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A trip down memory lane
Hillam Historians’ focus for Village Day 2009 was once again to celebrate Hillam’s agricultural heritage. Thanks to much hard work by Valerie Richardson and Roy Hill, a wide range of historic agricultural exhibits gathered in the Square, before parading to be displayed on the school field and the Community Association car park. Valerie also arranged for a modern tractor to join the event, to illustrate the changes in machinery and farming practice over the past hundred years.
Our mechanical visitors included Victoria, the magnificent steam traction engine who is now over a hundred years old. Many will remember her previous visit to the village when she came on Pump Day in 2007, to help us celebrate our renovation of the village pump by Roy and his team. As she passed through the village from Hillam Common en route for Monk Fryston, Victoria once more took on water at the village pump.
Throughout the morning, we again had the pump up and running, and encouraged villagers old and young to come and pump the waters. Working village pumps are rare indeed, so many families took the opportunity to step back in time and experience life as it would have been in Hillam before mains water arrived in the 1930s.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the day the fantastic success that it was.
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