ON Monday 20th November members of Tidenham Historical Group and representatives of community groups gathered to mark the arrival of a new historical interpretive panel.

The panel shows how Sedbury looked before and then after the Government’s decision was made to turn the whole of the Beachley peninsula into a vast shipbuilding area and what effect it had on the then very tiny community.

The detailed coloured border, painstakingly painted by the group’s chairman, Keith Underwood, shows symbols and depictions of events, places and people throughout Sedbury’s history.

The route of the extensive 1917/18 railway lines running through the village are shown and there is a trail to follow around the area showing what buildings date from the first world war, including those which still survive.

This information board is the second event this year in a longer project commemorating the centenary of the First World War in the Tidenham parish.

There will also be several more partnership events next year including the 100th anniversary of the building which is now called the Sedbury Village Hall and another at Tidenham Church in the summer.

It will culminate in the whole parish joining together for the Armistice Day service on 11th November, 2018.

The Tidenham Historical Group’s chairman gave an overview of the development of the village, particularly explaining how houses were built in Sedbury for the military families who came to Beachley between the wars.

Thanks were then expressed for the support of the community in general and the on-going partnerships with groups such as the Sedbury Village Hall Committee without which the Historical Group would not be able to do as much as they did.

Special thanks for the support with the panel were given to Towngate Surgery for allowing it to be put up the board on their wall, Shiela Bollen and Michelle for providing the refreshments, Gerald McBride and Bill Kerr for the work on framing and mounting the panel and the Tidenham Parish councillors, and Mopla Cottages Trust for sponsoring this board in particular. Chairman of the Tidenham Parish Council, councillor John Powell, expressed the council’s pleasure to be able to support the Tidenham Historical Group and spoke of how he had lived in one of the buildings featured on the panel.