Local Events
Chipping Norton Theatre – Spitfire Girls
https://www.chippingnortontheatre.com/events/spitfire-girls May14- 17
New Year’s Eve, 1959.
Decades after answering the call, two women separated by the war meet again as the rain hammers down on the windows of The Spitfire pub.
As we hear their story, we’re transported back to a time when female pioneers defied expectations and soared through the skies.
Spitfire Girls is inspired by the extraordinary true stories of the women who dared to fly during WWII and the incredible bond that tied them together.
Funny and heart-warming, this is an untold story of strength, courage and loss. But above all else, hope.
Warmington Fete
After a bit of a gap the village will be having a fete this year on Saturday June 7 and the Heritage Group hope to have a stall. If you have anything that you would like to share…finds, photos, documents etc the get in touch and join in promoting the village and its history.
Archaeology lectures
Thursday 3rd of April 2025 at 7pm
The Council for British Archaeology – free lectures on Zoom
Digging for Erlestoke is a community dig with a difference—the community being a group of male prisoners from HMP Erlestoke, a category C prison in Wiltshire. Designed and delivered by Wessex Archaeology and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project set out to improve wellbeing through access to archaeology and heritage.
Join Leigh Chalmers and Dr. Phil Harding as they discuss the project’s impact, exploring how archaeology can be a tool for rehabilitation, the discoveries made during the dig, and the personal stories that emerged from this unique initiative.
Thursday 1st of May 2025 at 7pm
Basque Oak and Portuguese Wine: A Medieval Merchant Ship Reveals Her Secrets Join Dr. Toby Jones, nautical archaeologist and curator of the Newport Medieval Ship Project, as he delves into the significance of the remarkable 15th-century shipwreck discovered in 2002-2003. With its well-preserved hull and numerous artefacts, the ship offers a rare glimpse into the maritime world of the late medieval period, revealing insights into ship design, technological innovation, and the complexities of Anglo-Welsh/Iberian trade. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about one of the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of the Age of Exploration.
Joining instruction to follow
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Keith Westcott has been busy preparing the launch of The DIF: Detectorist Institute and Foundation. Pete Hinton, who recently retired as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, has confirmed that he will serve as the Chair of the DIF Advisory Board.
Although a launch date is not yet announced, the site is now live, and welcoming new members -particularly hopeful that archaeologists, heritage professionals, and historians will join as Friends of the DIF. Their support will directly fund conservation projects through the Foundation. (uploaded 16th Sept 2024)
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Thanks to Liz the pdf files of the scanned transcriptions of
“The parish register 1636 to 1877”
have been added to the site. These will be found under “Documents” above.
You may find they will download to your “Download” section so you may have to open them from there.
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Tysoe Heritage Research Group (THRG)
In June 2023 some Members joined the Tysoe Heritage Research Group (THRG) in Tysoe Village Hall for the launch of their new website, https://tysoehistory.org.uk/
It’s an ongoing project so keep going back to it. It contains a wealth of information about the village and it’s history.
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The recent discovery of twin towers on the route of HS2 is featured in the Banbury Guardian, with links to the program on iPlayer.
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Time Team at Broughton
On YouTube there is a preview of the dig of the Roman Villa at Broughton Castle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmqVLK4YbLU
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Dig reveals domestic life in the iron age
Link to an article in The Guardian Sunday 14th February 2021:
Dig Ventures website: https://digventures.com/earth-trust/timeline
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Sacred Southam…..
Peter Christopher has had some thoughts about Southam. He has not included references, but nevertheless members might be interested in this short set of notes (sent out by e-mail to members) about Southam put together after studying Lidar (using National Library of Scotland side by side geo referenced maps ) which hints at a large circular enclosure at the confluence of the Itchen and Stowe rivers at Southam. This feature appears slightly larger than the circular enclosure at Prescote near Cropredy at a confluence along the Cherwell. There is much intriguing ‘evidence’ around this market town that makes for a good story when everything is added up.
If anyone is interested Peter can easily direct them to the sources used in the hopes this might encourage others to look into these matters further
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A link to the hoard of coins found in Warmington:
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Warmington Heritage did a project on Grove Farm a few years ago and there is a video on YouTube of Liz Newman speaking in 2012 about the Grove Farm project in a panel session entitled ‘Engaging With History’ at the Tenth Warwick Symposium on Parish Research, ‘Parish Studies Today’.
The link to the YouTube video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2ajBOuu_Co
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Information required.
We are hoping to record how the village got it’s water supply in years gone by, including the use of springs, wells and hydraulic ram pumps (or any other methods of supply). Please use the “Contact Us” link at the bottom right of this page if you can help. Thank you.
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Edge Hill Light Railway
A new website for the EHLR has been created: ehlr.rocks This is an evolving website and any help with their research into the EHLR will be welcomed. Please have a look at this interesting web site.