Celebrating 2021 and looking forward to 2022

The end of the year is fast approaching; it’s an ideal opportunity –

• to thank everyone who has supported West Deeping Heritage Group during 2021
• to reflect on what’s been achieved
• to look forward to the new year ahead
• to wish everyone all the best for 2022

There were just two talks in the last year  – in September and November – both well supported, perhaps because they were held in the afternoon rather than the evening.

Lady of Depyng, Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII was presented by local historian and re-enactor Chris Carr.

Margaret Fletcher and Dorothy Halfhide of the Thorney Society gave an illustrated talk on Strangers in Thorney.

Two more talks are planned for 2022 – the first on Tuesday 18th January, when David Mainwaring will present Pease, Puter and Piggs –  a picture of a Lincolnshire village during the Tudor and Stuart period compiled from contemporary inventories and wills. The next talk will be on Tuesday 1st March, Exploring the history of education in West Deeping.

Archaeology has been one of the most popular topics in our programme so it was no surprise that a post about the discovery of a Bronze Age spearhead by archaeologists at the Rectory Farm site caused a flurry of excitement for those who follow the website. In July, the opportunity to get digging and find out more about the site was a sell-out.

The good news is that more visits are planned for 2022, when it is hoped to have an open day along with an outreach programme for local schools.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a Heritage Group outing, but in December, there was a fascinating trip to the Loughborough-based Taylor’s Bell Foundry with the group of ladies who have recently taken up hand bell ringing. Our own village hand bells were bought from Taylor’s in 1904 and have been played by many generations for many different occasions.

A group of us gave a performance (follow the link for a video recording) at a concert to celebrate the installation of disabled facilities and a servery at the village church in October. For the village archivist, it has been most interesting to discover original documents at the Bell Foundry Museum relating to the  tower bells as well as our hand bells.  Expect another website post in the New Year!

There may not have been much face-to-face contact in the last two years, but the number of visitors on the West Deeping Heritage website, since it started in May 2013,  has grown to a total of 14,500 and the number of page views is getting on for 45,000.  There are 77 “followers”, who get automatic updates every time something is posted. As well as the News and Programme postings, the most popular pages by far are the ones about the Stamford Canal, the Welland Navigation and Molecey’s Mill.

A positive effect of the lockdowns imposed during the COVID pandemic has been the increasing number of people have made personal contact through the website and the Facebook page during the last year.

Particular thanks must go to Dale Burton, descended from families in the Deepings but now living in Australia. He has found a whole list of names to be added to the Roll of Honour of servicemen linked with the Deepings who fought in the Great War. He has discovered not only his own relatives, William and Frank Geeves, Thomas Howitt Lambert and Algernon Edwin Lambert, but also two men who had left England before the war began.  Both Walter Templeman and Robert Waltham  served with the Australian Imperial Force and lost their lives in France.  Dale’s research also found service records for William Jibb, the latest name to be added to the Deepings Roll of Honour. 

Thanks also to everyone who responded to a question about a photograph of pupils at West Deeping village school taken before its closure in 1971. All the children have now been identified, although we have still to find the first names of the nephews of former headmistress, Miss Day, who attended the school for a short period.  The talk in March 2022 will be combined with a display of photographs and information about the history of schooling in West Deeping and hopefully attract former pupils for a school reunion!

Thanks to descendants of village families – including the Figg-Smiths, the Masons, the Merrishaws, the Neals, the  Coopers, the Hemsills – and to people who have recently come to the village, who have asked what there is to know about where they live.  Their queries have all provided an excuse for sifting through the village archives and their contributions have helped to put pieces of the historical jigsaw together! Watch out for future additions to the Family History and Buildings web pages.

West Deeping remembers 1919

A personal “thank-you” to everyone who has bought and commented so favourably on the book West Deeping remembers 1919.  It even got a press review in the Western Front Association Bulletin earlier this year.  The book title implies that it covers a relatively short time frame but with a cast of over two hundred characters and a village trail of more than fifty buildings, it serves not only as a Roll of Honour but as a record of life in this small South Lincolnshire village a hundred years ago.

That’s enough history and heritage news for 2021, although there’s sure to be something I’ve forgotten to mention.

Finally, it remains to wish everyone, past present and future supporters of West Deeping Heritage, all the very best for 2022.

 

 

 

Remembrance: research uncovers more local links for WW1 Roll of Honour

 

As it has done for over a hundred years, West Deeping recently commemorated its fallen servicemen on Remembrance Sunday.

On November 14th 2021, the list of their names was read by Allan Crowson at the outdoor service in the churchyard of St Andrew’s Church led by Canon David McCormack.

There was two minutes’ silence, just as there was on 11th November 1920 when the headmistress Miss Grassam led the school-children in “a general cessation of all activities” and a two-minute silence “in honour and remembrance of those who fell in the war”.

Stamford & Rutland News 17th Nov 1920

A war memorial was erected in St Andrew’s Church in February 1920 – a brass plaque listing just eight names.  Every year since then, the names of Joseph Anstee. Tom Lunn, Charles Lunn, George Neal, Richard Roffe, Walter Skerritt, Sidney Stokes and John T Wright have been read out during the Remembrance Day service at St Andrew’s, West Deeping or one of the other churches in the Uffington group of parishes.

In 2014, the centenary of the First World War prompted a district-wide collaborative project – The Deepings remember 1914 to 1918 –  to research and put on record the Roll of Honour for the Deepings area.   Many more servicemen’s names, including casualties, were discovered.

For West Deeping alone, researchers found another eight men who were killed in action or who died as a direct result of the war, all with links to the village by birth, upbringing, residence or family associations.  Daniel Lunn was buried and already commemorated locally (at Deeping St James) as were Samuel Wilson (at Market Deeping) and Arthur Skerritt (at Tallington, our neighbouring village).  Bertram Brannon had only a very tenuous connection with West Deeping and never lived in the village, but nevertheless had reason to be included as he was the middle son of Mrs Mary Brannon, the tenant of Cromwell House in 1919.

The other four men – Sapper G W F Fallodown, Rifleman J C Groom, Privates  J H Harrison and A H Hicks  – are admittedly already commemorated in other Rolls of Honour, but further afield, so their names were added to West Deeping’s list to be read out each year at the Remembrance Day service.

There was no room to add their names to the original brass plaque in the church, but commemorative blocks are on display nearby.

It was as important to commemorate servicemen who survived the Great War as those who died.  Thirty- two names  were already recorded on a hand-written scroll compiled in the 1920s and displayed in the church.

But further research for the book West Deeping remembers 1919 uncovered the names and stories of many more servicemen linked to the village, even though they might not have been living here when they enlisted or come back here after the war. Since the book was published in 2020, several more names have come to light – fourteen need to be added.

One of the most recent additions is Joseph Mason. The Mason family lived in one of the cottages in The Row, at the end of The Lane.  Joseph and his four siblings were brought up and must have gone to school in the village, but by the age of 18 – at the time of the 1891 Census –  he had moved out and was working at The Cavendish Arms in Tallington.

West Deeping remembers 1919 includes quite a lot of information about the war years for other members of the Mason family.   Joseph’s father (also named Joseph) had died in 1911, and his mother in 1918.  HIs married sisters – Alice Sefton, Ethel Randall and  Annie Hemsill – all lived in West Deeping around 1919/1920, But Joseph Mason junior wasn’t even mentioned.

It wasn’t until September 2021 that his granddaughter got in touch with more information, which explained why he was no longer in West Deeping in the years leading up to the Great War and why his name would not have been included on the commemorative scroll.

………Pte Joseph Mason

Family archives provide the evidence that he had enlisted in the army and served in South Africa with the 16th Lancers in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1901. He came back to England and married Annie Croud in Kent in 1902.  Presumably they lived not far from West Deeping as the births of four of the couple’s children were registered locally between 1904 and 1907.  But by 1908 the family must have moved south again, to Folkestone in Kent, where five more children were born before the outbreak of the Great War. At the age of 42, Joseph enlisted with the East Kent Buffs and went on to serve in France with the Labour Corps.

He returned to his family in Ramsgate and set up in business as a second-hand furniture dealer, but he had suffered shrapnel wounds during his time in France, from which he never fully recovered, and died in 1931. A photograph taken after his death shows his wife Annie  wearing his five medals – two clasps for his military service in South Africa between 1899 and 1902 alongside his Great War medals.

This story is just one of the family histories that can now added to West Deeping’s Roll of Honour because a 21st century descendant took the time and trouble to go back to their photographs and family records and to make contact through this website.

There are many more personal stories to be found in the book “West Deeping remembers 1919” (isbn 978-1-9162670-0-8, 2019 available to order from wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk at £18.50 (+ P&P) or to buy direct from Deepings Community Library and Market Deeping Antiques and Craft Centre)

The online and most up-to-date version of the Deepings Roll of Honour – listing those who lost their lives as well as those who survived – includes 442 names, as it stands In November 2021.  Although their  stories are not recorded on the Roll of Honour, it is possible to access the personal profiles compiled by researchers for the Deepings remember 1914 to 1918 project. Contact either Deepings Heritage or “Leave a reply” below to request more information or to share your family archives and forge yet more local links.

 

West Deeping remembers them … and 1919

Remembrance Sunday, 8th November 2020, will be marked in the churchyard of St Andrew’s at West Deeping in circumstances very different from anything anyone would be familiar with in 1919, even at the peak of the Spanish ‘flu pandemic – an invitation on social media, masks to be worn, ‘social distancing’ to be observed and contact details to be given! But the purpose – “to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom, to give thanks for their sacrifice, and to pray for those who are suffering today as a result of wars“-  is exactly the same as it was at a ceremony a hundred years ago. This plaque – commemorating eight young men of West Deeping who died in the Great War – was unveiled in St Andrew’s Church on February 22nd, 1920. A scroll listing the 32 villagers who also served in the war was displayed nearby.

“The Bishop of Lincoln said it was well that the people of future generations should know who were the men of the village who gave their lives … We can never be sufficiently grateful to the men, who by their unsurpassable gallantry, steadiness and heroism kept our dear land free from invasion and maintained its liberty.  He concluded a fine address with the words “May the memory of the sacrifice made by the brave men whose names are written on the tablet hallow and bless all your village life”.          

(Stamford & Rutland News 25/2/1920)

In 2014, members of West Deeping Heritage Group began researching the names on the plaque and the scroll.  The stories of some of our village men were written up as posters for The Deepings Remember 1914 to 1918 exhibition and all their names were included in a Roll of Honour [updated in December 2021] for all the Deepings.

WW1 commemorative blocks

With further research over the next few years, it was discovered that several more men with links to West Deeping – by birth, upbringing, marriage, residence or family associations –  could have been included! 

In 2018 four West Deeping names – Sapper G W F Fallodown, Rifleman J C Groom, Privates  J H Harrison and A H Hicks – were added to the list of casualties that is read out each year at the Remembrance Day service in the Uffington group of parishes. There was no room to add their names to the original brass plaque, but commemorative blocks are on display nearby. 

In 2018 there was an extra and special Service of Remembrance and Rededication at West Deeping – to mark the restoration and re-siting of the commemorative scroll.   Descendants of several West Deeping servicemen were in the congregation and it was an ideal opportunity for a display of all the research findings – enough for a book!

West Deeping remembers 1919

That book – West Deeping remembers 1919 – is now available, on sale at £18.50 (plus postage and packing) at Deepings Community Library or direct from the author, Maggie Ashcroft.  (Email wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk to place an order.)

West Deeping remembers 1919 covers a relatively short time frame in the long history of a small South Lincolnshire community but tries to give as wide a context as possible with the evidence that’s available. It includes a directory of more than fifty places of interest in the village and a cast of over two hundred characters, with personal profiles of all the servicemen who have so far come to light.  At the end of the book is a revised Roll of Honour – another 20 names have been added to those recorded on the memorials in the church – bringing the total number to 60.  This book represents another act of commemoration so that we –  twenty-first century successors – recognise, understand and appreciate West Deeping’s heritage.

101 years ago – 21st July 1919

The school holidays hadn’t started yet; it would be another few weeks before the children of West Deeping had a month off, to coincide with the harvest – when many of the older children would be helping local farmers to bring in the crops. So on Monday 21st July, the children must have been thrilled to find they had an unexpected half-holiday!

Saturday July 19th had been a public holiday across the whole country – celebrating the proclamation of peace, the official end of the Great War of 1914 to 1918. The villagers of West Deeping had gone to great efforts (as they still always do!) to put on a suitable event.  An outdoor tea party was organised for the children – in a field belonging to Mr Porter from the Manor.  But as is so often the case on these occasions, “the clouds burst“, “the rain fell unceasingly during the evening” and everyone “sought shelter in the schoolroom“.  But  “the rain did not pour cold water on the rejoicings” and the entertainment arranged by the headmistress, Miss Grassam, was “tip-top“. But the children’s sports had to be postponed until the Monday – hence the half-day holiday from school!

It was that summer, or early autumn,  that this photograph was taken of all the school children and teachers outside the village church.

1919 West Deeping school children and teachers, in original mount

The photo has been amongst the village archives for many years but it’s only recently that an accurate date has been established for this photograph.   Maggie Ashcroft was doing some research at Stamford Mercury Archives for her book West Deeping remembers 1919  when she came across a very brief news item in The Stamford & Rutland News for October 10th 1919. “The schoolchildren and teachers were recently photographed outside the church.   A mounted copy has been presented to each child in commemoration of signing the Peace, this course being adopted instead of giving mugs or other souvenirs.”  The amateur photographer was George Henson,  who had only recently been de-mobilised from the Royal Flying Corps where he had served as an Air Mechanic.

Only two surviving original copies of the photograph have been discovered, but there would presumably have been at least fifty more. Many of the fifty-one children have been identified – the key is on page 85 of West Deeping remembers 1919, to be published in August 2020.

For more details about the book and how to obtain your copy, contact wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk

West Deeping Remembers 1914 – 1918: Woodland Trust donation

This donation is really thanks to Joyce Stevenson, who gave last month’s interesting talk on the Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest. She generously waived any speaker’s fee and suggested instead this double commemoration, on behalf of West Deeping Heritage Group.

Find out more about the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood at Normanton le Heath, north-west Leicestershire.

Restored and re-sited – a memorial to West Deeping’s First World War servicemen is back on display

War memorials in the south aisle. Photo: Maggie Ashcroft

First World War Servicemen’s list rehung October 2017. Photo: Paul Bragg

First World War Servicemen’s list restored July 2017. Photo: Paul Bragg

Colin Blagove writes:

The World War 1 Service List in St Andrew’s Church has recently been restored as it has suffered from staining by water contamination over a number of years. The War Memorials Trust provided a grant for the restoration work. The memorial has now been re-hung in its new location in the Nave on the south wall adjacent to other memorials which commemorate men from West Deeping who lost their lives in the World Wars.

We would be interested in your feedback on the conservation work; we hope you agree that it’s a great improvement.

A re-dedication service will be held in the New Year. Further details to follow.

This memorial to the men of West Deeping who served in and survived  the First World War has been hanging in West Deeping Church since the 1920s.  It was an invaluable source of information for The Deepings Remember 1914 to 1918 project 3 years ago in 2014, and provides the names of most of the men who will feature in a book to be published next year – West Deeping Remembers the First World War.

The  restoration project has prompted us to find out more about its history, and the information we discovered when we took the frame apart was particularly interesting and the most helpful in establishing exactly when the scroll was created and put up in the church. See the World War 1 page (recently updated,) for more information.

West Deeping remembers Joseph Anstee

This morning, July 1st 2016, a dozen of us gathered in the porch of St Andrew’s Church at West Deeping.

At 7.30 a.m., Brian Marsden, a staunch supporter of the Royal British Legion, Langtoft, Deepings and Districts Branch, blew 3 short blasts on his ARP whistle.  This was the signal for ‘zero hour’ for the British troops lined up along the trenches in Picardie in Northern France, exactly 100 years ago.

We remembered all those 19,240 killed and 35,493 wounded on July 1st 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme  but West Deeping particularly remembered one of its own soldiers who fought and died on the first day on the Somme, July 1st 1916.

2nd Lieut. Joseph Anstee  was the younger son of William Anstee, the miller at West Deeping Mill, just next to the church. He had grown up in the village and judging by frequent mentions in the local newspapers seems to have been talented as a singer and pianist. He was often complimented for his flower decorations in the church and was involved with activities at the village Reading Room. He was in his early 20s when he signed up for a short military training with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in Berkhamsted and in October 1915 he was commissioned to the 2nd Lincolnshire Regiment. It is possible he went to France soon afterwards as the Army had an urgent need for troops after their losses at the Battle of Loos. 

2nd Lieutenant Joseph Anstee 2nd Lincolnshire 1890 – 1916

The 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment was part of the 8th Division when the British Army attacked the German front near Albert, in Picardie, Northern France. Together with the 2nd Royal Berkshires, they were at the centre of the line, leading the attack on the village of Ovillers-la-Boisselle.

 Joe,  a 26 year-old subaltern, would have been the one responsible for getting his men out of their trench and forming them up to set off across ‘no man’s land’ towards the German front line, 800 yards away. Charging into the full weight of an artillery barrage, the attack halted before it even got half way.

It’s most likely that 2nd Lieutenant Anstee died in the first hour of the first day of the battle that was to last another 140 days.

 “One of the cheeriest and best boys”

Joe’s parents, William and Mary Anstee read about their youngest son’s death in a letter from his commanding officer who had the eye-witness account of comrade Lieutenant Hubbard. “2nd Lieutenant Anstee was hit with shrapnel half-way across during the assault. I bandaged him up, and whilst awaiting him to be taken back behind the line he was hit again in the chest and died almost instantaneously. We were moved out of the trenches into another area that afternoon, so were unable to collect our dead and wounded… I can’t express what his loss is to us. He was a splendid officer and loved by all, and one of the cheeriest and best boys I have ever met, and can well understand what a terrible loss he is to you, as he is to us.”

Thiepval Memorial, Pier 1, Face C

Anstee family grave in King Street Cemetery, West Deeping

One of 72,194 men who have no known grave, he is commemorated at Thiepval (Face C of Pier 1). If you go almost to the end of the King Street Cemetery in West Deeping, you will find an Anstee family memorial not far from the right hand fence. Joseph’s parents are buried here but the inscription on the gravestone also commemorates ‘Lt J Anstee Killed in action in France July 1^st 1916 Aged 26′.

A Remembrance Cross was placed by the grave this morning.

If there are any Anstee descendants reading this, we would be most interested to hear from them.

Researching local WW1 servicemen for West Deeping Heritage Group’s next talk

Wednesday 25th November –  “We will remember them”

• At West Deeping Village Hall
• Refreshments from 7 p.m. for a 7.30 start
• Admission £2.50 on the door.

Revd Martin Brebner talks about his research on the Roll of Honour for the Uffington Group of parishes, which includes Barholm, Braceborough, Greatford, Tallington, Uffington and West Deeping.  He went far beyond the memorials in local churches (even to the battlefields) in the quest for photographs, service records and commonwealth war graves.

Martin has prepared a series of information sheets on those who lost their lives which will be displayed at the talk.

Also on display – in folders – will be the Poster Gallery previously shown at “The Deepings Remember” exhibition in November 2014. This includes several West Deeping people, some of whom died, others who survived. 

The Deepings Remember 1914 to 1918 Poster Gallery

 

 

Wade relative sets the record straight for Deepings WW1 Roll of Honour

Now the list of names, regiments and dates is online, relatives from all over the world can check to see whether members of their family are listed in the Deepings Roll of Honour. They can also put the record straight if the details are incorrect or if a photograph has been wrongly identified!

A photograph of Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Francis Rowland Wade (1899 to 1982) from Market Deeping, has just been added.  We had a picture which we thought was Richard Wade, but we are most grateful to the relative who corrected us.

Francis Rowland Wade

Not Richard Wade but Francis Rowland Wade

Francis’ grandson, William Wade has been in contact with Liz Parkinson of Deepings Heritage to send photographs and a newspaper cutting. Richard and Francis were the sons of Richard Wade, a well-known and respected solicitor in Market Deeping during the First World War period. Owner of Wade Park and the house which became The Deepings Library, Richard Wade senior was one of the prominent townspeople who supported Lord Kesteven’s army recruitment drive.

Any amendments or queries about the Deepings Roll of Honour can be forwarded by leaving a Comment on this post.

Another name and family story for the Deepings Roll of Honour

Bob Atkin of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, happened to visit the Peterborough Evening Telegraph website recently and found the publicity for the launch of the commemorative book The Deepings Remember 1914 to 1918. He immediately got  in touch with The Deepings Commemoration Group – not only to order a copy of the book but also to add another name to the Roll of Honour.

His grandfather Thomas Atkin was a milkman in peacetime, but during the First World War he was a Sapper with the Royal Engineers, service number 289740. He lived at Horsegate, in the cottage directly opposite The Walnut Tree public house, with his wife Nettie.

Researchers have done extensive research over many months and have more than 400 names on the Deepings Roll of Honour for those who served. We know there are still more names to be discovered; it will be an ongoing job to update the spreadsheet of details, and to revise the Roll of Honour.  This is the first of what we expect will be several additions: Thomas Atkins’ name and regiment now appear on the first page of the online version.