Report for year ending February2013
Memberships continues withFaith Ballaam, Pat Beal, Ann and Alan Butler, Steve Cattell, Bernadette Chalklin, Lucille Chesterton, Pat and John Crozier, Mel Foster, Peter Fox, John and Lilian Hall,Don and Val Morrell, Ian and Pearl Scott and Derek Tilley. A number of visitors join us on speaker nights.
Officers remained unchanged; John Crozier as Chairman, Mel Foster as Treasurer, Lucille Chesterton as Secretary and Steve Cattell as Booking Secretary for Speakers. Fees have continued at the same level of £5 per member per year plus £2 per month, with visitors paying £3.
Activities during the past twelve months have included:
April- “A Tourist in Roman Britain”
May – Jason King one of our very popular visitors spoke about the “Battle of the Somme”.
June - We had a visit from Rev. John Wilford who spoke on St. Guthlac and the Abbey at Crowland
July – Party Night, this year Faith and Karl Ballaam played hosts.
September - Visit to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life
October - A popular return of Richard Titley this time with “the Battle of Edgehill”.
November –Chris Lester from Dogdyke Steam Drainage Station
February – Matthew Godfrey spoke on “Heritage at Risk”.
In December the History Group members supported the Village Hall by contributing to a Christmas Hamper for the draw.
As usual we record here the events concerning residents of out two villages.
Deaths:
Sadly we lost five residents of Marston: Vera Williams died on 15th May aged 86. Vera was a well known and respected member of our community who lived much of her adult life in Marston. Widow of the late Frank (Titch) she had three daughters,two grandchildren one great-grandson Joseph. Vera was involved in the W.I, sometime Caretaker of the VH and assistant cook at MarstonSchool.
On 27th June John Francis Pearson died aged 79. John was born in Marston to John Thomas and Mabel; Mabel came to the village as a young assistant teacher. His grandfather George was the local miller and his father a farmer a tradition that John and his wife Val continued . John was a great character with bags of personality, generous to a fault and a friend to all.
Bertha Parnham passed away 7th November on her 94th birthday. Bertha and her late husband Bill will be well remembered by many of the residents of both Hougham and Marston having lived on Bridge Street for many years. Family members are still resident in both our two villages.
Philip Andrew Laughton, just aged 43 years sadly passed away on 5th November. As a past pupil of MarstonSchool he will be fondly remembered by many of his peer group.
In January 2013 Geoffrey Broughton of Churchwood, School Lane Marston sadly passed away.
Hougham also lost two of it’s popular residents; the funeral of Mrs. Penelope Wilson (Pop) took place on 4th May thechurch was awash with flowers - typical English garden flowers to acknowledge her two keen interests of gardening and flower arranging.Pop was very committed to her work for the Red Cross and supportive of village activities.
In August we heard of the sudden death of Stuart Horton on Hougham. Stuart had lived by the river for many years with his wife Janet and son Simon. He was a very popular character spending a good few number of years putting the youngsters of MarstonSchool through their paces ensuring that they were proficient in cycling and safe on the roads.
Baptisms: Owen George Vickers of Marston in June; Oliver Samuel Trowman of Hougham in July; twins Emelia Catherine and Annabelle Kirsten Sergeant in Hougham in August.
Our local school continues to flourish and attracts many pupils from the surrounding villages. The school celebrated excellent SAT results being the top school in Lincolnshire and third in the whole country; quite an achievement for a small village school.
The village hall is supported by organisations, play school and casual hirers; the doctor continues to hold a weekly surgery which is well supported.
We still have a local pub with a small shop, two churches, one school but still no bus service.
LC March 2013