Sunday 23rd April saw large numbers of the community attending the village hall in Kingsley for the launch of the All the Kingsley Men book which is the final chapter in the project’s timeline.

The village hall was at times quite full and it’s estimated that between 150 and 200 people attended the event.

As before, Martin Clewlow’s display of period weapons, uniform and artefacts gave a tangible link to the past and allowed people to better understand what the servicemen in the war experienced.

The Churnet Valley Living Landscape Project was on hand to record people’s history of the valley and were constantly busy from start to finish.

Almost 175 copies of the book have gone already and a good number are on reserve for donation to libraries, archives and the like, as well as those held for people who were unable to attend.

However, there are still copies to be had and anyone wanting to get a copy can message the project from this website.

As previously stated the books were free but we were suggesting a donation in return, with the money raised going to the Village Hall, St. Werburgh’s Church, Kingsley Holt Chapel and Royal British Legion. We were delighted that at the end of the day donations totalled in excess of £579 with more to come in. A fantastic gesture by all those who contributed having got a copy of the book.

Here are a few more photos of the day and more will be published in the coming days.

As the project draws to a close with tomorrow’s book launch its timely to ask all those who subscribe to the site whether they agree to have their email address’s and names passed to the University of Sheffield as part of the evaluation of the project.

Your details go no further than the University who will send you a short survey to complete with your views and comments on what the project has achieved.

We will be collecting names and emails at tomorrow’s event as well.

If you DO NOT wish for your details to be passed on please contact Martyn at martyn_hordern@hotmail.com so he is aware of your views.

Many thanks for supporting the project – there will be further updates and anniversaries over the next 18 months or so as we near the anniversary of the war’s end.

Whilst researching the project a newspaper report was unearthed from 1917. It referred to Mrs Annie Heywood, who was the mother of Robert Myles Heywood who had died in 1015.

The report stated that on 22nd April 1917 a shrine made of oak with two glass bowls incorporated into it had been unveiled at St Werburgh’s Church. It mentioned that it has a crucifix on it.

Mrs Heywood stressed that the shrine was not just to her son but for all the village’s war dead and listed those who had died to that date.  The intention was that those who had lost a loved one in the war could place a slip of paper with their loved one’s name on into one of the bowls.

It was only sometime later in the project that the shrine’s location was realised as being in the porch at the church. Flowers are always on display in it except for lent, the glass bowls have long since gone. Members of the church until this point had no idea of the shrine’s origin.