This project will repackage the village archive into conservation-grade packaging, it is intended to be phase one of a bigger project to create a digital archive and website.
Ropley has a stored archive of some 400 photos, several hundred documents and other artefacts going back to 1860. These are un-digitised and stored informally in the village. They need to be organised, preserved and recorded in an accessible format. It is then expected that the archive will be continually added to by inviting people to contribute offerings of photographs, recordings of memories, documents and such like, of the history and village life in the locality. This is phase one of the creation of a digital archive and website for Ropley.
Digitising the existing archive will make this content accessible to all via an existing well-established website run by The Ropley Society, it will also enable the display of findings and material from the village history projects.
The main project is to be the subject of a Heritage Lottery Grant application (in the category of £3,000 – £10,0000) that will enable the creation of a digital community archive and website for the parish of Ropley and the surrounding area in Hampshire. Ropley aims to digitise as much of the existing archive as possible and provide a platform for the cataloguing, storage of, and investigation of future digitised records.
