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Burton Latimer Heritage Society was formed in 2000 to promote an interest in the history of Burton Latimer and its people. Its formation was prompted by a gift of £2000 by Weetabix Ltd to Burton Latimer Town Council to refurbish a room in the council offices at ‘The Poplars’, High Street, for use as a small museum, later to be known as the Heritage Room.
It was felt that the museum would be best managed by a group of volunteers rather than the Town Council and a public meeting was called to gauge support. It was a successful meeting and the Burton Latimer Heritage Society was formed. In October that year the
Heritage
Museum
opened with its first exhibition and since then has continued to mount three themed exhibitions each year. The museum is ‘under the umbrella’ of
Kettering
Manor
House
Museum
, which provides professional advice and the necessary insurance cover. A peppercorn rent is paid to Kettering Borough Council for the use of the room and its lighting and heating, but the Society is responsible for security.
The Society issues four newsletters a year to its members; they carry news of the Society’s activities and articles of historical interest about the town and its past inhabitants. Because the museum is on the first floor and not easily reached by people with disabilities, an annual ‘Afternoon to Remember’ is held at a ground floor venue to enable them to see some of the photographs displayed at previous exhibitions; copies of photographs from all the previous exhibitions are contained in a series of folders that are taken to these gatherings and they can also be seen when the museum is open. Other activities include visits to local museums, conducted walks, themed ‘living history’ days and speakers. The recent acquisition of a projector will mean that regular audio visual presentations of ‘old
Burton
’ photographs, discontinued following the death of Douglas Ashby in 2002, can now resume.
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Douglas Ashby, a much respected local historian and one of the Society’s founder members, assembled a collection of 900 photographs, which he left to the County Record Office in his will. The CRO kindly allowed the Society to continue to copy these photographs and, using a specialised computer program and equipment bought in 2002 with an ‘Awards for All’ lottery grant, they are being dated and annotated for the benefit of future generations.
The Society was granted charitable status in 2002 and has an executive committee of twelve trustees. The 2007-8 officers are: John Cutmore, chairman; John Meads, secretary; Ian Watson, treasurer. Other trustees are: John and Judy Clipstone, Trevor Cooper, Ivan Cox, Ian Hebden, Anita Marks, Janet Meads and John Peck. Councillors Peter Bettles and Ruth Groome are Town Council representatives.
The
Heritage
Room
Museum
is open on Thursdays and Saturdays from
10am
to
1pm
, except when exhibitions are being changed. Out of town visitors should phone the secretary on 01536 722722 before travelling any distance to check if this is taking place. The museum can be opened at other times by arrangement.
December 2007
The Heritage Room Museum is now closed for a Christmas and New Year break and will re-open with a new exhibition on March 1st 2008. This exhibition, ‘Your Teenage Years’ will explore the lives of Burton Latimer teenage boys and girls over the years – even before the word was invented. Many boys in their ‘teens fought in the First and Second World War and some lost their lives, so the exhibition will not just be about Mods and Rockers or the Rock & Roll Years! More details will appear on this page when the exhibition gets under way.
For those wishing to join, membership of the Society costs £3.00 per year.
The treasurer’s address is
9
Church View
,
Burton
Latimer
,
NN15 5
LG
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