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Abbotsley Local History Project Introduction
Abbotsley Project Progress
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Abbotsley Local History Project Introduction
Location: Cambridgeshire
The idea of this project began in 1975 at a Parish Council meeting. The members were discussing various ideas regarding the celebration of the oncoming Silver Jubilee of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, in the year 1977. My husband, the then Chairman, suggested that his wife could write the history of the village!!! This very ‘easy task’ was adopted by the Council with great enthusiasm. And so the research, the recording and the writing began. The response, and the interest, of the villagers were fantastic. Two years later our first exhibition took place. There were old photos, old documents and artefacts and also the first edition of the book called ‘abbotsley’. Since then the collection has increased considerably and there are now about 400 photographs between old and new, various old documents have been discovered and a second edition of the book on abbotsley was updated and printed for the Millennium. The book is again available for sale and the profit is shared between The Village Hall and the Church.
And this brings us to the year 2004 when we were made aware of the Local Heritage Initiative Grant. One might think “Where is the need for a grant now when so much had already been achieved by a local family with the help of the villagers?” The principle reason was that all this collection is privately owned and the family wanted to make sure that all this material would be available to the public for ever and ever. To do this, however, IT equipment and professional tuition was needed.
There was also the need of engaging a professional translator to decipher some very old documents which are deposited at Balliol College, Oxford.
Display boards were also needed to display the ever increasing collection of photographs, documents etc.
There were also other considerable expenses like Insurance covers etc.
To receive this grant we needed an ‘Umbrella’ group under which we could officially receive the money and ‘abbotsley Society’ came to our help: thus we are now known as ‘abbotsley Local History Project’ (abbotsley Society Media Resource Group).
The first part of the Grant was received in April and, in May, most of our IT equipment was purchased. It was then that some of the training and the implementing of it really began.
Our first task was to scan all the photographs in our files. We found this a very tedious and time consuming occupation but very satisfying now that we have mastered this skill and finished this task. We still have to be trained to put all these photographs on a disc and link them to the Indexes. A different category of photographs also has to be scanned but this work will be done later.
Many hours have also been spent in typing captions, attaching them to the appropriate photographs and, mounting them.
Nanda Wisson
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