Harbury Heritage Group

The Harbury Heritage Group has a vast collection of historical documents and photographs relating to the village and surrounding area. The Harbury Heritage Centre, as it is now called, is located within the Harbury School grounds. The school has kindly donated the building for us to use out of school hours, the teachers and children have the use of it the rest of the time. It has the capacity to hold talks and exhibitions, as well as providing a hub for the local community. Visitors of any age are welcome from near and far so do pay us a visit.

Open days are every first Tuesday in the month, 7 to 9 pm and every third Sunday 2 to 4 pm. Entrance is via the Park Lane school entrance.

Refurbishment of the Centre would not have been possible without the generosity of several local organisations, including Harbury Parish Council, Harbury WI, Harbury Society and the people of Harbury who kindly donated to an appeal for funds. A sizable community grant from Severn Trent has been used for IT equipment, furniture and signage. J. Murphy & Sons Limited also gave freely of their time and materials to hard landscape the front of the building. To all of these sponsors we are extremely grateful.

More info

Heritage Centre Information Booklet

Plan your visit to the Heritage Centre

Booklet

Helping Year 1 with their topic 'Our island your island'

On a very cold Wednesday the 10th of January, volunteers from the Heritage Group took 30 Year 1 pupils, their teacher, helpers and parents on a guided tour around the village pointing out aspects of village life and highlighting the key landmarks to help them with their topic ‘our island, your island’. We were very impressed with how well the children coped with the cold weather, their attentiveness and their enthusiasm.

Help with School WOW Day

On Monday 4th December we welcomed Year 4 from the Primary School and gave them a presentation on the Anglo Saxons in Harbury. The children dresses in period costume and later took part in other activities, baking bread and making mosaics.

We also welcomed back to Harbury former resident Martin Padbury who was over visiting family.

Treasure Hunt well supported!

Our annual treasure hunt was well supported by all ages and the weather almost stayed dry!

Plenty of pirates about too 😊

Come on a village trail

We offer groups the opportunity to come and find out more about Harbury and its history by taking small groups (maximum 20) on a ‘trail’ around the village.

Afterwards we treat our guests to tea/ coffee and cakes whilst relaxing, viewing our displays and exploring our collection of photographs and documents.

The charge is £5 per head. Get in touch if you would like to book a visit. Weekends and evenings are the preferred times.

The photograph shows a local history group enjoying their tea during a recent visit.

Awards and affiliations

July 2020: Awarded a Community Grant by Severn Trent to help with the refurbishment of the ‘New’ Heritage Centre.

March 2021: Awarded a ‘Great and Valuable Services to the Community Certificate’ by the High Sherriff of Warwickshire Mr. Joe Greenwell.

We are associate members of the 'BALH' (British Association for Local History') and 'THE FRIENDS AT WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY RECORDS OFFICE'

New Publication from The Heritage Group Vice Chairman, David Turner

'The Story of the Harbury Enclosures' is our first publication for some time.

An A3, portrait, spiral bound book designed and produced by David Turner as a result of his extensive work on digitising the original 'inclusion' document held at the Warwick Records Office. The book includes some background information of the land owners as well as a redrawn map of the land distribution made by law in the late 18th Century.

Harbury is a village whose history is built upon agriculture and this document captures this important moment in time when common land came under ownership.

It’s well worth a look and we have copies of it in the Centre.

New Photograph Scanner

The Heritage Group is extremely grateful to the Harbury Parish Council and Harbury W.I for granting us funds for a new scanner which will enable us to back up photographs and documents in our collection. If you have precious photographs of the village and its people, please bring them along to one of our open days and we will be able to scan them and return them to you at the same time. Left - Ann Mayer presenting the WI cheque.

New Panel 'The Story of Harbury' outside the library

A new weatherproof display panel kindly funded by Harbury Parish Council has been fitted outside the library telling the 'Story of Harbury'. The panel, a shortened version of the ones in the Heritage Centre,, was designed by Vice- Chairman David Turner.


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