2025 Annual Review

On 10th April, the Newbold Verdon Parish Archive held its Annual General Meeting at Newbold Verdon Library, where the Chair reflected on the Group’s progress since its founding in 2022 and set out plans for the year ahead.

The Archive was established with a clear set of aims: to collect and preserve the heritage of Newbold Verdon and the surrounding area, to catalogue and digitise everything received, to build a website that could share this work with a wider audience, and to encourage both the Group and the wider community to research and take an active part in preserving the village’s history. Each year the Group revisits its Key Objectives against these founding aims — here’s how 2024 went, and where attention turns next.

Reaching Out to the Village

Trips to the County Records Office have continued to bear fruit, with links added to the online catalogue guiding users directly to the relevant Record Office reference numbers — an ongoing task, since the Record Office keeps adding to its own collection. The Group has also begun working with Desford Heritage Group, and hopes to build similar links with other local archival and heritage organisations in the year ahead.

A member of the community donated a substantial collection of historical and archival documents in 2024, with further material passed on from the same source in early 2025. The Group hopes to share these finds with the wider village through an exhibition later this year.

Closer to home, a member of the Archive Group has organised meetings and talks with local Scout sections, opening the door to further engagement over the coming year. The Group is also reaching out to the Drama group, the Baptist Church, and the new Community Club, and has been in touch with the WI — though nothing has yet been identified there for the Archive to take on.

The Website and Digital Catalogue

What began as a project to improve the website’s user experience became, by the middle of last year, an ongoing commitment to keep it well maintained. The mobile view has been improved, and several new sections added — Latest News, Do You Know…?, Now and Then, and Useful Links.

To help more people find their way to the site, the Group created a QR code, now appearing on the monthly Graphic articles, on social media, and alongside the answers to Now and Then features. It’s worked: visitor numbers are up, and the Archive has welcomed new members as a direct result.

Behind the scenes, all archive documentation — from Google Drive, the website, and the digital catalogue — has now been backed up to a separate hard drive, so the Group’s work is protected even if something were to happen to the website or to Google’s own services. Looking ahead, the Archive plans to keep the website regularly updated, publish AGM minutes and the Treasurer’s report annually, and begin collecting audio recordings of memories from some of the village’s older residents, so those voices are preserved for future generations.

Funding and Resources

2024 saw the Group take on a particularly meaningful project: designing and creating a Remembrance Board to commemorate local soldiers lost in the two World Wars. The work was funded by G. Seller & Co, together with an anonymous £200 donation from a generous community member.

An approach to the Montagu Trust didn’t succeed — the newly elected board found the Group didn’t meet its criteria — but an application to the Rural Communities Charity has, with funding expected to arrive by June 2025. The Group is also considering approaching Newbold Verdon Parish Council. One member is planning a series of talks to other local groups to help raise further funds, alongside more heritage walks, weather and time permitting, and the Archive recently received a further £200 donation in appreciation of its work cataloguing newly donated historical material.

Easyfundraising continues to bring in modest but welcome sums — £27.98 and £19.18 across the final two quarters of 2024 — and the Group has increased its annual donation to the library to £75 for both 2024 and 2025, with a review planned for 2026.

Getting the Word Out

The Archive’s presence in print and on social media continued to grow through 2024. Facebook remains the most interactive platform, and the Now and Then and Do You Know? features in particular have sparked real conversation among villagers, often surfacing knowledge and memories the Group wouldn’t otherwise have reached.

A highlight of the year was inviting the local MP to unveil the Remembrance Board, with Group members attending and helping with the publicity — the event was even covered by the Hinckley Times.

Research and Projects

The Remembrance Board itself will return for a further week around VE Day 2025, alongside its usual display around Remembrance Sunday each year, and the Group hopes to produce posters of it for local schools and other venues.

Work continues on the Newbold Heath project, with members gathering archival material and audio recordings, and the Group is planning an event to showcase material donated by a community member, alongside a separate event, “Coalmining within Newbold Verdon,” sharing memories from the area’s former coalminers.

Enquiries about the Hargrave family of Miles Yard led the Group to connect two descendants of the Statham family, who are now comparing notes on their shared history and hope to share what they discover later this year. Elsewhere, the Group has been comparing a newly created map of the village’s current shops and businesses against historical maps from the 1930s and 1970s, drawing on residents’ own memories to fill in the gaps — and is collecting a set of letters from a community member, including correspondence between her parents, alongside research into the history of a house in Newbold Heath.

Closer to home, much of the library’s reference section — material with a clear bearing on local heritage — was relocated into the Archive room during 2024. Two new volunteers have also come forward to train as archivists, now visiting every other Thursday to help sort, re-scan, re-catalogue and repair material in the Archive’s care. As the collection continues to grow, the Group expects to begin subdividing both the physical and digital catalogue into clearer categories over the coming year.

Looking Ahead

As the Archive continues to grow, the Group remains keen to hear from anyone in the village who would like to get involved — whether that means sharing a memory, lending a photograph, or simply having a story to tell about Newbold Verdon’s past.