Hodnet Life Archives

“An active village hall can greatly improve the life of the community”. – Shropshire rural county council 

2011 was quite a busy year at the Lyon Hall. The smaller rooms were the most popular during the daytime but the large room was booked most evenings and some weekends.
We had WI meetings, Scouts and guides events including a ceilidh and the cheese and wine event in October was very successful, raising over £700 for the maintenance of the building.

The table top sale in December needed more support (spread the word for next year) but there were plenty of bacon butties sold to raise a profit.
The large room at the Lyon Hall is an excellent space for larger gatherings and is regularly used for practise by a competitive ball room dancing couple.

A Dog Showing enthusiasts group also use the large room to teach the dogs and owners showing and ring skills.
Hodnet and district Garden Club is an active and long running club which meets at the Lyon Hall every third Tuesday in the month. It held its popular Annual show at the hall, in August. To visit their website and learn more click here.
Slimming world meetings helped us lose weight and eat healthily while Zumba classes kept us fit and athletic. The quiz evenings exercised our brains and had the added bonus of £20 as first prize.
Maintenance and repairs.
We have undertaken some repairs to the roof tiles and guttering and repaired the fence posts around the path. The handrail at the disabled entrance has been repaired and we are currently replacing the oil tank which was vandalised in November. We will also be improving the security to prevent this happening again.
The upkeep of the hall is an ongoing project and the committee are keen to maintain and improve the facilities available to its users. We greatly value your opinions so if you have any suggestions for the halls  improvement please contact us at the Lyon Hall  email Our web site is currently being updated but can be viewed here
 
 

So reads the heading on the back cover of Gerald Mothershaw’s latest addition to his personal archive of the history of the area. His new book, The Parish of Hodnet, features the lives some of the distinguished people of Hodnet who lived between 818 AD and the present. It has just been published and is on sale at £9.99, with the profits from it sale being donated to St Luke’s parish church in Hodnet.
Gerald says “I suppose it’s rounding off the history of Hodnet” adding, “I thought I would write about some of the notable people of the village.” On the back of the book he states, “I have always been very interested In local history but a tremendous amount of Hodnet’s early history was lost by the Roundheads In 1644 when they destroyed all the Parish Registers and records in the Rector’s library.” His hope is that readers will find the book interesting and that it will bring back happy memories to older readers.
Hodnet residents from the past who feature in the book include:

The Unknown Visitor, Elizabeth Vernon, Richard Heber, Bishop Reginald Heber, Mary Cholmondeley, Dr. Waiter Hall M.R.C.S. L.R.C.P., Brigadier Algernon George William Heber-Percy, Rev. J. H. Parsons M.C., Rev. S. Parkinson B.O., F.P.H. (Eng), Eva Starkey and Alwlne Joan Franke.

The first chapter is a story reported in 1839, about a wealthy and mysterious visitor to the village who married a local girl. Another recalls the brief life of Elizabeth Vernon who married Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakepeare dedicated his poem The Rape of Lucrece. Reginald Heber (1783 – 1826) was the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta and is now remembered chiefly as a hymn-writer – his works include “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!” and “From Greenland’s icy mountains”. A chapter contributed by Eva Starkey features an account of childhood in the village between the wars.
This is the tenth book written by Gerald who is now 76, of which all but one have been on various aspects of the history of the parish – the odd one out gave insights into “My Successful Methods for Growing Exhibition Vegetables”. Over the years he estimates he has raised over £20,000 for charities and good causes through the sale of his books. This latest one can be purchased from Hodnet Post Office, Hart to Hart in  Stafford St., Market Drayton and the publishers YouCaxton Publishing, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury.
Gerald has no plans to retire from writing. He says he is planing a book which will explain why the location of Hodnet was chosen as a settlement when people settled in the vicinity for the first time, and will develop the account through to the present.

Weston under Redcastle village show took place on Sunday 7th August 2011.
Below are a selection of photographs from the event.
Click on a photo for a bigger image.

Pictures taken by Randall

After the recent Hodnet Footpaths Group meeting on 23rd June, Niall Gallivan motivated an expedition to the disused railway track to look for Hodnet’s glow-worm colony. The group consisted of some members of the Footpaths Group along with family and friends, and was led by Wendy Roberts (and her faithful jogging companion Maggie May) who has helped Shropshire Countryside staff to monitor glow-worms numbers in this area for some years.
The colony is found along the old railway track in the section north-east of Station Road. It was a cold breezy night and the sun did not set until 10.30. In spite of the fears that it might be too cold or too light for us to see anything, patience was rewarded and 6 glowing females were spotted by members of the group. Unfortunately they were low down in the grass, which made photographing them even more difficult.
Female glow-worms only display in this way during the mating season from mid June to mid July. For more information, see our wild-life page here, or the glow-worm website at www.glowworms.org.uk where you can find much better pictures than these!