Category: Heritage Centre

BHP Dates for your 2025 diary & The Boxford Classic Car Show

Boxford History Project – Remaining dates for the Diary 2025:

Saturday August 30th Boxford Classic Car Show 12.00 – 16.00 Recreation Ground Boxford Fund raising event for the BHP
Thursday September 25th Local Roman Roads – Keith Abbot 19.30 Boxford Heritage Centre Free entry/donations welcome
Thursday October 16th Researching Family Trees – Steve Smart 19.30 Boxford Heritage Centre Free entry/donations welcome
Thursday November 6th  Blacksmiths to Admirals – Liz Butcher 19.30 Boxford Heritage Centre  Free entry/donations welcome
Boxford Heritage Centre  is open every month on the first Sunday 2-5pm  Free entry/donations welcome
The BHP’s first fund raising event will be the Classic Car Show on Saturday August 30th. We need to generate funds, for as you can see, we do not charge for talks or open days at the Heritage Centre but we obviously have outgoings. Since all the vehicles are 20th Century including WW2 vehicles, we are happy to consider this a history project! The BHP covers a huge range of Boxford History, dating from 6000BC to 1999AD and to that end we will be giving an exhibition of the most important, including some from WW2, in the Village Hall!
This event is being co-ordinated by Andy Brown in Westbrook. He is looking for additional volunteers for marshalling  both visitors car parking and ticket office in Bell Meadow between 12.00 -16.00 and Classic Cars entering through the Recreation Ground from 10.00 – 12.00. He is also looking for extra bar help – not usually a difficult problem! He’s hoping that helpers will be covering only hourly slots if he has enough volunteers.  Importantly, he’s looking for help to set up on Friday 29th afternoon  and even more importantly to clear away on Sunday morning – men and ladies with muscles most welcome – exact times to be discussed.
Further information and offers of help especially please contact Andy asap: ‭07720 885915‬ or email andytammy@aol.co.uk>
For information about other events and reservations for seats at the Heritage Centre as places are limited, please email: boxfordhistoryproject@boxford.org.uk

 

For full details of the Classic Car Show please click on the link.

Boxford Classic Car Show

 

Boxford Heritage Centre Opening Times 2025

Apart from January, the Heritage Centre will be open to the public on the 1st Sunday of each month from 2-5pm. In November and December it will close earlier at 4pm.

Additionally, we open on demand to local historical groups and schools as well as individual visitors. Please contact boxfordhistoryproject@boxford.org.uk

We hold a wide selection of maps, family histories and slide shows of Old Boxford as well as artefacts from different periods of Boxford’s history including finds from the three Roman sites recently excavated by the community and the worked timber of aMesolithic Bog Oak, known as the Boxford Bog Oak which was found during building work. We also have a large photo courtesy of David Shepherd of The Boxford Mosaic and slideshows of the excavations.

Boxora to Boxford – the latest history book and The Boxford Mosaic book- about the 2019 excavation  are available from the St.Andrew’s Church or Boxford Heritage Centre. The Boxford Mosaic book is also available from all booksellers.

 

Boxford Parish Room & Heritage Centre

This little building situated to the rear of the churchyard is now well and truly open.

There is an ongoing project to display and catalogue the many Boxford artifacts, photos, maps, books, files……………………kindly donated by many in the village and further afield over several years; as well as Roman finds from the excavation in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

For those new to the village, this building replaces the Victorian Parish Room located on Glebe land which collapsed in 2009 in a snow storm and followed the wishes of the parish in the 2008 Parish Plan to turn the building into a Heritage Centre. The building has largely been funded by the Payne-Gallwey Trust in memory of Sir Phillip Payne Gallwey, a previous churchwarden of St. Andrew’s Church and his mother Mrs. Janet Payne Gallwey, an active member of all village organisations. There have however, been significant and generous donations from other members of the community and the support of the Greenham Common Trust, West Berkshire Council and Boxford Parish Council.

It is manned by volunteers by appointment, for those involved in local history or family research. It will also be available for schools who have also expressed an interest in using the contents for history projects. There will be no charge for admission to Boxford residents past or present. We look forward to welcoming you.

Boxford History Project team (BHP)
email:boxfordhistoryproject@gmail.com

Parish Room & Boxford Heritage Centre

before-after

“Before & After”

The old Parish Room (left above) was an early Victorian building on glebe land adjacent to the churchyard, originally used as a schoolroom and later as a meeting room for Parish Council meetings and social evenings. The old building collapsed under snow in 2009.

A Diocesan Faculty and Planning Permission were granted for the rebuilding of the Parish Room as a local Heritage Centre. A large and generous donation from the Payne-Gallwey Charitable Trust enabled the project to get off the ground. A plaque in memory of Sir Philip Payne-Gallwey, a long serving Churchwarden of St.Andrew’s Church and for his mother Janet Payne-Gallwey, a most energetic and supportive Boxfordian, was subsequently approved. Other generous donations for the building came from the Greenham Common Trust (GCT), The David Lewin Memorial Fund, Boxford Parochial Church Council and a West Berkshire Council Parish Plan Grant and several donations were made through the GCT.findmeagrant.

The new building (above right) is now complete. It has become a storage and display room for local artefacts and parish documents. There is a vast amount of parish information currently held by individuals which will be available for information and research by all. One of the most important recent additions, are the finds from the Roman villa discovered in 2013. This museum will be the only one to hold these finds.

Furniture for the Parish Room has been funded by another generous donation through GCT. findmeagrant in memory of Graham Luff. If anyone has any contacts with knowledge of displaying or archiving, would they please contact Joy Appleton 01488 608422 or church@boxford.org.uk

The Parish Room will also be available for small meetings. Please contact the verger Joy Appleton.

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