Taking a walk down memory lane to Algarkirk’s Reminiscence Day Fete

A day of fun for all ages, and a touch of “time travel” too, awaits visitors to Algarkirk’s St Peter and St Paul’s church and village hall on Sunday from 11.30 to 3.30.

For the children, there will be Victorian garden games, a grotesque hunt, and the magic of stories brought to life by the storytellers of Tales from the Heartwood, and their puppets. And, of course, traditionally home baked cakes for everyone!

For the history enthusiasts and locals, there is not only the chance to see rare archive documents relating to the church and the village, and to have a guided tour of the church, but also the Beridge legacy silver – a communion cup that dates back to the time of Shakespeare, and a Georgian pitcher and collection plate – will be on show. But the organisers are hoping that people won’t just be bringing themselves…

“We are hoping that people will bring along old photos and documents that relate to Algarkirk’s church and village. It may be that someone in the family was married or christened there, and the photos are still in the family. It could be something from the old school, or farming memorabilia. No matter what, we would love to see it! We shall have a scanner set up in the village hall, and with the permission of the owners, we will take copies for our archives,” explained Madeleine Fox, leader of the History Group.

“And it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a physical object to bring in,” added Di Reid, leader of the Algarkirk Major Project Group (AMPG). “We are after people’s memories too! As part of our ‘oral history’ programme, we would really like to chat with people who grew up in the area, and perhaps, later, record some of those memories for posterity.”

Although the AMPG are expecting most of the contributions to come from the local area, one little book of memories is already on its way from Kawerau, New Zealand, where a former Algarkirk school teacher, Anne Blakely, now lives.

Anne said (via the Algarkirk Facebook page: “I would love to be there but I have lived in New Zealand since the mid-fifties…. I did write a little booklet about teaching there: teaching is so different now… I hope the booklet gets there in time!”