Please come along and get involved with your local history!
Ropley History Network & Archive
Exploring – recording – Sharing
Latest Update – March 2024
Making connections!
Bringing together seemingly unrelated images can tell a local story
Maud Perkins is one such example. Recently, when adding more images to the online archive, we realised that there were a number of images and documents about her.
She was involved in Ropley Choral and amateur dramatics and had a many friends in the village. We then posted this information onto our Facebook page and received a number of interesting leads also making contact with a local relative.
Since then we have further investigated her life and hope to put a future article together for all to read.
Why not see if there is an image about someone you knew in the village? Just type their name into Search on our Homepage.
Maud as The Lady Saphix in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Patience’
Maud Perkins and Mabel Durrant at the back with Mrs Howse and Mrs Bulpitt in the front.
Can you introduce us to someone or somewhere you think could be a useful local topic and addition to the archive with a back story similar to this – with hopefully some photographs or documents. Or do you need help with researching? We can help!
Don’t forget that we are adding content to the website all the time so please do keep visiting our Archive. Also, do contribute anything connected to Ropley – past and present – that you may have, to help increase the content. You may think an image or document may not be interesting but to someone else it maybe! Please contact us via ropleyhistory@gmail.com or via the website
Whats on! History events and talks coming to Ropley and the locality
Ropley, dates and further details coming soon
• Thursday 16th May – King Alfred and the Hyde 900 Dig by David Spurling – Lead trustee of Hyde900 covering the history of Hyde Abbey in Winchester and organiser of the three Hyde900 community digs 2016-18 , will be talking about the digs, finds and some of the history of King Alfred in the locality. Date to be confirmed.
• Monday 23rd September – Local Place Names, by Manni Kirchner – Our local Student Archaeologist and detectorist, Manni, will be talking about local place names and the history and meanings behind them.
• Thursday 7th November – another date for you diary – Speaker to be confirmed.
Winchester – Hampshire Archives at the Hampshire Records office in Winchester offer some interesting talks over the next few months. Go to their Events page – https://www.hants.gov.uk/librariesandarchives/archives/events
Reading old handwriting in Parish Records, The Womens Institute at War etc.
Winchester Cathedral with Luxmuralis are also presenting a stunning light show ‘Crown and Coronation’ from 4-8th March – Go to their website to see further details.
https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/luxmuralis/?utm_source=HampshireArchiveEmail&utm_medium=HampshireArchiveEmail&utm_campaign=HampshireArchiveEmail
Lambeth Palace archives of Ropley Church – some mid-19th century plans of Ropley Church. Follow the link to their website to view. There will also soon be a new post with a transcription of the information that goes with it. Including information on St Peters, Ropley and West Tisted’s St Mary’s Magdalene. https://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/ll/thumbnailView.html?startUrl=%2F%2Fimages.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk%2Fluna%2Fservlet%2Fas%2Fsearch%3Fos%3D0%26bs%3D10%26q%3DRopley
Smuggling in the Ropley area. – We are looking to investigate further into the history of Smuggling in our area. Do you have any information –documented or memories or even rumours passed down from previous generations about smuggling locally? If you can contribute, please do contact us via our email or the website
The History of Webb Lane As you have may have recently heard, there has been a recent decision about the status of part of Webb Lane. Many Historical Archives were used to support the decision that now protects the status and the future of this very old village lane. Do visit this link to see the full document but soon we will have a post summarising the document including images, on our website. https://www.myropley.org.uk/news/update-on-webb-lane-and-its-right-of-way-status/
Latest articles and images that can be viewed from our Website homepage
https://www.ropleyhistory.org.uk/
New and Current Articles shown on our homepage
• Amateur Dramatics and Operetta in Ropley A collection of photographs by Tim Day about past productions from the 1920’s and 1930’s
- Found anything interesting? Have you found something ancient, rare or just interesting looking? This article tells us this is not a rarity and perhaps what you found is really interesting – if so we can advise what you should do with it, how to register it etc
- Tales of the last working horse in Ropley
- Forgotten Brick making industry in and around Four Marks
- Historic Maps – We are adding new images and sources all the time
- What’s on locally – A new permanent feature that is a ‘go to’ when looking for local events
Some Future Articles that are coming soon to our homepage
• History of Four Marks place names
• History of Webb Lane
• The Belfry Graves
• The History of the horticultural Society
• The Watercress Line Steam Gala
• History of Myrtle Farm
• The History of the Coffee Rooms including legal documents, letters and timeline of events
If you think you might be able to contribute some more information to any of the above, please do get in touch and share.
Latest new collections of images and documents
• The development of Hale Close in 2001
• The Development of the Courtyard village shop and post office 2006
• Mr Legg and the last working horse in Ropley
• Past groups and societies in Ropley
• Images of Four Marks collected and used by Dr Chris Heal in his books on local history.
• Winchester College and Hampshire Records Office – some documents that they have kindly shared with us.
• Images of some of the big historic houses in Ropley
• Images donated by Roy Wyeth – family memories
Oral History Project
Thanks to a grant from Ropley Parish council we now have some funds to enable us to move this forward. We have recruited a local history student to work with us as an intern. He is now editing our first few interviews and posts will soon be available on our website including clips from the interviews, pictures and a link to the whole interview for you to listen to.
We plan over the next few months to interview a number of local residents who have interesting memories. If you have suggestions or would also like to get involved, interviewing or as an interviewee again please contact us on ropleyhistory@gmail.com. We’d love to pick up more historical stories from the village and local area.
Getting involved
Can you offer your time – however much you feel you can give – to help us develop and grow the archive? Any contribution would help us preserve our local history. Do you have any local history documents that you would like to share or need some help with? Please get in touch or come along to our fortnightly Thursday archive workshop sessions.
Thursdays 2-4pm – in the back Hall or the small hall of the Village Hall.
– February 29th
– March 14th and 28th
– April 4th and 18th
Thank you for your continued interest, involvement and support
Ropley History Network and Archive Steering Group
www.ropleyhistory.org.uk ropleyhistory@gmail.com
ropleyhistory@gmail.com
Thank you for your continued interest, involvement and support
Ropley History Network and Archive Steering Group