monday Feb 25th at 8pm. This will be for members only. I will have a list at the AGM for you to put your names on if you would like to come. This will give us an idea of numbers. People who opened their gardens will be having an invite. I am sure this will be most fascinating. Instead of the usual entrance fee we will be having a raffle.
Carenza and the team will be coming again this year on 26th & 27th March. We will be looking for 14 test pits, so how about your garden? Size of test pits 1 metre square about 1 metre deep.
We would like to thank all who have helped over the past year in so many ways with research, setting up displays, raffles, cakes, stalls, bric-a-brac, teas and the list goes on. I would just like to mention a special thanks to Fred Flight who has now transcribed 71 of those old documents. I think he must now be classed as an expert, and Colin who continues to produce voice recordings, the last one recorded is Life in our Village by Betty Rogers. This now brings the total of his recordings to nine.
This year our Open Day will be on Sunday 11th May please make a note of this in your diaries and spread the word. This year we hope to have a few more classic cars. If you have any more ideas for display or fundraising for this event they would be most welcome. Finally if you have any items for the bric-a-brac stall we are collecting now, contact Mel or Sue.
Thank you for your support we look forward to an enjoyable year.
Little Hallingbury Village Dig May 2007
Carenza Lewis of 'Time Team' fame and Cambridge University's Department of Archaeology , with friends.
Over 75 people worked over two days digging up various lawns in the village, and I'm pleased to say the results proved excellent, some great finds, the best being the remains of a Saxon Hall House ..
A Saxon Hall House .
Please download the full text.
Village History Society Membership Form
Please print out - complete - post or hand to address at bottom of form - Thanks.
The History Society had hoped to buy, at market price, ie: meet any other offers and pay for transport, the old PortaCabin from the School, sight it in a position in the village, use it as a village museum and let other village groups use it , but the PTA sold the building to a commercial company..
The photo, taken 18th Feb 2007 , shows part of the building being removed ..
St Marys - Little Hallingbury - Christmas 2007
Although Christmas has now past, I must mention how beautiful St Mary's looked decorated with all the Christmas trees. When Mel first mentioned to me some two years ago that she had been to a Christmas Tree Festival and wouldn't it be wonderful if we had one at St. Mary's, I did wonder how this would ever be managed. Once the bit was between her teeth there was no looking back.
A great deal of planning and organising went into the event. Many village organisations decorated their own trees, our History Society Tree was beautifully decorated by Ellen Clowes with a bit of help from myself. All the trees looked so beautiful and all so different.
Thanks Mel for convincing us all that this was a good idea, it really was.
Historic Photographs of St Marys - 1887
'Tednam Mill' - History of Little Hallingbury Mill
MAY
OPEN AFTERNOON MAY 13th
Little
Hallingbury Village Hall
It was wet, it was sunny ..
I would like to thank the hundreds of people who braved the downpours and the wind to come and visit us - THANKS A LOT - the turnout was fantastic - and a very, very special thank you to everybody outside - WELL DONE.
The above photos are just a tiny, tiny sample of all the photographs I took - if you would like high quality versions of a few or the lot, please let me know, email link below, I took the above pictures before the crowds came, it was almost impossible after 2pm..
SUE's NOTES ...
After the excitement of the ‘Test Pit Dig' we went straight into organising our ‘Open Afternoon'.
Lots of planning goes into the organisation of this event. Just what to display?. We now have such a wide choice so we try to get the right balance of new displays plus the old favourites that come out each year. The photo collection is one, someone always recognises a long lost relative or even themselves at a much younger age. Another is the file containing information and photos of our old buildings. The census returns, church records and electorial rolls are eagerly searched by those tracing their ancestors. Plus many other files and maps
This year we had an additional display of old kitchen equipment, wash tubs, irons, hot water bottles, mops, soaps, omo washing powder, and the list goes on.
Throughout the afternoon the old films of the village were shown, right up to the most recent two minutes of fame when Look East came on the 4th May for the news coverage from one of the test pit sights where the trace of the Saxon Hall House was found.
We had fundraising stalls of cakes, books, plants, pick-a-bag, raffle, treasure hunt, lucky dip and not forgetting the beautifully set out bric-a-brac stall.
This year we did have rain, but I must thank you all for coming as the rain did not put you off, the hall was full all afternoon. The all important cup of tea was always flowing from the kitchen while people chatted to friends they hadn't seen for years.
Outside we had a display of old working tools, some excellent examples of tools used by craftsmen many years ago. Our vintage tractor was joined this year by some additional vintage vehicles, although the weather was a little damp for our outside attractions it did not stop many of you from coming to view these lovely old vehicles.
We would like to thank all of you who helped organise and set up displays, set up and run stalls and raffles. You are a wonderful team, thank you. Also thankyou all for coming. Your support makes it all worthwhile.
Johns
Comment on
Anne Padfield
"Hearth & Home" ..
I was wondering what this talk was going to be like, how could a talk on fireplaces be very interesting, well it was, it was very interesting indeed.
Ann talked about fireplaces, cooking and chimneys, it was the chimneys I found fantastic, I never knew all the secrets and fashions of chimneys, you live and learn..
Smoke of chimneys is the breath of Soviet Russia
Cherished Chimneys - History of Chimney Pots
Talk by Brian Hilton "The History of Irons"
I was truly thinking Sue has lost the plot with the subject of this talk, but no, I was wrong again.
Brian gave a superb talk and showed us his great and wonderful collection of historic irons.
Shaker Brook Farm Antique Pressing Iron & Laundry Stove Museum
Mrs. Potts Sad Irons - Midwest Sad Iron Collectors Club
Please visit our new online Super Store in partnership with Amazon
The AGM ..
The AGM was very well attended, all officers were re-elected for another year and the accounts were agreed. After the business part of the meeting we had Anne Padfield give one of her very interesting talks, this time her talk was on timber framed buildings.
Colin Engeham and the late Adrian Gibson worked with Anne on many of the timber framed buildings in our village, so it was with great interest these buildings were included in the talk.
We had an additional talk in February by Carenza Lewis on last years test pits. This was very interesting, a wide range of pottery spanning a wide range of dates. I didn't think there was much to be found in our garden so I was not disappointed, a few pieces of Victorian pot, probably my grandmothers.
Most of the other gardens had better luck. I think the most finds go to School Green Cottage a very wide range of pottery from the medieval period onwards, and shows that people have been living on the site more or less continuously for 900 years.
Two sites, Apple Tree Cottage at Gaston Green and Romans at Wrights Green produced sherds of Ipswich ware this is rare in Essex and suggests that the sites may have been quite important in the Saxon period. At Romans the wood staining in the soil suggests a wooden beam slot, this could have been the frame of a Saxon Hall House, perhaps the home of a local lord.
The oldest find of all was from the schools own test-pit. Prehistoric pottery was found in association with some flint tools and no later pottery, and so is from a settlement dating to around 1500 - 2000BC. Well done to you all. Watch this space to see what we find this year.
HELP LOCAL WILDLIFE.
Foxes are wonderful animals, good parents and good for the countryside, please visit the following websites.
Thanks, John ..
The above windmill was in Essex, but not in Little Hallingbury, do you know where ?
Little Hallingbury Links.
1881 Bishops Stortford Workhouse Census
Stort Navigation Token and Stort Navigation
The Mayflower and the Little Hallingbury connection.
Railway men of Bishops Stortford - Dunmow Branch
Little Hallingbury Village Hall
HALLINGBURY WAR MEMORIAL PUBLICATION
Complete publication ..
Little Hallingbury War Memorial
The subject of a famous film.
The Re-Burial Of Our Roman Lady
Can you solve the mystery and win a prize.
BBC - Essex - Weather - Main Summary
Local History Links.
Ghost At The Halt an essex pub yarn
Bishops Stortford. Dunmow and Braintree Branch Line
Check the train times via link below:
"VILLAGE LINK" ---- SERVICE NUMBER 5 TIMETABLE
Take a trip back to our first ever Webpage
The history of The Lavers
AMAZON at ANVIL BOOKSTORE - History
Top quality items at Bargain Prices.
10th Anniversary
OPEN AFTERNOON
LITTLE HALLINGBURY VILLAGE HALL
Sunday May 14th 2006 ..Many thanks to the 100's - we think 200 at a minimum is not overstating the visitors we had the pleasure to welcome. Also very special thanks to the wonderful team from Saffron Walden Museum who put on a great display and I hope enjoyed themselves meeting all our members and guests.
Also a big thanks to all the helpers and members who displayed their treasures - their records - their photographs and worked in the kitchen, on the many stalls, to make the occasion so special .
Lastly, thanks for your visit to the Exhibition and to this website. John and Sue.
Saffron Walden Museum arranged a display of local archaeology including our IRON AGE BURIAL URNS.
Meetings held at Little Hallingbury Village Hall
at 8pm unless otherwise stated
Annual Membership due Feb £4 per member
plus 50p per meeting - Guests £1
History Society Shop : CafePress.com
Tracing Your English and Welsh Ancestors
The above is a 'must visit' website ..
Another 'must visit' website .
The Hallingburys - Archaeological Finds
Finds prior to Archaeological excavations undertaken by Little Hallingbury History Society.
3 Late Iron Age Pots, evidently from cremation burials just before or around the time of the Roman Conquest.Part of a late Iron Age cemetery, records indicate many more pots were found originally but were lost or broken.
Wallbury is an Iron Age fort with double ditches. It is thought to have been constructed around 400 BC with a second, later phase of re-settlement around 25 BC.
Lead coffin from Hallingbury villa, in collections of Harlow Museum.
Pottery found in pit at Tilekiln Green, between Stane Street and the railway.
Amphora found at Harps Farm and exhibited to Essex Field Club in 1887.
Skeleton found in coffin of oolite (limestone) slabs in 1944, in a gravel pit near the River Stort at South House Farm.
In 1950 Roman tiles, wall plaster, pottery and other finds were recorded nearby, on a site just above the river's flood plain.
We have a very good selection of Databases - Births - Census Returns - Etc ..
For example: BAPTISMS1813-1821
For more information - Please contact Sue at:
Anvil Farm - Little Hallingbury - Essex - CM22 7RD
Old Pubs around Hatfield Forest
Roman Site 'Dig' ..
Sue and
"The Main Team"
'Caroline' at work, come on lads !
If you have an interest in this subject please write to Sue at:
ANVIL FARM - LITTLE HALLINGBURY - ESSEX - CM22 7RD - ENGLAND
or Phone 01279 723814 .... Sue is to busy to muck about with Emails ....
September 4th boot sale at the village hall..
If you have any items for us to sell please contact Sue, PHONE SUE 01279 723814, as all money raised will be used to preserve the village history.
Come on - play the game ..
Download this free book.
CDs of the 'actual' music available ..
JOHN NEEDS YOUR HELP ON A SPECIAL PROJECT
High Turnout at Open 2005 Afternoon.
Record Crowds - Wonderful Sunshine - We had lots of people waiting on the doorstop before opening.
John. Sue and Keith in Village Hall, at 1am Sunday morning, with John and Sue back at 6am, we must be mad or something.
Our friends at Hatfield Heath took a small group us on a tour of their village, where we found the remains of a bombard.
The Blacker Bombard was invented by Col. Blacker and developed as part of Churchill's 'Toy Shop' to create cheap and easily produced weapons (after most of the British Army's heavy equipment had been lost at Dunkirk). It fired a 20lb high explosive mortar bomb, propelled by black powder. It had an effective range of c. 100yds in its anti-tank role and up to 450yds when firing a lighter anti-personnel bomb.
If you would like to join or renew your membership, please send your renewal to Sue Meyer at Anvil Farm.
Cheques should be made payable to Little Hallingbury Village History Society.
DOWNLOAD NEW FREE SUPER SCREENSAVER
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK
The screensaver features Roman Coins, Urns and Salvianware, plus Historic Photographs of Little Hallingbury.
Published in 1805 by Lt. Col. Madge Towers.
Little Hallingbury Village History Society
Anvil Farm, Lower Road, Little Hallingbury, CM22 7RD
SUE MEYER - 01279 723814
