GREAT CHESTERFORD VILLAGE RECORDER ANNUAL REPORT 2005/6

The 14^th Annual Steam-up was held in October as usual, in good weather and with a very good turnout. Unfortunately this may have been the last one we will have as Adrian Culpin, the organiser, is looking for someone else to take over from him as he is finding it too time-consuming. So far no-one has come forward.

A time-capsule has been buried beneath the new village sign. I enclose the list of contents which should provide future historians with a snapshot of our village in 2006.

I have managed to procure for the collection the 1941 annual volume of The Railway Magazine which contains a very informative article by Kenneth Brown on the Newmarket and Chesterford Railway Line – one of the shortest-lived in the country.

I have received from the Parish Council, Minutes Books from 1911 onwards; correspondence and plans for the Rookery Close development (which caused such ructions in the village); maps, plans and official documentation regarding the dualling of the A11, and the landscaping especially near Stumps Cross.

The Parish Council has also paid for the rebinding of the Pilgrim Family photo album – a very old album of a very old village family, containing some beautiful photographs. It was rebound and brought back to pristine condition by Wilson Bookbinders, Cambridge.

 
I have started to index the Times of the Chesterfords – the village newssheet from April 1973 – Dec 1981. It contains many articles on local history, written by old residents with long memories, and is a treasure trove of information from the beginning of the 20^th century to 1981. Hopefully the Parish Council will see fit to bind it into three volumes once the index is completed. At the moment I am a third of the way through it.

The Local History Society continues to flourish. The latest ongoing project is to put all photographs onto a CD, to be used for presentations. It is also hoped to purchase some display cabinets for the Village Hall to help raise the profile of the village collections.

This year’s Interim Report on Commerce in Great Chesterford from 1950, by Ian Deatker, should be published soon.

Kate McManus

 
Village Recorder