Working together

We enjoy working with students, teachers, and lecturers at school, sixth form and university level to help foster a love of history and, in particular, a greater appreciation and understanding of the value and use of archives. We want to encourage students to use the huge wealth and range of archives in Hampshire to help them discover what they can teach us about ourselves, our past, and the area in which we live.

Become a detective

Exploring archives can be like being a detective. It can be great fun and hugely rewarding. There is nothing quite like the thrill of holding an original old document and reading it for yourself, whether it is a letter from Tudor times, a diary entry from the 1800s, a letter from a soldier to his wife or girlfriend back home, an old court document, churchwardens’ accounts from your local church, or a record relating to your house, school, or street. If you have not yet had that experience or have not yet researched the history of your family, house, school, or locality by discovering what people from the past said or recorded themselves, then that is something to look forward to! The inner detective in you will love it!

Exploring archives

Archives – whether they are photographs, official records or reports, letters, diary entries or voice recordings of people’s memories – can tell us so much about our own history. They can deepen our understanding of past events, challenge our perceptions, and often make us appreciate what life was like for our ancestors in ways that we never expected