Haddenham Museum's 25th (silver) anniversary was celebrated with a programme of talks, displays etc. on the weekend of 18th and 19th November.
Haddenham resident, and actor, Bruce Alexander, who cut the ribbon with a pair of sheep shears to launch the museum 25 years ago, made a speech in which he thanked all who had contributed to the success of the museum.
He also opened a parcel containing the latest (20th) edition of The Haddenham Chronicles with its appropriately silver cover, which is now on sale at the museum (open Sundays 2-4pm and Tuesdays 10am-12noon) priced £3 for members and £4 for non-members. It contains 11 articles on a variety of subjects relating to Haddenham or with Haddenham connections.
On Saturday morning, a capacity audience had a chance to see the premiere of Mike Stephens' revised and updated film "The Changing Face of Haddenham 2023". DVDs of this, costing £5, are on sale at the museum.
There was also a talk given by Peter Chamberlain on the history of Haddenham's airfield and, if you missed the talk, there's lots of information at haddenhamairfieldhistory.co.uk.
In the afternoon, there was a talk by BBC weatherman Matt Taylor on the history of weather forecasting, a performance of the traditional Haddenham Mummers' play, and a presentation, by Mike Whitney, of old photos of the village.
During the weekend, those present were able to look at scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings relating to the village, along with photo albums, photos and videos.
On Sunday afternoon, there were three talks: Alan Rose, who has been chairman of Haddenham Museum Trust since its beginning, talked about the Gaiety Girl, who lived in Haddenham for a while. He also spoke of two Haddenham girls, one of whom joined the Tiller Girls and one who joined the Bluebell Girls. There's an article about them in the new issue of The Haddenham Chronicles.
Julian Hunt, chairman of the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, spoke about Long Crendon's needle making business, and Diana Gulland told about two lots of refugees who found refuge in Tythrop Manor: Basque children escaping the horrors of the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, and young adults from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria who came to take up farming apprenticeships in the 1940s.
There are articles about the refugees in Chronicles 13 and14, which are on sale at Blooming Fruity (community greengrocers) and in the museum.
Christina Jeffery
