PICKWELL VILLAGE
The village archive is a place to store memories and historical information about the village and village life for future generations. We are always looking for new content and those of you and your families who have been in the village for many years may have photos or memories that would be interesting to others. We will also be doing some 'talking head' audio files from people who have memories of days gone by. If you have anything to contribute, photo's, maps or a memory, please contact Joanne Ledwell-Clarke.
Church
The date of this photo is unknown, but the two well dressed boys and their well behaved dog suggest early 1900s? The church grave stones are still in place on this photo. Can anyone narrow the date down? At least we know the photo was taken at 2:47pm.
Village Pump
The date of this photo is unknown but the War Memorial has been built and this covers the First World War, though there is a reference to a soldier from the second War on the back which have been added later. The photo must have been taken after 1918.
Please note the water pump near the memorial, this must be been one of a few in the village but there is no sign of this pump left..
Ground water is a few metres below the surface and so is easily extractable.
It is known that the water pump shown in the photo was the only source of water for White Horse Cottage, across the road, in the nineteen fifties. Pickwell was not a leader in piped water supply!
Village from the air
Again the date of this aerial photo of the village is unknown. The White Horse pub (top right hand corner) has not been demolished so the photo is pre-1962. Strawberry Court has not been built and the extensive farm buildings to Home Farm still stand.
Geology
Pickwell Village sits on a flattish bed of a rock commonly called ‘Ironstone’ but its posh name is the Middle Lias Marlstone from the Lower Jurrasic Period. It is a mixture of mud and limestone formed into a soft rock. It was laid down in a shallow lake or marsh around 180 million years ago but amazingly before the Marlstone appeared, this patch of Leicestershire was part of a larger area of land down near the present position of Australia and the Antarctic and then the earth's surface currents gently carried it to its present position – all that distance! To add to this were the dinosaurs wandering around everywhere probably sporting Australian accents.
Pickwell’s Marlstone varies considerably in texture, hardness and the amount of fossils it contains. It is not a very good building stone, too soft, but it is under the village ready to be exploited. There are three quarries in Pickwell, one on the Leesthorpe Road and two at the end of Main Street (this may be one large one).
Marlstone allows the passage of groundwater relatively easily and so is suitable for abstracting water using pumps or wells. There are also some reliable springs close to the village.
Fossils are numerous in some parts of the Marlstone, there are Belemnites as shown in the first photo (this one is in the wall of White Horse Cottage), these were squid like creatures now extinct. Brachiopods (look like sea shells) can also be very common and very varied – see the second photo for a fossil packed lump of rock. Finally there are echinoid fossils which to the common man are known as sea urchins. These appeared long, long before the dinosaurs and live up to this present day, surviving the mass extinctions. These common little creatures are real survivors. See the last photo, this one was found on Strawberry Hill and the white dots are where it’s spines were located.
1616 Map of Pickwell
In 1616 a map (or plan) of Pickwell was produced for the Lord of the Manor. It is to scale, coloured, approximately 6 foot square and covers most of the parish. This photo only shows the village centre.
The village layout is very similar to the one today with the exception of the ‘loop’ road to the north of Main Street, shown by the arrow. All that remains of this loop are the lumps and bumps in the field alongside the Rectory (Parsonage on the Map).
1738 Map of Pickwell
This map is of poorer quality than the 1616 map and its orientation is that north faces downwards. The ‘loop’ road shown on the 1616 map has been replaced by New Close. In just over a century a street containing about 7 properties has disappeared and replaced by pasture. Why?
Trees are obviously important as on many of the hedges on the map, the number of trees is included.
People of Pickwell
The small child in the photo is Florie. She is pictured outside what is now 43 Main St from the next door (41) garden with her mother and grandmother.
Florie's mother was born in number 43 Main Street as was Florie. She went on to marry Fred Davison at Pickwell Church to become Florie Davison.
