Information - Denton Lincs Centenary Events 15th-16th September

[SDenton]

On 15th and 16th September 2018, as part of the National Heritage Open Days, Denton Village In Lincolnshire is holding a weekend of special events focussed around our village hall. The use of the village hall is poignant as it started it's life as a Nissan hut for the Machine Gun Corps training camp at Belton Park, Grantham, and was purchased by the village as a memorial to the village men who lost their lives. It still looks remarkably similar to 100 years ago, and was featured on a Channel 4's TV “Time Team” Special, ‘Forgotten gunners of WW1’. Representatives from the Machine Gun Corps Old Comrades’ Association will exhibit memorabilia, including uniforms and guns of the period, and give talks on the Corps. Guests include Michael Credland who, in the Queen's Honours List of December 2017, received the British Empire Medal for services to First World War Heritage and Remembrance.

 

Biographies have been completed for all 24 men in the village who lost their lives, to be published in booklet form (“The Men behind the Memorial”) along with information on what it was like to live in Denton in the war years. A commemorative village trail will be created to link the houses associated with Denton's war dead, and other important buildings. A special commemorative poppy artwork will be displayed near the existing memorial in St Andrew’s Church and pupils from Denton School will be creating poppy pictures.

 

All these events are free, but there is a unique special evening of theatre poetry and song planned for Saturday 15th September (entrance £7.50). Members of the Bingham Musical Theatre Company will be performing excerpts of ‘The Suicide Club’, a moving one-act play about a real-life local soldier. The play is based on the diaries of David Polley (Machine Gun Corps) and written by Lincolnshire playwright and poet Darren Rawnsley, with input from Alan.C.Mott, historian and David Polley's grandson. The Belvoir Wassailers, a male voice choir based in the Vale of Belvoir, will also be performing songs from the period. (please see attached for more details)

Denton Concert Poster 180915 F.pdf