The History of
Dunton Bassett Local History Group!

by Anne Fuchs

Dunton Bassett Local History Group was formed primarily to research and record the local history of the village. One of its first priorities was to hold a history exhibition, which took place in August 1985. In conjunction with the exhibition a booklet was published entitled “Dunton Bassett – Village Memories”.
The Group has grown as people have joined, some from surrounding villages. However, throughout a very active twenty years, there has remained an enthusiastic core of people committed to keeping local history alive by means of exhibitions and monthly lectures. Wendy Warren and Millie Smith collected much of the information and archive material. Wendy, whose husband and family farmed Bloomhills in Main Street from 1912, had access to and has amassed a large collection of photographs and postcards of past views and village characters.
At its inception the History Group was only too aware that time was running out to capture the reminiscences of the older members of the community. Assiduous work produced taped conversations, which provided some of the material for the first book.
To date, we have held five exhibitions, each one over three days coupled with a Church Flower Festival, and each with a different theme. The Group has produced a video of both the 1989 and 1993 exhibitions. In addition another video recorded a year in the life of the community in 1993. It puts a spotlight on village life in the 1990s.
The first exhibition in 1985 was described as a three-day party. There was a feeling of excited anticipation as to what the day would bring. An early but hard working start ended with a bustling crowd and total exhaustion. We, the organisers, set a precedent by wearing Victorian clothes. Lateral thought and tremendous initiative was used as people dressed in costumes and hats found in the backs of their wardrobes. Others hired from the fancy dress shop in Leicester.
Visitors arrived. Some had lived here in the past and others had diverse connections. People stood in groups chatting enthusiastically and exchanging memories.
There was an exhibition of old photographs. Groups of visitors were taken on a walk of the village. These were guided tours highlighting the local architecture and bringing nineteenth century Dunton Bassett to life by showing where the butcher and slaughter house, the old post office, and other places of domestic historical interest had been. The cottage commonly known as Onion Cottage and occupied in the past by the groom who worked at the Manor, was furnished with Victorian artefacts. Visitors were amazed at its tiny size and at the ability of a large family of nine children to accommodate themselves in only one room downstairs and one above.
One of the classrooms in the village school was transformed into a Victorian schoolroom overseen by Mrs. Barbara Bloor who had been headmistress from 1955-71. When the son of the headmaster, Mr Joseph Robinson who had taught from 1907 - 1946, paid a visit to the exhibition he was able to fill some of the blanks with his memories of life at the school. There were also exhibits of agricultural instruments, natural history, a map and photos of the parish-pumps, a Griswold machine for knitting socks, and demonstrations of wattle fencing.
Inspired by a Norwegian project where a village had made a record by drawing each building; the Group, in 1987, decided to adapt the idea to photographing each building and space within the parish boundary. Even though it felt like an easier way of achieving this record, much preparation and a few able photographers contributed time and effort in producing an excellent historical piece of work. It was put on display that summer alongside older photographs of some buildings, which demonstrated how much change had taken place, even in the previous twenty years. The late Alan Taylor was the organiser and chief photographer, being responsible for much of the work.
As a result of the publicity from the photographic exhibition, a visit down memory lane was arranged for Rosemary Stevens, the daughter of the Reverend Walters who was the vicar during the war years and Herr Heinz Kammer. Heinz was the prisoner of war camp’s interpreter from 1945-7 and he and The Revd. Walters struck up a friendship when the Germans and the villagers were allowed to fraternise in 1946.

Gerda Kammer, Herbert Dressler, Heinz Kammer, Ron Boot. May 1987

Another day devoted to research and reminiscences was arranged for members of the Twigdon family. The Twigdons invented and used the first mechanical fairground amusements in the 1850s and they used the field where Wakes Close is now to assemble their equipment and test it before setting out on the road each spring.
The exhibitions in 1989 and 1993 evolved into Country Fayres and encouraged the inclusion of other village societies. Some of the old favourites were repeated, such as Onion cottage, the village walk and displays of photographs and agricultural artefacts. In addition in 1989, a play about the framework knitters of Dunton Bassett was enacted at Hill House, in front of the framework knitters’ shed. There were also demonstrations of framework knitting and lace-making, bee-keeping and basket-making. We sold tea towels and postcards printed with scenes old and new of our village.
In 1993, in another tantalizing glimpse of the past, the Manor gardens were opened for the first time for many, many years and attracted a large number of curious villagers. There were stalls run by other village groups in The Elwells yard and elsewhere; vintage car displays, pony and trap rides and Scottish dancing at Hill House. Once again the village community had come together to organise a successful event which had generated tremendous interest and enthusiasm for the next exhibition planned for 1997. The pig roast and more particularly the wine that flowed on the last night probably helped this!
Ron Boot sounding an air raid siren – the all clear I presume, started Dunton at War in 1997. Videos of wartime Dunton Bassett were shown in The Elwells’ barn. As well as an exhibition of wartime artefacts in the village hall, there were demonstrations of wartime recipes and war veterans from the village were part of a question and answer panel. This time the organisers and participants wore World War 2 uniforms or 1940s frocks!
2002 was the Jubilee year and the exhibition, confined to the village hall, displayed photos and memorabilia of the Queen’s reign and other past Jubilee celebrations. It was a brilliantly hot sunny weekend and Roger Hillyard had volunteered to show the video of a film taken by Jack Nichols of the 1953 Coronation celebrations in Dunton Bassett. It was such a popular show that he was kept completely in the dark for the three days!
As part of my research for this piece, I held a brainstorming session with some of the long-standing members of the Group. After we had looked at photographs of our past activities, it began to dawn on us that we had now grown into the older members of the Dunton Bassett community. This caused me to reflect further that during the past twenty years in recording the local history, holding annual programmes of lectures, pursuing different projects associated with the village and producing valuable material for future historians, we had generated our own history. What fun it has been!

Dunton Bassett Local History Group 2005
From Left to Right;
Alan Hill; Wendy Warren; Pauline Cook; Claire Hurford; Millie Smith; Barbara Taylor; Colin Cook; Barbara Bloor (seated); Anne Baker; Evelyn Hawkes; Reg Baker; Joan Wormleighton; Tony Black; Hazel Davis-Cobb; Sarah Brooks; John Hurford; Lesley Petherick; Ron Petherick; Ron Boot; Ann Fuchs; Peter Fuchs
Absent friends; Pat Boot, Cilla & Roger Hillyard; Pearl Wheeler; Colin & Bridget Hunt.

Dunton Bassett Local History Group meet 7:30pm on the Third Tuesday of the month at Dunton Bassett Village Hall. We have speakers at each meeting and occasional summer outings. New members are always welcome to join us.