Dear Member,
I am very happy to announce to the Milton Heritage Society Membership
that Martin Axton has agreed to join our committee as the heritage
research coordinator. Martin was born in New Milton and lived all his
formative years in the New Milton Parish. His parents moved to Sea Road
Barton on Sea in 1952 where he attended St. Georges School in
Highcliffe, and then in 1957 to High Ridge Crescent in Ashley where he
attended Ashley Secondary School, where he was fortunate enough to be
taught History by the late great Arthur Lloyd. Martin was inspired by
Arthur Lloyd’s enthusiastic teaching, which made him decide to become a
History teacher later in his career.
We want the Milton Heritage Society to be more than just a group who
meet once a month for a talk and attend the occasional exhibition. The
MHS wants to inspire and motivate it’s members to carry out their own
research on local history or heritage matters. This can either be
carried out as an individual or in groups. The Milton Heritage Society
will offer guidance and support and will suggest methods of funding for
the research. In some cases, the MHS will be able to provide some data
and material to start the project off. It is hoped that members will
also contribute skills and knowledge to the various research groups. It
is intended that the material gathered by the groups will be written up
and published on the MHS website and in the form of books or pamphlets.
Martin Axton will coordinate and liaise with the groups. He is
contactable via e mail: martinaxton@hotmail.com or via 01425 276971.
Some suggestions for future research topics are; The naming of our
streets, a record of buildings of heritage merit in Milton Parish,
Milton Parish in the two World Wars, the three bombings of New Milton,
the fossils of the Barton Levels, the poor law and welfare in Victorian
Milton, the railway station, literary connections to Milton Parish,
education in Milton Parish through the ages, Marconi wireless
experiments in Barton on Sea, the water tower, the Indian Army in Barton
on Sea 1914-1915. We welcome your suggestions for interesting research
topics.
On Saturday 16th of September the MHS will be supporting the New Milton
Town Council project called ‘Be Involved. This is a way of promoting the
wide ranging community activities in New Milton for all ages and
abilities. The MHS will have a table of local historic maps and images
on display in the War Memorial Centre from 10.00 until 16.00. Martin
Axton will be available for MHS members to meet and to discuss any
historical research projects that they want to start up. In addition the
MHS chairman, Nick Saunders, will be leading a heritage walk around New
Milton. The walk will last an hour during which Nick will give a brief
history of the area and show historic images of locations encountered en
route. There will be one walk at 11.30 and another at 14.30 both leaving
from the car park of the War Memorial Centre.
For more information go to http://beinvolved.org.uk/
Regards,
Nick Saunders
Chairman Milton Heritage Society
nick@miltonheritagesociety.co.uk
01425 618549