Welcome to Kegworth Heritage Centre

It's All Kicking Off Again - Latest KHC News

It's not even the end of January but so much has happened since my Christmas post that I wanted to let you know what we've been up to. The highlights:

• The work to bring the Fire Escape back to meeting Health and Safety regulations has been completed
• The upstairs floor has been sanded, stained and varnished ready for the new displays
• We now have a card reader so we can take payments and donations electronically (please remember to bring your cards with you when you visit or attend any of our events!)
• Our first event is already in the diary - we have a second coffee morning at St. Andrew on March 8th where we will launch our new Friends of Kegworth Heritage Centre scheme
• There will be a Barn Dance in the village hall to help raise funds for KHC
• We've been working hard with other village groups to create a new Kegworth Village Events system
• We are now advertising for two new trustees to expand the board at KHC
• We are also looking to recruit more volunteers to join the team - and we would be happy to hear from people who may not live in the area but who could help out remotely with some of our admin and back office work

Keep your eyes open for a more detailed update.

Chairman's update - Christmas 2024

It doesn’t feel like it, but this is only the second Christmas message I’ve written as the chairman of KHC, although there have been quarterly updates and a couple of posts as acting chairman. Looking back on my past musings, I noticed a theme of uncompromising optimism and hope. Because that has been the narrative behind KHC for the last four years, and it wasn’t until July last year that it felt like it was beginning to have some effect. It’s not the greatest business strategy, and it certainly doesn’t stand up by itself, but without hope and optimism, it can be easy to start thinking that maybe you have bitten off more than your should have done!

We had two primary objectives in 2024. The first was to finally reopen, and the second was to prove to the people of Kegworth that their trust in us was not misplaced. We also needed to get through the year with enough financial strength to start our second season in 2025! It has not been easy. There are still challenges ahead. But these were huge goals to achieve, and you cannot imagine the effort, resilience, and sheer stubbornness of our volunteers to get through the year.

As we head into 2025, we now know that we will open up the second floor in time for the start of the season in the spring. We have secured the elusive funding to repair the fire escape, which has been a huge problem for many years, and work has finally started. Even before that was certain, the volunteers had spent an exhausting few weeks clearing the upstairs, creating new storage space, sanding and preparing the floor, and finally varnishing and oiling the floorboards. This is another huge step in our plan. Not only will we be able to have additional display space for our own collection, but we hope to encourage other exhibitors to help them showcase their work. We can finally begin to build a space for researchers who want to understand more about the village, their families, and their own local history. Lastly, that space will be used to host events for people to come and join us to hear from speakers, local or from further afield, and secure our place as a genuine community hub. There are exciting times ahead.

On behalf of the trustees, I want to thank our volunteers and all our visitors for keeping the faith and supporting us. Special thanks also to Kegworth Parish Council, NW Leicestershire District Council, East Midlands Airport, and Museum Development Midlands for their financial and consultancy support. And shout-outs to Lovage Homes for their generous donation and last but not least, to Mr. James McKay of this parish for giving us exclusive sales rights to the 2nd edition of his Kegworth Pubs book.

Have a fantastic holiday and we look forward to seeing you again in the Spring!

Ally Gill, Chairman KHC
Prague, December 2024

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