Local History Group

2019 activities

Our next meeting on 13 November will follow 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’. The photographs, many not previously seen, are of high quality and include local events such as Longnor Races, Manifold Valley Railway, etc. Anyone is welcome to attend – there’s no charge but a donation to the Group would be welcome.

After our AGM on 9th October,  good progress has been made on the database for digitisation of photos and documents, including technical requirements such as a stand-alone computer server (we have money awarded from the Leadenboot committee intended to support this).

Please note that anyone is welcome to join the Group as a member (there’s no subscription) or simply come along to any of our meetings, if our local history interests you.  Meetings are normally on the 2nd Wednesday of the month (fewer in summer months), but this is subject to change, so check here or visit our Facebook page for any updates here.

2018 activities – Alstonefield’s War

  

To commemorate our own soldiers who served in WW1, the History Group staged an exhibition in the church in November 1918, looking both at the soldiers and life back at home in the period 1914-1918. The display material will soon be available to view here, so please come back to this page shortly.

If you’d like to know more about what the Group does or would be interested in joining in our activities, please do come along to one of our meetings, which are generally held on the second Wednesday of the month in the village hall (or someone’s home). Check the community Newsletter or this page.

2017 – Our first complete year

The new group’s first AGM took place on 11 October 2017 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.

2017 – Wakes Weekend

Now in its second year, the History Group was in the village hall on Wakes Weekend (Saturday 24 June) to provide visitors with an update on our activities.

In addition to a new fireproof cabinet and an A3 scanner (see below), we now have an online, searchable, database that will be available to anyone with access to a computer. This was on display and demonstrated, with other historic records on display, such as family trees, registers and census information.

We were also joined by Matthew Blake from Staffordshire Record Office, who brought along along some items from their archive collections and was available to take questions about Staffordshire records in general.

General information about the Group

The Alstonefield Local History Group (ALHG) was re-established in 2016, continuing the good Alstonefield Memories - image of book coverwork of an earlier group, the Local History Society, 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 Fireproof cabinetmemories, 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. Scanner 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.

We also have a Facebook page, to which information, photos and documents will be published from time to time. Do visit the page and follow what we do.

*published jointly by the Alstonefield Local History Society and the Alstonefield Commemoration Group. A small number of copies of the book are available on request (£15) – for information on how to purchase, send an email to: history@alstonefield.org.