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Update Ocotber 2005
The Exhibition
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Update Ocotber 2005
Location: East Sussex
We have now got all of our exhibition stuff off to the printer. The Souvenir Booklets and the Village Walk booklets have been printed and delivered.
We have over thirty 75cm x 100cm panels of display material covering the
100 years of our Beckley Heritage, linked to the use of the Village Hall. There is also a 'Time Line' that delves into the history of things more thoroughly, (the content later to be shown on CD Rom).
The basis of the exhibition took about some 9 months of collecting,
collating and adding material to discs. We also had to arrange the display material, getting this onto printed sheets which are pasted to 5mm plastic panels, fixed by Velcro the exhibition stands.
We finally got the last discs to the art work display team and we are now in a position to relax a little and get other things done, like organising and agreeing how the exhibition will look, a direction board, flower arrangements, and most importantly a roster for the curators. There
is a set up evening to organise for the opening on Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd. Then the break down morning on Monday 24th.
The main difficulty we have experienced, has been the long wait between the letters being sent out to user organisations for information, to the actual viewing of their records and photographs and the time lapse when the material was actually forthcoming. Each organisation feeling that there was loads of time to provide this info.
Finally, when it all comes at once, after more than one reminder, there is splurge of scanning, printing, organising and collating the material into a state ready to attract the exhibition viewer, without just sheets and sheets of boring detail (as history sometimes is).
Storing the material offered posed a problem too, as well as returning it all to the lenders, exactly as was. This added to the overall time taken. Once it was all fitted on to the Time Line, year by year, the process of formulating the exhibition panels commenced. Visiting older residents for
interviews (as well as getting them to agree to talk) and fitting their essential bits of information into the Time Line and the exhibition panels, posed many time consuming problems.
All in all we were fortunate to have allowed ourselves a good length of time to get things done, had we started a month later it might have proved very difficult to have met our exhibition date.
Booking a very busy Village Centre for three whole days, and two half days, was a problem and this had to be fitted around half term dates.
The Souvenir booklet and Village Walk booklets look absolutely great and
now need to be delivered to every household in the village. This is
being organised for the month after the exhibition, weather and time permitting. Also we have to get the gathered data together in a suitable format for copying to a CD Rom and then duplicate 50 copies for local history groups, County Records offices, reference libraries and Family History centres in the area.
The exercise has been a long one, mainly involving a small group who needed to be fed information in order to move things forward and creating a standard of formulation and presentation. Much time has been taken in travelling, fetching and carrying. Beckley covers a large area and many miles of travel enables much talking though. It is not over yet, we now have the major exercise to set up, including a presentation of then and now with photographs spanning the 100 years. Once it is all over the exhibition can be stored for future use, and the equipment used by all users of the Village Hall who have participated.
A well worthwhile project that has not only put Beckley on the map but,
through a joint effort of collecting data from minutes books, photographs, backs of drawers and boxes in lofts, we have recorded for all time,
the history of a Sussex Village covering 100 years of community life, as
well as naming all those people, past and present, who have made it all possible.
Now that it is nearly over it must be said that it was so worthwhile, we hold a real sense of achievement. Thanks must go to every member of the community who has given information and to all members of the Beckley History Society who have helped with the project. Only Through the sponsorship of the Local Heritage Initiative, have our aims been achieved. We should insist that as we all make history, we ought to record it for those who will be around in 2105.
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