 |
Home
Update Ocotber 2005
The Exhibition
|
|
|
|
The Exhibition
Location: East Sussex
The Official Opening was at 12 noon on Friday 24th September and was attended by 70 people ranging from, the Village centre Committee and those representing the various hirers, as well as the Parish councilors, the builder and donor of the land.
We also had two grandchildren of the donor, A T Skinner; a daughter of the 1959 Chairman, Dr Stanley Mitchell, and a son and daughter of the builder, Brown Builders of Beckley.
Since the opening, we had over 200 visitors a day, ending on Sunday evening at 5pm. It was a Huge Success and our visitors book has received excellent comments from so many former residents of Beckley who came back Home, some returning on two or more occasions with
other relatives and friends. We even had a visitor from Berkshire, and another from Norfolk who is tracing her family tree, and came down especially, staying with an uncle at nearby Icklesham.
Already we have had emails seeking copies of photos and names linked to our displays and now have contacts in New Zealand and Australia. These will fill in many blank spaces of research, particularly as we need to identify relatives of both wars, shown on our War Memorial. This is an ongoing project started 5 years ago and is shown on our Village Web Site.
We cleared the exhibition comprising of some 40 display panels (we estimated for 25 when the grant application was made but have since been overwhelmed with information and material) and have put them in storage for future use at the Village Centre.
One of the features over the 3 days was in the small hall which was set up for tea, coffee and biscuits, where family and groups of friends met and passed on information, much of which has been recorded. There were a large number of children interested in the special display of the Beckley Brownie Packs 75th Anniversary which fell on the actual opening day. The Playgroup, founded in 1972, also had a display which attracted a large number of visitors.
All in all, the entire exhibition has not only given our Society the opportunity to preserve the past but has created an interest in our local history, with several applications for membership. The Power Point presentation of the 'Then and Now' photographs of the village and the photographs taken at the exhibition will be presented at our next History Society meeting in January 2006 when we hope to see more village folk attending (although we already have 100 members), hopefully to join our ranks and to help even further in preserving the past.
The results have been so good that we cannot express our gratitude highly enough, for without the support of LHI, this event could never have been staged. We have spent many hundreds of hours in preparing and producing this event, with many, many more hours in research, but the results have more than justified the in-kind contribution made by
all concerned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
