For several years February was Panto season in Hickling – sometimes because December was targeted but it never quite happened in time but it was also a great January pick-me-up. We hope you will enjoy a trip down Memory Lane! If you can help with extra photos or programmes or scripts from productions of the past (especially of the Hickling Players), please message us or comment, below.

Bob Timms has kindly offered us access to his family history. The Timms, Woolley, Starbuck, Soar and Armstrong names are well known in the village as well as having links to both the Plough Inn and the Post Office. We are grateful that he has passed on both photographs and written histories.

New galleries of the recent snowy weather added to the weather page; also included on the Church, Canal and There but not There pages. Plus extra info added to the flooding sections.

Please get in touch if you have any photos or info that we could add to these pages – thank you!

New page added following the historic convergence of Jupiter and Saturn in December; please contact us with your photos! Page also includes the 1999 solar eclipse.

We have recently been asking around for stories of skating on the Hickling Canal Basin and we’ve had a great response – thank you! What we have, so far, can now be found on this page. We’d love to add more – please get in touch with anecdotes and pictures!

In the last 6months we have received two separate enquiries about local families emigrating to Australia (Starbucks) and New Zealand (Woolleys) and then, more recently, an account of the deportation of a Hickling man, John Morrison – adding to ongoing research (although not on the website yet, I’m afraid). The first two stories have now been written up; Joseph Starbuck & the James T Foord Cholera Ship and Samuel Woolley and the Plough Inn. Strangely, it is possible that these two families may have come together again in New Zealand but we are still looking into this – far more questions than answers, so far!

Updates on the Local History website:

Nothing major recently but several bits’n’pieces:

· Protestation Returns 1842: we found a copy of a book which transcribed all the Nottingham Returns  – a few minor changes made (although we’ve gone with our local interpretation of some of the entries …).

· The emigration stories have continued to develop: it seems that Mark Starbuck (on the James T Foord cholera ship) moved on to New Zealand and settled in the same area as Samuel Woolley (Plough Inn article, last issue) – he was even licensee of a Plough Inn but there is no firm evidence directly linking them to each other …

· More added to the Lengthsman’s Hut  renovations page.

· Some new aerial photos of the village from the church tower.

· Kinoulton Estate Auction catalogue 1919; we now have copies of the maps/plans that accompany the catalogue.

· An article about the Trent Bore has been added to the Anglo-Saxon Vikings page

· A new article about The Mrs Mabel March Cup has been added to the page about  Horticultural/Flower/Produce Shows. Her story is fascinating and we’d love to hear from you, if you can answer any of the remaining questions. Also added to the page is a gallery of newspaper articles recording shows from years gone by.

Sadly, no Scarecrow Weekend this year but, as part of our Tomorrow’s History Project, you can now see scarecrows past: if you can add photos and anecdotes, please get in touch!

We are really pleased to be able to share Chris’s history of Hickling with everyone on the website: it is an extraordinary body of work which, unfortunately, was left unfinished when he died in 2015. Chris had an interesting and distinctive writing voice and we hope that we have been able to retain the spirit of his intended book. We have been working with his family to retrieve and organise the research and writings so far and a close friend, John Hopkinson, has written a foreword to introduce Chris to his readers. There is, we believe, much more to do; but for now, please enjoy!

Hickling families – how many different surnames would you guess that we have found so far?

200? 500? 1,000?

So far (excluding spelling variations) my count has reached 947; of these, 3 families seem to have lived in the village from at least 1642 (Protestation Returns) until now – The Collishaws, The Faulks/Fawkes family and the Caunt family. Research isn’t complete (by any means) and we can’t be sure if all 3 families have been continuously present but it’s still a nice record!

Almost a thousand family names involves a lot of work on the website; on top of that, we have 160+ houses and a further 100 businesses, clubs etc etc to add. So, we’ve changed the plan; we are creating a framework for the future – pages will be added for all subjects that we know we have information for and then we will go back and gradually add the information on to each one. The idea is that, if you can find a page for what you are looking for but it is empty (!) you will know that we have something on that subject – then you can contact us & we will send it through to you ahead of i appearing on the website.

THE FAMILY PAGES are now ready and a small number have information already attached to them The rest will hopefully appear in the next couple of weeks.

Either way, if you have any information or queries – please contact us.

THANK YOU for your patience!