Cakes and Tales – A Friends of Lydiard Park event

To be held at Hook, Greatfield and Greenhill Village Hall SN4 8EA
2.30pm Tuesday 15 November 2022

Last year our Cakes and Tales event was such a resounding success we thought we would make it an annual occasion. Thanks to our wonderful audience, new material in the form of photographs and documents came to light and have kept on coming! If you have family connections with Lydiard Park and the parish of Lydiard Tregoze this is a chance to share your memories and explore The Lydiard Archives with Friends of Lydiard Park Chair Sarah Finch-Crisp and local historian and fellow Trustee, Frances Bevan.

For over fifty years The Friends of Lydiard Park have been gathering and compiling the memories and stories of people who grew up in and around Lydiard Park, creating a fascinating history of the life of the village. We will be showing more of the historic photographs we have collected and describing some of the stories behind them. This year is the 70th anniversary of the opening of Hook Village Hall in 1952; an amazing local achievement. Find out about the whist drives, dances and entertainment which were part of the fundraising effort to build the hall and help us fill in some of the gaps.

Frances Bevan will also share her discoveries in the remarkable diaries of Elliot Woolford (d1941) of Hook Farm. Elliot provides the reader with a no-nonsense view of farming life at Lydiard Tregoze spanning more than 45 years as well as a record of social activities in the village. His livelihood was forever at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather and fluctuating market prices but both he and his wife Amy appeared indomitable.

The Lydiard Archives are continually expanding and provide a wonderful digital resource for anyone interested in their local history, including school pupils who will be able to discover more about what life was like for children in the past. Please do bring along any photographs and historical material you would like to share and we will photograph them on the spot.