HAT has awarded a grant of £4500 to this community archives project. In 2024 the Rowlands Castle History and Heritage group inherited a large village-related archive of photos, documents and postcards, collected over many decades by local historian Ted Redsull. This, in addition to the miscellaneous local items donated by other village residents, creates an important and irreplaceable record of the village history which needs to be preserved and catalogued.
So far, they have secured safe storage for the collection (which extends to 75 plus boxes and files of documents and photos) in the Village Hall and used donations to purchase lockable filing cabinets. They have created a basic catalogue in Excel to note and assess the extent of the collection.
Next steps are to conserve the original documents. Alongside purchasing acid-free storage materials, the purchase of a scanner and specialist cataloguing software will enable the most important items to be digitised. It will also enable the organisation of the collection in a way which is consistent with the methods used by museums and archives and to present the resulting catalogue online. This will make these resources accessible to a greater number of people beyond the local community.
The conservation and digitisation activities will requires recruitment and training of volunteer archivists from our local community. The aim is then to be able to set up further outreach sessions in the community, to highlight the collection and the stories that can be inferred from the wealth of material. The archive will be taken out to schools, youth groups and local care homes and Dementia groups.
There are many original documents and photos which need to be stored in appropriate, acid-free conditions, whilst preserving the original order of the collection. Scanning as many of the images as possible and making these and the catalogue accessible online, will allow the collection to be preserved by reducing handling of original documents and will enable current and future residents to enjoy and learn from this unique collection.
This is clearly a big project but the aim is to complete by December 2027
