A BUSY year at the Blockley Heritage Society is being brought to a close with an evening of historical music.

Richard Sermon, of The Pipe and Tabor Society, will perform A Whistle and a Wassail All Over the Town on Monday, November 26, at 8pm.

The pipe and the tabor are instruments with a long heritage – the pipe is a one-handed whistle with only two finger holes and a thumb hole, while a tabor is an early drum.

This year the heritage society has made progress on plans to extend its premises to include a permanent exhibition.

Meanwhile improvements have been made to its HQ, including the lining of the roof of the John Malin Library on the first floor to improve storage conditions.

Chairman Robert Willott said: “The society has recruited several volunteers from its membership to help build an oral local history archive by recording interviews with villagers about Blockley’s past.

“Plans are also being made to assemble as many stories as possible about Blockley residents who served in the forces or in home defence during the First and Second World Wars, in preparation for the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War and the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Normandy.”

Society president, Jeremy Bourne, has completed a new and updated edition of H.E.M. Icely’s history of the parish – Blockley Through Twelve Centuries – for publication in the new year.