He was already taking photographs of Olney meadows and family members at the age of 17. Before the First World War he was employed as a “clicker” in the shoe trade. Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre is storing approximately 1750 of his original glass plate negatives and has printed and digitised approximately 1300 of them. He produced picture postcards which he then sold to the local post office or stores. Maurice was born at 14 Midland Road, Olney and became a photographer in Newport Pagnell.īetween 19 (when Milton Keynes was still a village) he cycled around North Bucks photographing local villages and towns. My grandfather was Maurice Kitchener a photographer living in Newport Pagnell. Six generations of my predecessors were all born in Olney (from William 1773, to my father Basil 1919). Olney rugby club player & Newport Pagnell photographer Until about 1960, their home was at the bungalow known as Sarafand in Castle Road, named after Gladys’ birth place (in what was then Palestine). Interestingly, Peter used to live in the village of Lavendon together with his sister and parents, Basil and Gladys Kitchener. One of Maurice’s Grandchildren, Peter Kitchener, has very kindly supplied additional information about his Grandfather. The relevant photographs are individually identified in the various vintage picture galleries elsewhere on this site. The Olney Allotment Association will use the anniversary to establish a new community orchard, while the Cowper & Newton Museum has begun work on a ‘Sharing Heritage’ project, that will tell the stories of the people and places of Olney through new information boards and heritage trails.The Lavendon Connection Web Site is fortunate to have copies of a number of photographs that were taken in Lavendon, typically in the 1930s, by Maurice Kitchener, a photographer working from Newport Pagnell. Other plans include the setting up of an Amazing Grace Community Quilt Project which will lead to the creation of a large quilt dedicated to the hymn that will then tour venues around Olney and beyond. Two one-day conferences, hosted by the Open University and examining the hymn’s origins and enduring legacy, are scheduled for mid-July of 2022. The calendar already lists an Amazing Grace Morning Service at St Peter & St Paul, which will act as the formal start to the celebrations on 1st January 2023. ![]() “In the coming months, we’ll be looking to fill the calendar with more and more events to celebrate this incredibly important song, and we’d love to hear from local groups and individuals who would like to join in by organising their own events and celebrations.” “’Amazing Grace’ is a hymn that means so many things to so many different people, and so we didn’t want to mark its 250th anniversary with just one big official event,” explains Cowper & Newton museum trustee Amanda Molcher. Preparations are already well underway to mark the anniversary with a number of events throughout 20, and on 1st January this year an online calendar was launched to start raising awareness – and to inspire people in and around Olney to think about organising their own events. All eyes are set to be on Olney in 2023, when the town will be at the centre of commemorations to mark the 250th anniversary of one of the world’s most beloved hymns, ‘Amazing Grace’.Ĭomposed by the Reverend John Newton in the weeks leading up to his New Year’s Day service at St Peter & St Paul Church on 1st January 1773, the hymn – in various different musical styles – has gone on to inspire countless people and has even become known in America as the nation’s “spiritual anthem”.
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