Diary 2011 Saturday 25th June

Midsummer Barbeque in the

Stone House garden for

Members 6,30—9.30 p.m.

£6. per person.

Tuesday 5th July

Museum Lunch, Donington

Manor Hotel, 12.30 for

1.00p.m. £13.25 per person.

Saturday 23rd July

A talk on the Hemington

Bridges at the Catholic

Church at 2.00 p.m. as part

of British Archaeological

Fortnight. £2.50 per person

Saturday 6th August

Tea in the Garden.

Change of date and

venue.

This event will now be held

at 72 High Street, the home

of Mr and Mrs Dalby,

2.00—4.30 p.m. £3.00

Friday 16th September

Cheese and Wine evening at

2A The Biggin, from 7.30—

9.30 p.m. £4.50 /£5.

Tuesday 4th October.

Museum lunch at Donington

Manor Hotel. 12.30 for 1.00

p.m. £13.25 per person

CASTLE DONINGTON MUSEUM TRUST

NEWSLETTER

Registered Charity 1058715. May 2011 No 67 Accredited Museum 2028

After a rather hectic period through

March and into April, we now have

another show on the road.

All the research has been done, pho-

tographs copied, histories written

and all the papers put on the walls.

The final touch was to arrange our

artefacts, both from the collection

and those generously lent by mem-

bers of the public. The often men-

tioned banner hangs in Room 2 and

two more banners from the Parish

Church are in room 3 and quite

stunning they look. Our new exhi-

bition, “Village Churches and Chap-

els” has opened to the public and

right from the very first day, we

have had some very favourable

comments. Now we know what they

talk about in the local pubs and very

kind they are too!

The exhibition was opened by the

Vicar Rev. Andrew Micklethwaite

on Easter Saturday and at the same

time, Room 3 was renamed the

Hetty Carr Room in memory of

Hetty. Several members of her fam-

ily attended the little ceremony and

at the same time had a good look

around the exhibition.

All the churches and chapels of the

village are included, as well as those

of Hemington and Lockington and

Isley Walton.

We hope you will come to see it,

and we hope that you enjoy it.

We would like to hear from you if

you spot our not-so-deliberate mis-

take. If you can put the correct cap-

tion to it, you might even win a

prize!

VILLAGE CHURCHES AND CHAPELS

MEDIEVAL MAY MARKET

The unusually fine and dry

spring weather made the May

Market a great success. The

sun shone, there was quite a

stiff breeze, but the crowds

came out in force to make it a

successful day for most of the

participants. The museum

was of course open all day, a

Tombola was manned on the

lawn at the Stone house, and

our most public face was on

the street stall in Borough

Street. There were Morris

dancers, falconry, musicians

and a hog roast.

Our street stall sported old

The stall won a prize for

the best decorated, which

gave us our stall rent back,

(always good for funds), and

the volunteers were resplen-

dent in “medieval” dress. A

satisfactory but very tiring

day was had by all the work-

ers.

Thanks and well done every-

one and congratulations also

to the Parish Council for

their organisation of another

successful event.

fashioned games which proved very popu-

lar, as well as the sale of parish history,

books, the museum had more than 450

visitors, and the Tombola sold out.

CHANGES AHEAD

Page 2 CASTLE DONINGTON MUSEUM TRUST

We have had news from the

Carr family that following the

death of Hetty, they intend to

sell the property in which we

have a lease for the museum.

For some months work has

been carried out on the upper

floors, to provide a very nice

flat which will be rented out

however, we will be secure in

our tenancy unless we fail to

carry out the duties spelt out in

the lease.

We sincerely hope that all goes

well, and that the changes

which are inevitable will not

adversely affect the museum

and its working.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD

DOWN MEMORY LANE

This museum has participated

in the Leicestershire Museums

website “Leicestershire Re-

vealed”, where each member

museum submitted photographs

and details of an object in their

collection which they felt re-

flected their museum or their

community.

As our contribution, we posted

photographs of our two wooden

shell formers, with other related

pictures, along with an account

of the employment of our vil-

lage basket makers during

World War I. Have a look for

yourself.

It always feels good when we

get a response from those “out

there” who decide they want to

know more, or even just to con-

gratulate us and say “hello”.

This time we have spread our

image a bit further and have

been in email contact with

someone interested in the same

kind of work carried out during

WWI in Holland, which was a

neutral country during that con-

flict. It’s a small world …

DR

Part of the new exhibition on Churches and Chapels

This is one of the many photo-

graphs of Castle Donington

taken by Edwin Elkington, who

lived on Castle Hill. It shows

two men, by the gate leading to

Miss Eaton’s house, Hall Farm.

near to where the entrance to

Barn Close is today, behind the

bus station. The man on the

right is William Bexon.

Two wooden shell

formers, used by

basket makers of

Castle Donington

during the first

World War

A GRAVE PROBLEM By Bruce Townsend.

Dr. Massey, the Medical Officer

for health described the situation in

Castle Donington in dramatic lan-

guage:

“… Demoralising spectacles in a

church yard for many years past,

full to overflowing and a persistent

infection of the sub soils and wells

with the loathsome products of de-

composition for a like period”.

He was describing a 19th century

problem which was widespread,

especially in places like ours, which

had experienced a sharp growth in

population, but no corresponding

growth in the size of their church

yards. In earlier times there had

been a more pragmatic approach to

the problem, that faced all grave

diggers in an old church yard—

”Alas Poor Yorrick I knew him

well”. In those days an area was set

aside to receive the bones of the

long forgotten forefathers to make way for fresh interments. To

approach the difficulty, notice how

every medieval church yard, our

own included, stands several feet

above the level of the surrounding

land.

Our population rose from 1,959 in

1801 to 3,508 in 1841, and although

over a thousand had departed for the

heady delights of Long Eaton and

elsewhere by the time of Dr.

Massey’s report (1879), people

were much less likely to counte-

nance the destruction of their ances-

tors and relation’s graves, many of

them with headstones, which had

become more fashionable in the

18th century.

There were no District Councils at

the time of this crisis and National

Government delegated the responsi-

bilities for enforcing its Acts on the

Unions, or as they were commonly

known, the Workhouses, which

controlled a number of parishes in

the area surrounding them. The long-

suffering Board of Guardians was

composed of representatives from

each parish and besides dealing with

the Poor had many other contentious

and unpopular matters to enforce,

including health matters. By 1875,

Castle Donington was instructed to

provide a new public cemetery im-

mediately.

It goes without saying that this in-

struction met with stiff opposition

and even a demand that we should

be given authority to make our own

decisions on such matters. Dr.

Massey, a Melbourne resident,

reached an all-time low in the popu-

larity stakes, but the Vestry Coun-

cil’s protests were in vain and it was

decided to build a cemetery and to

make a thorough job of it. It is de-

scribed in detail in a report of 1879:

“A most eligible site was selected at

a convenient distance from the vil-

lage and commanding a beautiful

prospect of the valley of the Trent. In

a sanitary point of view the sub soil

and ‘dip’ were pronounced as excep-

tional. The ground has been laid out

in the most approved method,

planted with ornamental trees and

shrubs and enclosed with a hand-

some Palisade. The style of architec-

ture Gothic, in strict accordance with

the sacred character of the place and

the aesthetic requirements of the

most fastidious taste, the excellence

of the workmanship and the natural

beauty of the situation form a most

pleasing feature of the landscape.”

“Wonderful”, they must have

thought, “when our time comes, we

shall definitely be going to a better

place. The Council’s got something

right for once”.

Unfortunately, there was one aspect

of this demi-paradise that the Coun

Page 3

cil got wrong and that was to be

their undoing. It was in Park Lane,

where Studbrook House stands

now. It was therefore alongside the

route to Donington Hall, taken by

Mr. Abney Hastings, (soon to

become Lord Donington) and his

vis i tors . Unl ike his near

neighbours, the Harpur-Crewes at

Calke, motto Cogita Mori (Think

of Death) Mr. Hastings was

definitely not amused. Up with it,

he most definitely would not put.

So although the new cemetery was

up and running, and had already

received its first clients for burial it

had to be moved to the site on

Barroon. Life is rarely quiet in

these parts and the squabbling

started all over again. Dr. Massey

thought the new site might infect

the streams and wells flowing in

Hemington and no doubt the

people who had so recently buried

their loved ones in the Park Lane

beauty spot weren’t best pleased

either.

But the man at the Hall had to be

obeyed. To his credit he gave us

the land on Barroon apart from a

small strip of the adjacent

allotments and paid for everything

at Park Lane to be demolished and

replacements made at Barroon.

This would include the Caretaker’s

house, the Mortuary and Chapel,

(now demolished), palisade, trees

and shrubs—the lot!

Residents of Hemington can sleep

easy in their beds, by the way. It

was soon established that Dr

Massey’s fears were unfounded

and there was no danger

whatsoever of contamination of

their water supplies.

As for the unfortunates buried in

Park Lane, I haven’t found out yet

what happened to them, I don’t

suppose they’re too bothered now

either.

CASTLE DONINGTON MUSEUM TRUST

CURATORIAL CORNER

Everyone is keeping very quiet

at the moment, we do not offi-

cially have a back-log of

items, but with the work re-

quired to set up a new exhibi-

tion, there has been a bit of a

build up. It is now heads

down, pens at the ready.

Procedures are reviewed from

time to time and new ideas for

the re-assessment of the col-

lection are put into place, both

physically and on the com-

puter. There is not usually

much to show for what might

be several weeks work, but it

all helps toward better organi-

sation and care of the objects.

We are fortunate to have vol-

unteers who are interested in

computer work as well as the

practical side of things. A new

pamphlet has been printed to

Castle Donington Museum Trust 4 Apiary Gate

Castle Donington DE74 2JA

Contact Tel No 01332 812711

Email

secretary@castledoningtonmuseum.org.uk curator@castledoningtonmuseum.org.uk

Website :

www.castledoningtonmuseum.org.uk

Page 4

There have been no signifi-

cant new acquisitions in the

last few weeks, but this gives

us time to work on the objects

we have received previously.

.

RECENT

ACQUISITIONS

FUNDRAISING

May I please draw your attention to the change of date and

venue for this year’s Tea in the Garden. It will now be held on

Saturday, 6th August, at 72 High Street, by kind permission

of Mr and Mrs Dalby.

An additional event this year is our participation in the British

Archaeological Fortnight, when we have one of the Leicester-

shire archaeologists coming to talk on the Hemington Bridges

found in the gravel extractions at Hemington Fields. This will

be held at the Catholic Church on Saturday 23rd July at 2.00

p.m. Please join us in what promises to be a most interesting

afternoon and bring your friends.

Tea in the Garden, Saturday 6th August, 72 High Street.

2.00—4.30 £3.00

Work in progress on one of the Friendly Society sashes.

A case of memorial cards.

The banner.

offer information to visitors on the

opportunities of volunteering, indi-

cating the variety of work done and

the times at which we do it.

Newcomers are always welcome,

they provide the man power while

we provide the training and the cof-

fee and biscuits.