Laxton in Peace and War - Can you help?
A scene at Laxton in the period following the First World War
Laxton Parochial School, Main Street, Laxton, Nottinghamshire, c 1920 (www.picturethepast.org.uk)
Village history group welcomes information to help put a unique heritage on record
In February 2014 Laxton History Group received £31,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support their project “A Snapshot in Time, Laxton in peace and at war (1900 -1920)”.
Professor John Beckett of Nottingham University and Hon. President of the Laxton History Group says “This is an extraordinary opportunity to find out more about this unique English village and to recreate the lives of the villagers at the turn of the century until after the First World War”.
A Unique Village
Laxton remains remarkable as England’s last open field farming village managed by a Court and Jury, a survival of a farming system which has long passed away across most of Northern Europe and it gets visitors from all over the world.
Around the time of the First World War there was a major re-orgainisation of this this strip farming system, meaning that the HLF-funded project will aim to uncover both the impact of war on village life, and by the more local changes wrought by agricultural re-orgaisation.
It is a fantastic opportunity for the people of Laxton to come together and document part of the history of this unique village.
How You can get involved
Laxton History Group is made up of volunteers from the local community, and their aim under the 'Snapshot in Time' project is to produce booklets about the village, put new information on the village website http://www.laxtonhistorygroup.org.uk/, and work with local teachers to produce educational materials for use in schools and by the general public.
Volunteers will have the opportunity to take part in all aspects of the research and the presentation of the materials and they will be encouraged to make the most of training opportunities provided by the project, such as computer use, preparing displays and organising events for people of all ages.
Commenting on the award, Roger Cottee, Project Leader said: "We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and we are confident that the project will give us an opportunity to work together to help to preserve Laxton’s unique heritage and to make it more widely available locally, nationally and internationally.
We know many people still living in Nottinghamshire and nearby have connections with Laxton and we are looking forward to making contact with as many as possible to discover the photographs, diaries, letters and other items they may have which will shed light on the village of 100 years ago.”
Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund East Midlands, Vanessa Harbar welcomed the project: “We look forward to seeing this project underway, Laxton has a truly unique surviving medieval farming history and the volunteers of Laxton History Group have presented exciting plans to share it with the wider community.”
Contact Laxton History Group with your information
If you have any photographs, letters or any other form of information to contribute to the project, Laxton History Group would be very grateful to hear from you. Please email research@laxtonhistorygroup.org.uk with your contact details and a brief outline of how you can help and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible.