History Weekend a success – thank you!

Slingsby’s second annual Local History Weekend (17-18 March 2012) was a credit to Slingsby and its recently formed Local History Group. Everyone enjoyed the re-enactment of the agricultural hirings on Saturday and we learnt much from the weekend’s displays and from the interesting talks in the church on Sunday afternoon.

Please read Margaret Mackinder’s message of thanks below:

“Very many thanks to all the people who attended and supported Slingsby’s second Local History Weekend, which seems to have been enjoyed by all.
Particular thanks go to the following people:
Joyce Hodgson and family for preparing, loaning and transporting the 50 or so farming objects for the display; many hours of hard work.
Trudy and Sue Carr for providing delicious refreshments, soup, home made scones and more throughout the event.
Peter Smithson for showing old farming film, and current film of the church tower work, which will be added to during the course of the tower works.
John Clayton for preparing the presentation on the display about hedgerow changes in Slingsby.
Stephen Prest, Trudy Carr and Andrew Wilson for providing information used in the displays of farming and Ann Wilson for providing most of the photographs.
Thank you to Richard Flint for the doing the recording and Stephen Prest for keeping order and leading the recorded discussion about memories of farming in Slingsby. A big thank you to the dozen people who attended and allowed themselves to be recorded. It has produced at least an hour of really interesting and amusing conversation which needs very little editing. We shall give more information about this in the next Triangle and on the village website. This is something we hope to do more of.
A big thank you to all those who dressed up and allowed themselves to be sold as hired labour and to those who did the hiring. Thankfully, nobody had to go and bed down in a hayloft afterwards with a view to getting up at 5.30 in the morning to feed and harness the horses. We hope poor Charlotte Hodgson is not having nightmares about having to go and help look after Mrs Wilson’s ten children!
The hiring theme tied in nicely with the talk about farm graffiti given by Melanie Giles. Her work with her Slingsby sister Kate on this fascinating subject is producing vivid insights into the lives of hired workers in the past, through writings and drawings on the walls of farm buildings where they were housed. Her talk was preceded by a talk given by David Stockdale, curator of the Ryedale Folk Museum, updating us on all the new attractions which will be opening up there very soon. A visit there this summer is a must.”

Margaret Mackinder

The Slingsby Website and Newsletter Group would like to add their thanks especially to Margaret and to Kate Giles for organizing the event, and to all those who were involved. We are already looking forward to the next one!