The Huddersfield & District Family History Society are holding their annual family and local history fair on Saturday October 26 2024 at a new venue – The Masonic Hall, Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, from 10am-4pm.

The society will be welcoming over 20 different exhibitors to the event. These include family history societies from all over Yorkshire, as well as some from Lancashire. There will also be many independent organisations and local family and local history groups.

Both Huddersfield Local History Society and the Huddersfield Family History Society will be selling a large range of new and used books, all with a local or family history theme. In addition, there will be a full range of local maps for sale from around the turn of the 20th century.

A sale of excess stock of local church transcription booklets, mainly baptisms, will also be taking place at the event.

 

 

New exhibitors this year include the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and below is the information from its website about Edgerton Cemetery.

“A number of the 1914-1918 war graves could not be marked by headstones, and the names were recorded on a screen wall standing immediately behind the Cross of Sacrifice.

“Both the Cross and the memorial wall were built of Stancliffe stone. There are 71 burials of the 1939-1945 War, of which 24 are situated in a group of war graves in Section 14 on the border of the central path – the remainder are scattered elsewhere.

“An ex-serviceman is also buried in the special group, whose grave has been marked by a headstone designed to harmonise with those on the war graves beside it.

“After the 1939-1945 war three names were added to the existing screen wall to commemorate the three servicemen buried in Lockwood (Emmanuel) Churchyard whose graves could no longer be maintained, two being 1914-1918 war burials and one a soldier of the 1939-1945 war.

“The panel on which the three names are inscribed, also made of Stancliffe stone, is affixed to the left hand side of the wall, and above the names are the words THESE SOLDIERS LIE BURIED IN EMMANUEL CHURCHYARD, LOCKWOOD.

“Five burials from Lindley (Zion) Methodist Burial Ground are now alternatively commemorated on the Screen Wall in this cemetery.”

There are also individual Commonwealth War Graves in a number of other local cemeteries, and the society’s own memorial inscription team will have records available of any Commonwealth War Graves in the cemeteries they have surveyed.

Another new exhibitor this year will be the Society for One-Place Studies, a group where its members place particular emphasis on studying the history of a particular place, this might be a village or even just a street; it might also be an establishment with an interesting history.

Anyone wanting to find out more about their ‘place’, family background or relatives are invited to attend the fair and speak to the society’s experienced researchers and the other exhibitors.

Refreshments will be available throughout the day. Admission is £5, children under 16 free.

Go to www.hdfhs.org.uk for information about the exhibitors attending and the range of talks and speakers included in the admission price or email secretary@hdfhs.org.uk.

 

What’s On in Huddersfield in October 2024 with Huddersfield International Market, Jeff Stelling, Halloween events and a spooky sleepover