Chrishall Village Archive – a personal view from a newcomer’s perspective

When we think of history we usually think of the history of kings and queens, church and state, wars and conquests.  In other words, the history of very big events.  But local history, the history of your own village, your street, your house and the people who lived and worked there – that’s the micro-history that shaped the everyday lives of those who lived here before us and is still shaping us today.  When we learn about the story of our neighbourhoods we feel connected to that past in a very real and concrete way, walking in the footsteps of the people who have inhabited our very own spaces in times gone by.

I moved with my family to Chrishall at the end of 2017, so am very much a newcomer to the story of our village.  A glance around the graves in the churchyard (highly recommended – it’s a beautiful spot), and the recurring names there, will tell you that there are families who have lived and worked here for generations and many still live here today. Those of us moving into the village without those connections and personal recollections, though, can still learn so much about the history of our own surroundings through our thriving local history group – Chrishall Village Archive.  Through the Archive, together with the memories of those who became my neighbours, I learnt that our house – Faerie Cottage – was where the Archive began.

Mrs Irene Cranwell lived in Faerie Cottage for 75 years.  She was once a newcomer to the village herself and worked here as a young schoolteacher.  In 1935 she married Bernard Cranwell – a surname that you will see over and over again in the churchyard – and became an enthusiastic historian of the village she had made her home.  She founded a mobile museum (beautifully illustrated – see photo) and was an avid chronicler of village life and history throughout her long life. If you walk into the village along Crawley End you will see a bench in her memory, erected around the time of her death in 2010.

Through the Archive and the people I have met there I have learned that our house (not huge by any means) was once two tiny cottages, that our bathroom was once a Still Room, for the making and storing of household remedies, that Bernard Cranwell was the village wheelwright. I have been fascinated with photos of the house and its surroundings from years gone by. The more I have learnt about the house and its former inhabitants the more I feel part of a continuum of village life, with a sense that I belong here now.

Whether you are new (or newish!) to village life, or whether you and your family have been part of it for generations, the Village Archive is a mine of information for all of us.  Do come along to one of our Open Days in the Brand Pavilion next year.  Keep an eye on the website or our Facebook / Instagram page for dates and information.

Sarah Cahill
New member of Chrishall Archive Group

[Originally published in Chrishall village magazine, Spring 2025]