A special exhibition looked into Stretton-on-Fosse’s fascinating history and culminated in a moving memorial service

An ‘ordinary’ village showed its extraordinary past in a special exhibition that culminated in a moving memorial service on Sunday, 22nd September.

For many years, Donald Holdsworth had been the driving force behind Stretton-on-Fosse Local History Group. He and the group accumulated hundreds of documents and photographs over the decades. In 1999, to mark the millennium, Donald published a book which shared fascinating stories, insights and facts from the village’s history.

Donald sadly died aged 92 in December, and just a little over two months later his dear wife Margaret, 85, also died. She was a mother of four and a matriarch of the village, including serving as churchwarden.

The much-missed pair have been very much on the minds of villagers as the history group carried on Donald’s good work by putting on a comprehensive display documenting the history of the village in St Peter’s Church in Stretton.

The two-week exhibition was put together by Geoff and Naomi Dalton, Malcolm and Wendy Oliver, and with help from the Whittaker family.

“It was nice especially rewarding seeing mums bring youngsters into the exhibition to show them the lives of their grandparents and even their great-grandparents,” Geoff told the Herald.

“It made it all worthwhile, to see the young children connect with the previous generations.

“I'm a bit concerned that nowadays people put things on their phone and we don't get a hard copy so there’s not that history. It is a worry,” continued Geoff, who is 77.

The history society was formed around 40 years ago, Geoff and Naomi were founder members.

“As the only people living in the village from the original history society it has become our responsibility to take it on,” explained Geoff. “Before Donald died, he knew it was carrying forward.

For now, Geoff’s Stretton home is used to store the history group’s many documents and photos.

Geoff, who owns and runs the Cotswold Falconry Centre, continued: “Luckily, I’ve got a room in the house, which is, because of my work, it's nicely insulated and it was an ideal place to store everything. But of course, in the long term, it must go down the village hall. All this stuff doesn’t belong to me or Donald but to the village and so belongs in the hall.

“The idea of having this exhibition was to raise enough money to have a metal cabinet installed in the hall so the documents can be contained there,” added Geoff.

Money donated during the exhibition raised £660, with half going to the church, and sales of Donald’s books reached £170, meaning that the purchase of the cabinet can go ahead.

“We’d like to get more and younger people involved with the group, and are planning to host an evening in the hall and screen some incredible archive film footage of the village show,” added Geoff.

The memorial service on Sunday was an especially poignant time for the Holdsworth family, who also experienced the loss of Margaret and Donald’s son Giles, aged 51, this month.

Stretton showed its support by packing the church, giving thanks and sharing memories.

Rev Richard Cook spoke of how even a seemingly ordinary village like Stretton had extraordinary tales to tell, and extraordinary people to tell them.

He spoke of how the exhibition - which included hundreds of faces from days gone by - properly and poetically conveyed the depth of time.

Sharing lines from Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, he recited:

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.