Foxdale Heritage secretary Stuart Lambie has hosted an open evening at the village school.

The evening included guest speakers and an update on the group’s recent activities.

Thanks to a grant of £10,000, an external renovation of the Heritage Centre has been carried out by Hullard Masonry Ltd.

The FH trustees thanked Manx Lottery Trust for the grant and Hullard Masonry Ltd for managing to, as far as possible, recreate the original 1886 appearance of the former station building.

For the last two years, FH has been also involved in a project to erect 10 interpretation boards around the village.

A grant of £1,000 from the ’Year of Our Island 2018’ kick-started the project, of which Phil Matthews is the driving force.

Mr Matthews updated the audience on the project.

boards

There were examples of several draft board designs and a very impressive completed version, which will be situated near the entrance to the school grounds.

Mr Matthews thanked Mike Buttell who has been a huge help in producing the text and photographs for three of the boards, which feature information on the village’s former railway station and the line between Foxdale and St John’s.

Peter Geddes has also been a great help with advice on those boards which give information about the Foxdale mining industry.

The trustees said they wer grateful to those who had given permission for the boards to be erected on their land.

During the evening Foxdale Heritage chairman Paul Lemaire reminisced about some amusing stories from his past as a Foxdale resident.

His childhood memories included receiving pennies for the tails of ’longtails’.

Due to the bounty system, Paul remembered scouring the countryside for the dead animals.

speakers

Three guest speakers - James Cubbon, Martin Costain and Alan Lemaire - also entertained the audience with recollections of their early life in the village.

A memory they all shared was their love of their first teacher, Marjorie Rimmer.

The village and school in the 1960s and 70s were short of facilities and they had to invent their own games, some of which were very dangerous given the open mine shafts and landscape of Foxdale in those days.

Things improved with the introduction of the Foxdale Playing Fields Association, of which Paul Lemaire was a founder member, and by the end of the 70s the Association had created a playing field with play equipment and a football pitch.

field days

Martin, James and Alan also had fond memories of Foxdale ’field days’, parties, dinner dances and many more activities, all organised by the Association.

They remembered that one year a Field Day was opened by Northern Irish comedian Frank Carson.

Mr Lambie thanked everyone at school for facilitating the evening, including the ladies from the Friends of Foxdale School, and also those who provided prizes for the raffle.

l The next event, organised by Foxdale Heritage, is a sponsored walk/run at Archallagan Plantation on Sunday, November 1 at 2pm.

This will be the start of an effort to raise the large amount of money necessary for improving the interior of the Heritage Centre, which is located next to the school in the middle of the village.