About
Helmdon History is the online archive of the Helmdon Local History Group. It brings together more than 5,000 records of life in Helmdon, Astwell, Falcutt and Stuchbury, from medieval deeds to the parish council minutes of recent years, and it is kept up to date by volunteers from the village.
What you will find here
- Articles researched and written by local people, about the village, its buildings, families and events
- Press cuttings about Helmdon, transcribed in full and credited to the newspapers that published them
- Documents, obituaries and reminiscences, many in people’s own words
- Photographs of the village and its people, old and new
- Parish council records, including meeting minutes from 2006 onwards
- Village life: the clubs, groups, church, school, carnival and events that have shaped the community
- Family history: census returns, registers, memorial inscriptions and other lists for anyone researching a Helmdon family
You can browse the whole archive, walk the village on the Helmdon Trail, or ask the archive a question in plain English.
How it began
The website began in 1999, when Audrey Forgham, then secretary of the Helmdon branch of the Workers’ Educational Association, set out to put the village’s history on the internet with the help of a small lottery grant. Danny Moody joined as webmaster in May 2000, and together they ran the site for more than twenty-five years: Danny looked after the technical side and Audrey edited the content.
As helmdon.com it won national awards and served for eighteen years as the village notice-board. In 2018 the Parish Council took over village news on its own website, and this site became helmdonhistory.com, devoted to the village’s history. In 2026 it was rebuilt to make the archive easier to search and use. You can read the full story, and click through some of the old pages, in The Helmdon website, 1999–2026.
Who looks after it
The archive is looked after by members of the Helmdon Local History Group committee, all volunteers. Much of what is here exists because villagers, past and present, shared their photographs, documents and memories, and we are grateful to every one of them.
Can you help?
We do our best to get things right, but we sometimes get things wrong, and there is always more to find out. We would love to hear from you if you have a photograph, document or memory to share, if you have spotted a mistake, or if you know more about something in the archive. Please get in touch.
Privacy
We have removed private home addresses, telephone numbers and personal email addresses from the archive, including from the scanned documents. If there is something about you or your family that you would like changed or removed, please tell us and we will look at it promptly. Our privacy notice explains how we handle your information.