Projects

Recently Completed

We disposed of some of the generous bequest we received from a former resident, Alice May Langford — installing a commemorative bench near to the pavilion on the Village Playing Field; donating to Shalford School a trophy in her name, to be awarded annually to the pupil submitting the best entry on an aspect of local history, and the relevance of the village past to the village present.

St Andrew's Guide

Edited and produced a new guidebook for St Andrew's Church and donated 200 copies to the Parochial Church Council, which we hope will bring in extra funding for church maintenance and restoration.

We had our usual display at the 2010 Village Fête.

Current Projects

A second volume of old photographs is in preparation and we hope to publish it in 2012/13

Our member Paul Dickinson is researching the lost hamlet at Park End, with a particular focus on the families who lived there.

We are working on the idea of a publication based on Margaret Sparks's exploration of Shalford School registers of the early 1900s, to describe various aspects of school life in those days.

Something you might not know

The first person connected with Shalford, whose name
we actually know, was Mathild of Flanders, wife of
William the Conqueror. Shortly after Easter, 1067, she
crossed the Channel from Normandy and on Whitsunday
that year was crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey.
William gave her the barony of Shalford. She died the
day after All Saints Day, 1084.

In the not so distant past, Shalford people used many
words that have now gone out of use.

Here are some strking ones it may seem a pity to have lost.

badge (to worry),   hoppet (a small meadow)
balm (to smear with dirt), jacob (a frog)
bever (a labourer's lunch),  mob (to scold)
brash (wood for kindling),  nib (a funny fellow)
bumby (a rubbish pit),   paigle (cowslip or oxlip)
chank (to chew) ,  parky (cold, as of weather)
confloption (a muddle),  plum-pudding (red campion)
dag (dew),  sere (dry, as of wood)
flack (to flap in the wind),  slomp (to walk noisily)
fleet (shallow),  solomander (to smack)
glout (to scowl),  teg (a labourer's beer keg) 
hedge betty (a dunnock),  tetchy (irritable)
hodmedod (a snail),  trench (to eat heartily)