One of the, many, fun things about this process of setting up the Archive and working through the collections is that you never know what you might find. Every time I enter the Archive and pick up a folder to flick through, something new catches my eye. Sometimes it’s an old photograph, sometimes an article or a newspaper cutting. And sometimes you are actually looking for something completely different when you are thrown off track. This has happened to me just today when I was looking out some paperwork around the village sign and found, tucked within the pages of artwork, a little nugget of ‘archive gold’ – a set of letters copied from war time correspondence. I need to check out copyright on those so further news will have to wait for another day.
New connections
Not only is it a matter of finding old articles in the depths of drawers and cupboards. Because of the website, new connections are coming to light too. The year started off in a most interesting manner with an email from Ian Shearwood. Ian is related to the Flack family. The Flacks were a large family in the village and obviously spread further afield too. I had another correspondent contact me just before Christmas from Australia who was tracing members of the Flacks. To make a change this time though, Ian was offering information as he has written a book about his family history. This includes a chapter about the Flacks and their Chrishall home.
Rather marvelously this book is available for free download as a pdf file from the online publisher Lulu.
Archive opening at Easter
At the top of this article you can see a sneak preview of display boards being prepared for this year’s exhibition at The Archive. We have started a project called ‘Through the Keyhole‘ in which we would like to explore the history of houses in the village. For example did you know that Park House in Church Road is actually the ‘new’ Park House and there was an older version that stood for many years on the corner of Park Wood and Dark Lane? Or did you know that the huddle of trees on Hertford Lane as you head towards Elmdon used to have a house standing on it and is the reason it is known as Tile House Meadow?
The Archive will be open from Sunday 1st April this year, Easter Sunday, and then on the first Sunday of the month plus Bank Holidays until October. You can see all the opening times for this year here. Do come along and take a look at the displays which will include maps and another exciting project which is still under wraps currently!
Until next time – I’m off to dive back into the piles that make up the Curator’s Desk!
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