2016 Talks

During 2016 the Southam Heritage Collection hosted two open talks at Tithe Place in the town centre. Both were illustrated talks relating to Southam’s history and held on behalf of the Collection for anyone to attend.

One was a complimentary talk to the summer exhibition “Cementing Relations in Southam” given by the Cemex archivist John Frearson and attracted an evening audience of around 30 visitors. John covered the history behind the Southam Cement Works, starting from the many 18^th century lime burning works that through the 19^th century developed into the large 20^th century cement industry still in evidence today.

The other talk was given by our chairman Bernard Cadogan during the daytime and briefly covered the 1,000 odd years of history behind the town. An audience of about 30 discovered how the town survived religion, wars and fires and moved through agriculture and industry to reach to its present day position as a small market town still surrounded by countryside.

10^th Birthday Anniversary

2016 was our 10^th anniversary since taking over this amazing private collection of historical artefacts, documents and photographs from the Cardall family and bringing them further into the public domain as the Southam Cardall Collection. As it has expanded in recent years, it has been rechristened the Southam Heritage Collection and continues to collect together Southam and the surrounding village’s historical background for the future generations of the town to enjoy.

A party was held at Beech Loft, the same house where the original collection was opened to the public on special occasions by Irene Cardall. Today’s members of the Collection gathered together to celebrate this 10^th birthday complete with a birthday cake and hosted by the Cardall family.

The weather was dull and damp, despite it being June, but everyone enjoyed an old fashioned afternoon tea and we all looked forward to another wonderful ten years of bringing the Collection into the public view in many different ways.

Leamington Spa History Fair 2016

Once again the Leamington History Society ran a large history fair in the parish church in Leamington Spa. The church was cleared of its seats and the hall filled with many local history societies and groups, of which we were one.

We took a mini-display of our earlier exhibitions and our publications and spent a busy day talking to visitors and taking the opportunity to see what other local groups are doing.