Welcome to the Maypole Heritage website
About Us
Maypole Heritage has its origins in the mid-1980s when a group of people from Northill Parish participated in the BBC Domesday Project. They had a common interest in our local heritage and history and decided to set up a society providing a forum to allow like-minded parishioners to pursue this interest. Regular meetings started in 1988, organized by Alan Bigg, and have continued ever since, on the second Tuesday of the month, at Ickwell Village Hall. Chris Deverall took over in 2000 and when he stood down in 2022, it was headed up by Mark Lewis.
We remain an informal group with no membership fees and our monthly meetings are open to everyone from Northill, Ickwell, Upper Caldecote and the surrounds, who are interested in our local history and heritage. Most meetings involve an outside speaker, but we also organize visits to places of local interest during June/July and have a traditional dinner in March (the “Tripe Supper”).
If anyone would like to be put on the email list to be informed of our upcoming speakers/events, please get in touch at: enquiries@maypoleheritage.org.uk
Our 2024 programme of speakers & events:
- Tuesday 9th January: Debbie Land – “Women Pioneers in motoring”
- Tuesday 13th February: ‘A Miller’s Tale’ – the Jordan family story of farming, milling and survival on the banks of the river Ivel, by Bill Jordan;
- Saturday 9th March: Our annual “Tripe Supper”
- Tuesday 9th April: David Longman – “More stories about Bedfordshire Churches and the people & events associated with them”,
- Tuesday 14th May: David Davies – “Biggleswade’s devilish duel, the mysterious killing of the Master of Gray in 1660”.
- Tuesday 11th June – Visit to Stanstead Bury, Ware
- Tuesday 9th July – Visit to Chester House Estate, Wellingborough
- Tuesday 10th September: Review of Maypole Heritage Archives
- Tuesday 8th October: Damien O’Dell – “The History of Chicksands and the evidence of para-normal activity”
- Tuesday 12th November: Kevin Varty – “Sex, Drugs and Tapeworms”
- Tuesday 10th December: Xmas Social
2025 Programme:
- Tuesday 14th January: Philip Wright – “The Myths and Legends of the Luton Hatters”
- Tuesday 11th February: David Ingham – “Crucifixion at Fenstanton“
- Saturday 8th March: Our annual “Tripe Supper”
- Tuesday 8th April: Felicity Brimblecombe – “The History of Ickwell Bury 1683-1924”
- Tuesday 13th May: Pamela Birch – “what we can learn from old photographs”
- June/July: Summer Visits (TBA)
Maypole Heritage Archives.
Over the years, Maypole Heritage has collected, mainly from donations, a considerable archive of old photographs, articles, newspaper cutting, census records etc. relating to the Northill Parish. Part of this is now being housed on this website under an ongoing, long-term programme. We welcome further donations and are equally interested in housing copies of parishioners’ photographs on this website. So, if you have old photos of events occurring in the parish and are happy to let us copy them and put them on this website (you will get the originals back), please let us know.