Lottery Heritage Grant application on hold – We were hoping to put in our application for a grant, to produce a website and online archive, firstly in last May and then due to Covid19 this was put back to this October. We are now notified that LHF applications are again put back to 2021
Plans for 2021
Meetings in the spring . We are planning, depending on Covid restrictions and guidelines for social events, to hold an open meeting for all members and anyone else interested , in the Parish Hall to bring people back together again and reinvigorate interest in the project to digitise the village archive and other projects.
Starting to catalogue and digitise the existing village archive. We are going to continue with our plan to spend the local grants of £1500 that we have been given and to start work on the cataloguing, digitising and conserving of the existing archive amassed and currently stored by Tim Day. This will involve setting up some small working groups to work on this, hopefully in the new parish hall room. We will be looking to sign up people interested in working on this in our spring open meeting.
This Is proving to be an excellent way for the group to sign up new members and keep in touch despite the restrictions that are preventing us all meeting up. We are now 135 members on the page and there is much enjoyable discussion and trips down memory lane over posting of old photos and other snippets about Ropley and the local area. Do have a look at our page.
The Network
RHN&A is also a network and not just an archive. So despite the current restrictions we can still study, research, and share. The Steering group would really like to encourage independent research on any local history topics, running on an informal, self-managed and voluntary basis with individuals perhaps researching on their own or with in a group – meeting either virtually or in the garden at the moment! The digital archive, when set up, will be ready to host all the projects and areas of study.
Historic Maps
How many of us are not fascinated by old maps ? We’ve done some more work in the past months to try and find more and older maps of the village and now have access to 1839 Tithe Maps and local Ordnance Survey maps. Other early maps are online. But we are looking for more! Do you have any? Perhaps attached to your deeds? Please do contact us if you would like further information or have anything to share.
Update on current and emerging projects . These are progressing and with the success of Facebook interest we will be able to launch some others in 2021 and hopefully have some new projects to announce soon.
One possible project, suggested by the interest and information shown on the Facebook page, is about Colonial bungalows and their importance in the development and character of the settlements in Ropley and the locality. Simple cheap and easy to construct up till the 1960’s they formed a large number of the houses in the village. Most have now been replaced and we believe there are just 5 left.
The Ropley History Network would like to sponsor a piece of work to capture the history of these dwellings so important to the development of the village before the remaining buildings either disappear or are remodelled.
So……………
If you currently live in a Colonial Bungalow – do you have documents or picture relating to its history, you would be willing to share?
Did you live in a Colonial bungalow in years gone by – do you have documents or memories you could share?
Do you live in a house that used to be a colonial bungalow- if so, do you have deeds or documents covering that part of its history you would be willing to share?
Are you interested in joining a small group like-minded people to investigate, document and record the information that we have available about these buildings so important to the development of Ropley ?
Many thanks for your continued interest and involvement
Caroline Ludgate
Ropley History Network and Archive Steering Group
ropleyhistory@gmail.com