Welcome to Hampshire Archives Trust
The Hampshire Archives Trust (HAT) is a member-led charity that works to support and promote Hampshire’s rich archival heritage.
We deliver this work by giving grants, through education and events, and developing local history networks – preserving memories for the future.
HAT works closely with and supports the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester, the Southampton Archives and the Portsmouth History Centre which between them hold archive collections dating back over 1000 years from across Hampshire.
You can help to save important local archives by applying to us for a grant to fund your project, becoming a HAT member or making a donation.
The Perfect Gift
Want to buy an exciting and thoughtful gift for someone? Why not buy them a Hampshire Archives Trust membership? It’s so easy.
= figures below relate to grants awarded since 2018 to March 2025.
Grants Awarded
Projects Funded
Success Rate
Upcoming Events
Hampshire’s merchant shipping and early modern maritime communities, c.1588–c.1765
2026Sep16 Event description: This webinar explores how merchant shipping and maritime communities developed along the Hampshire coast between c.1588 and c.1765, drawing on new findings from a major AHRC-funded project on early modern English seaborne trade. By shifting the focus from national patterns to the distinctive maritime world of Hampshire, the session highlights the growth of […]
Unlocking Hampshire’s past
2026Sep19 UNLOCKING HAMPSHIRE’S PAST Celebrating the County’s Historians & Archaeologists Saturday 19th September 2026, from 9:30 for 10:00 start, to 16:30. St Peter’s Pastoral Centre, Jewry St, Winchester, SO23 8RY ■An opportunity to learn more about a wealth of Hampshire’s history, much published with free access at: hantsfieldclub.org.uk/publications. ■New insights into the use of the rich […]
Our News
In May 2026 HAT was able to grant £454 for equipment to furnish the Somborne and District Society’s archives storage facility. It is so good to see community group’s committed...
- Grants, Grants - Access to archives, Grants - Community Commemorative Events, Grants - Preservation, Grants - Promoting Archives, News
In 2025 HAT awarded Grayshott Heritage a grant for their book ‘Grayshott’s Wartime Memories’. It has proved to be a great success. The 600 copies printed have all been taken...
- Grants
This Heritage Fair was organised by a subcommittee of the Southampton Heritage Federation which has not held this annual fair since 2019 because of the Covid Pandemic and the ill...
- Grants, Grants - Community Commemorative Events, Grants - Promoting Archives, News
HAT is delighted to support the Watercress Line with a £5000 grant for their project Powering the Past; Steam, Science and Stories from the Watercress Line This project will develop...
- Education, Grants, News
Do you love History? Do you want to become a good historian? Do you want to find out more about archives? Do you want to win a prize? Hampshire Archives...
- Education, News
The winners of this year’s History competition for schools have been announced. The winner of the Years 7-9 Group prize is the Gregg School, and the winner of the Years...
- Education, News
Gift
Make a Financial Gift
By making a financial gift to the HAT you are directly funding the preservation of valuable local history archives for future generations. The HAT awards grants to local history projects which are judged to be of particular historical value in Hampshire. Whether you’d like to make a one-off donation, leave a legacy in your will or make a regular donation, it is very straight-forward.
Stories from the Archives
Led by Professor Martin Biddle CBE with (from 1964) the late Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, every summer from 1961 to 1970 archaeologists from the UK, Europe and the USA worked together to...
- Blog
- Podcast
In September 1993 Patrick Wilde’s play ‘What’s Wrong with Angry?’ opened at the LOST Theatre, a small fringe theatre in Fulham. Thanks to a sold-out final week, it returned in...
- Blog
Recently HAT announced a visit for members to the Gregg School, formerly Townhill Park House, which highlighted that it had been the home of Lord Swaythling in the early 20th...
- Blog
The Watercress Line, Hampshire’s Heritage railway was recently successful in gaining funding from Hampshire Archives Trust, Alresford Historical and Literary Society and New Alresford Town Trust to enhance its family...
- Blog
Someone in the past can change your life. They might influence what you think about today or may set you on an adventure. Their words, immortalised in print, tug at...
- Blog
