General information about the Group
The Alstonefield Local History Group (ALHG) was established in 2016, continuing the good 
work of an earlier group, the Local History Society (ALHS), which published the book Alstonefield Memories*.
The aims of the ALHG are, in short, to capture and collate the history of our village for the future. (Full details can be found in our Constitution on this link. n.b. this is a PDF file.) From time to time, exhibitions, talks or other presentations take place, to engage and inform those with an interest in the history of the area. You can contact us by email: history@alstonefield.org.
There is some general information on the history of the village in the About Us section of the site here. You can also find information on village family history including links to detailed information on church headstones, memorials and the wartime remembrance books here.
A key priority for the Group is the digitisation of documents, photographs, videos and oral 
memories, to limit, as far as possible, the loss of historic information that exists in the area. We also want to provide a secure local repository for documents or other items that people are willing to donate or loan, whilst keeping in mind the extensive archiving services also provided by Staffordshire Records Office (which we particularly do to wish to duplicate or detract from). Any documents or small items retained locally are kept in a specially-purchased fireproof cabinet. A database of all items is maintained, such that information can be readily-accessed using a variety of search methods.
So we are pleased to receive – or discuss options for – any items for potential loan or deposit; or documents that could be copied/scanned and preserved in a digital format. If you have anything that you think would be of interest to the group and are able to scan it yourself, please do so and e-mail it direct to submissions@alstonefieldhg.org.uk. All items should be fully labelled, including who, what, where and when. 
If you do not have the facility to scan items yourself, then please contact Gordon Campbell on 07919 353 800, who will arrange for the items to be scanned on your behalf. Please note we own a dedicated scanner that can scan from above a variety of documents up to A3 size, so there is no risk of damaging the spine of books etc. during the process.
If our local history is of interest you, can contact us to request membership (there’s currently no subscription) or come along to any meetings we might hold. Meetings might only be occasional because the few members we have tend to focus on particular aspects that interest them – but things change so watch this space!
In the meantime, do visit our Facebook page, to which information, photos and documents will be published from time to time. (You don’t have to be a ‘Facebook user’ to open an account just to follow particular pages.)
Some of our past events
In June 2017, we were in the village hall on Wakes Weekend (Saturday 24 June) to provide visitors with an update on our activities. We were joined by Matthew Blake from Staffordshire Record Office, who brought along along items from their archive collections and was available to take questions about Staffordshire records in general.
On 11 October 2017, the new group’s first AGM took place in the village hall, when Susan Wilding (Chair) summarised the year’s activities. The accounts were presented and some small changes were agreed to the constitution. The AGM was followed by the normal discussion meeting.
In November 2018, to commemorate our own soldiers who served in WW1, we staged an exhibition called ‘Alstonefield’s War’ in the church in November 1918, looking both at the soldiers and life back at home in the period 1914-1918.
In November 2019, there was an Illustrated talk about the photographs of William Nithsdale, who lived and worked in the Staffordshire Moorlands between 1903 and 1908, by David Cliffe, author of ‘A Moorland Album’.
In 2022, we helped celebrate the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee marking the 70th anniversary of her accession, by hosting a display of what the village was like in 1952 (a time when it had just become ‘free’ of its ties to its Lord of the Manor – the Harpur Crewe Estate – which had owned much of the land and properties until 1951).
In 2023 (and again in 2025), we gave a presentation of photographs from our archive, many of them restored or even colourised, to the village Friendship Cub. (This is the Alstonefield Show Committee from c.1910.)
