Alvin M. Keeling 
A VILLAGE celebrates its history with exciting plans to bring it back to life.
Throughout the lockdown, the village of Newton upon Derwent has been busy researching its past and now hopes to share its work with the world through a host of newly implemented activities, one of which is a new pop-up cafe which will open next month.
Speaking of the cafe, resident Margaret Horsley said: “It’s a place where people meet and chat after a time of solitude, with a focus on memories and memories.”
The work they have produced has been made possible through the financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the creative direction of Color Heroes, based in Easingwold.
The new Heritage pop-up café which will be open from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday March 5. It will be at the Methodist Church which is also the community center.
Margaret said: ‘Thanks to the Heritage Lottery grant we were able to purchase the full collection of 1892 Ordinance Survey maps for the parish and also the full 1921 census for Newton upon Derwent which will help anyone research their family history, or the history of their home.
The idea for a cafe came to fruition after residents and members wanted to share their archives that they had developed from hours of research.
Members of the village’s local history group have created an information board with details of the history of the area.
There are leaflets available next to the painting which will take intrigued visitors down a village path to the mask and the River Derwent.
At the end of the trail will be another sign, this one detailed with information gathered with support from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
The next project the village aims to achieve is the digitization of the village archives.
The history group has set up a website for their project which can be viewed here.
The website has details of many different aspects of Newton upon Derwent history for people to read.
