The Newnham Oral and Written History Project is all about ‘celebrating the past and building the future’ as it aims to use local heritage and history as a vehicle to build a stronger community going forward.
The project has two elements:
- 10 x oral history recordings of selected residents (mainly those who have resided in the village the longest) by an experienced social historian (Mary Blaxland). These recordings will be made available to Newnham residents to enhance their knowledge of the village’s history and will also be donated to the Wessex Film and Sound Archive so that they are available to researchers and future generations.
- The production of a history of Newnham written by amateur local historian and long-standing Newnham resident, Nigel Bell. This will be the result of accumulated local history research begun by his grandfather well over a century ago, and continued by Nigel over the past fifty years, drawing on documents held by Hampshire Record Office and other archives.
Together these will raise understanding of the village’s history and heritage and build a sense of community going forward.
The intent is to produce enough hardback copies for each of the 229 households in Newnham and to donate books to the Hampshire Archives and local libraries for the benefit of researchers, local history enthusiasts and future generations