CRICK HISTORY SOCIETY

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1 Crick History Society was formed in 2003 and meets on second Wednesday of month. The aims of the Society are To encourage an interest in the history of Crick village To research and share knowledge of the history of Crick To create a record of the history of Crick village and establish an archive of that information for future generations To organise programs of events for the benefit of members and others To promote contact with other Local History Societies, Associations and responsible bodies. Activities and Meetings Crick History Society was formed in 2003 and meets on the second Wednesday of the month see the What s On page of this website. The Society welcomes anyone who is interested in local history. The society acts as a focus for associated events, carrying out research projects, and handling heritage-related enquiries. If you have something of interest - documents, photographs or postcards, artefacts (or even an old house!) - We will be very pleased to hear from you. In addition to its programme of lectures, events and outings, the society is responsible for the 'History Notes' in Crick News (the village magazine), and also manages the Crick Digital Archive. Finally, it acts as a point of contact with those researching family history connections with the village or those wishing to study the history of their house. Recent and Current Projects Amongst the recent projects carried out by Crick History Society are: May Day: a project to record on spreadsheet the names of all May Queens (and their Attendants, Heralds and Knights) since the first recorded appointments in 1931; this project is ongoing and needs recent appointments to be added. War Memorial: This ongoing project provides information about each name on the Crick War Memorial, so that their sacrifices are not forgotten. A book is available on the work carried out so far -'Crick's Roll of Honour'. This project is coordinated by Keith Liggins and David Llewellyn. Footpaths and Heritage Trail: Routes through the village and footpaths to the parish boundary are described, together with points of historic interest. The information, together with a contextual introduction about the village, is available in two books entitled 'Walks & More' and 'Crick Heritage Trail'. Crick Historic Building and Land Records: as another aspect of the effort to explore Crick's history in earlier centuries, a massive long-term project is being carried out to digitally record the deeds of as many old houses in the village as possible. This huge database of documentary evidence will then be used (together with data from parish registers, tax and census returns and other sources) to reconstruct the history of each house (and that of its occupants), and hence eventually to reconstruct the history of 1

2 whole areas of the village. This is a long-term and very labour-intensive project that will run for many years. Crick Historic Building and Land Records: as another aspect of the effort to explore Crick's history in earlier centuries, a massive long-term project is being carried out to digitally record the deeds of as many old houses in the village as possible. This huge database of documentary evidence will then be used (together with data from parish registers, tax and census returns and other sources) to reconstruct the history of each house (and that of its occupants), and hence eventually to reconstruct the history of whole areas of the village. This is a long-term and very labour-intensive project that will run for many years. Gravestone inscriptions: The Rugby Family History Group website hosts the transcripts of gravestone inscriptions for St Margaret's Church Crick (the graveyard is now closed). These records do not include details from the present church graveyard or from the United Reform Church graveyard (which is also now closed) - these two sets of records are scheduled to be recorded as a future project. Crick News History Notes: Part of the work of the History Society is to provide History Note features for each edition of Crick News.. Crick News Records: Complete hard copies of the village magazine, first published in 1974, have been archived in the History Centre, and can be examined by contacting the Archivist.. The Bells of St Margaret's Church: The belfry contains 8 bells, 4 dating from the early 17th century and 4 added in The history of the bells has been researched by Geoff Brown. Hostelries of Crick: A study of the pubs of Crick has been published and is available online. Rectors of Crick: A study of this subject is currently being carried out by Jeff Day. History of Crick: Researched by Alan Bale, and a small number of hard copies of his report are available. Crick People: A collection of illustrative biographies of a few of Crick's colourful people, reflecting the development of the village's character through the ages. The 2

3 book includes three Lords of the Manor, an Archbishop of Canterbury, several rectors - some of them good, some not so good! - a champion of impoverished canal children, a local artist, a motor cycling champion, a racing driver and pilot, the first 'gong' man, a pop group, an industrialist, and a Crick Treacle Miner - all in 'A Few Crick People', now available in our book list Valuer's Book for Crick: The 1910 Valuer's Notebook has been digitised (the original is held at the The National Archives in Kew); they have been transcribed and analysed by Jim Goodger, with present-day locations identified for each entry wherever possible. Crick Digital Information Archive: The archive aims to preserve our village heritage by capturing in digital format such records as photographs, postcards, deeds, documents, certificates, insurance policies, bills etc - and in addition, the digital transcripts of Enclosure records, census returns, parish registers, Hearth Tax and Land Tax returns, old wills and inventories, and much other information relating to the village. Crick Photo Archive: One of the first large-scale projects undertaken by the Crick History Society was the systematic collection and digitisation of as many old photographs, postcards, letters and other early visual records as possible. An appeal was launched, and the response was extremely good - many Crick people kindly allowed their treasured memories to be digitally scanned so that others could share in the village's heritage. Crick Cookery Book: published during World War II "in aid of comfort for our troops". A copy is held in the archive. Crick Manorial Documents: Gren Hatton is carrying out a long-term project to transcribe and analyse the hundreds of manorial documents for Crick that are held in the archive of St John's College, Oxford. There are well over 500 documents, some of them dating back to the 1200s - and most of them are written in medieval Latin or Old French, in addition to being extremely difficult to decipher! This massive project which has already been running for about 5 years. Crick Census Database: Steve Smith has collated census information together with other records to provide a large database of family information. Crick village family names: Many Crick names go back a long way - in some cases we may be able to trace a family name back for several hundred years. However, Crick's location close to a network of busy railway and canal routes means that there have also been many transients among the village population, particularly during difficult periods such as wartime, and during the construction of the canals and railways in the late 1700s and early 1800s. 3

4 The Crick Historic Building and Land Record: The Crick Historic Building project commenced in 2010, and it is expected that it will take many years to process and the people who lived in them over the years! Amongst the data recorded for each house (usually as a result of searching through the house deeds) is a list of the owners and/or occupants at different dates - and this can sometimes be helpful in tracing a family history. The aim of this project is to investigate and document the history of Crick's older houses, based on analysis of surviving property deeds, study of wills and other documentation about the people who lived in the houses and of course, detailed examination of the properties themselves, both as they are today and via old maps and photographs. Information in the deeds is checked and expanded via other documentation such as parish registers, Enclosure Awards, Land Tax returns, Land Surveys, census returns, wills etc., much of which can be found at the local county record office. This in turn permits educated guesswork about the dates at which changes were made to the fabric of the buildings a large house partitioned to and analyse the mass of detailed documentation that has been generously made available by the owners of many of Crick's oldest houses. In due course, a series of detailed house-histories will emerge from this analysis work, providing a unique insight into the development of the whole village over the last 2 or 3 centuries. Recent changes in English property law has made this work especially important today, because recent changes in have abolished the need for mortgage lenders to hold a copy of the property deeds as security for their loan and further legal changes have meant that even the Land Registry does not now hold copies of old property deeds. The result of these legal changes is that, since about 2003, increasing numbers of solicitors, building societies and banks have been steadily destroying hundreds of thousands of old parchment and paper property deeds dating back to the 1800s, the 1700s, and in some cases back to the 1600s. It may seem incredible that such an enormous body of valuable historical material can have been casually earmarked for destruction in this way but such is the case, and for many of our old village and town houses it is already too late to discover their history, for their deeds have been lost or destroyed. EW Timmins Research: During the late 1970s and early 1980s, a series of articles was specially written for Crick News by the distinguished amateur historian Ernest W. Timmins. Local historian Gren Hatton, who knew Mr. Timmins well, comments: "Ernest Timmins was a man of many parts, and was highly respected by those of us fortunate enough to enter into historical discussion with him - my own first book on the history of Kilsby was greatly improved by his many detailed comments and suggestions on my draft text. 4

5 Outside of his career as a scientific researcher at BTH/AEI Rugby (then Converteam, now GE), he was widely known for his studies of the pre-conquest and medieval periods, and for his deep knowledge of early languages. He was frequently able to decipher Anglo- Saxon texts, and was skilled in reading the many variants of medieval texts in scribal Latin and Old French. He was also a talented musician, and for many years he was church organist at Lilbourne. Much of his historical research work focused upon the early history of a handful of west Northamptonshire communities - including Kilsby and Crick, for which he had a particular fondness. It is a great pity that he never published the vast majority of his work, or sought to discuss it with other scholars, for that would have brought academic recognition of many of his discoveries that, sadly, remain as incomplete notes in his archives, faithfully preserved by Mr. C.J. Hicks of the Rugby Local History Research Group, and deposited at the Northamptonshire Record Office." Happily however, the articles that Ernest Timmins wrote for Crick News have been rescued and converted to digital format by Jim Goodger, and they are presented here just as he wrote them. They provide a good complement to the current series of history articles in Crick News, as they deal mainly with the very early part of Crick's history. They also provide an excellent background to the ongoing studies by Gren Hatton on the medieval manor of Crick by analysis of the manorial papers contained in the archive of St John's College Oxford. Books about Crick: "Crick s Roll of Honour" by David Llewellyn and Keith Liggins, (c)2008, price 4-00 "Walks and More" by Jim Goodger, (c)2009, Sold out "Crick Heritage Trail" by Jim Goodger, (c)2010, price 5-00* "A Few Crick People" by Jim Goodger, (c)2011, price 5-00* Crick and the Canal by Jim Goodger and Byan Turner (c) 2014, price 5.00* 5

6 "Elsie Warland's Childhood" by Jaqui Ingham, available from the Friends of St Margaret's All the above books are available from Crick History Society or various village outlets including Crick Post Office*. For those living further away and wishing to purchase, we can forward books, adding a suitable charge to cover p&p. Please contact Crick Post Office & Stores to enquire about all such long-distance orders. Contact us Chairman: Secretary: Archivist: Liz Sweeney, lizsweeney133@hotmail.com Dawn Symons, boosymons@hotmail.co.uk Jim Goodger, cjgoodger@theiet.org 6