Please come along and get involved with your local history!
Ropley History Network & Archive
Exploring – recording – Sharing
Dates for your diaries!
August 3rd – Archaeology Talk
An Ancient History of Ropley – 50,000BCE to 1800C Ropley may not be at the centre of the history of Hampshire, let alone England, but this sleepy village hides ancient gold treasure….. The talk will discuss Ropley’s ancient history from Stone Age to the beginning of the Industrial Age seen through the finds and documents dug up by local historians and archaeologists. A landscape very different to ours now from the stone age rivers long since dried up, to Bronze age cemeteries and Brittonic and Roman farmsteads, to the beginning of Ropley – a Saxon settlement in a vast forest.
Further ticket details soon to follow
October 2023 – Researching Your Local and Family History
To be held at St Peter’s church, Ropley
Saturday 14th October 2023 10.30am – 3pm
With 2 presentations from the Hampshire Records Office and Hampshire Genealogy Society focusing on researching history from our locality, this will be a great opportunity to learn what records may be available locally and how to use them including those about Hampshire ancestors for your family history research.
There will also be displays from local history groups with book, map and research information on sale.
As usual there will be many local collections of photographs and documents to view as a favourite feature of our events.
More detailed information about the talks, tickets and entrance will be available very soon, but do get in touch with us if you have any questions or be involved, but in the meantime – put the date in your diary!
Fortnightly Thursday Archive Workshops Come along and get involved at any of the sessions. You can help continue to digitise and conserve the ever growing archive, contribute and share your own archives or carry out some research for us based on our archive items. Come along and meet us in the back meeting room, Ropley Parish Hall 2pm – 4pm
Thursday May 11th and 25th
Thursday June 8th and 22nd
Latest news!
History Detectives – Starting again in the summer term, we will be working with eight year 5 and 6 children at the Primary School to research local history. They will be research and learning about two interesting historic buildings, their social history and occupants.
Can You Help? Have you got photos of past Ropley Pram Races?
With the 2023 Pram race just about to be run we would like to capture memories of The Ropley Pram Race
As a major annual event in Ropley for many years, we are hoping to gather as many photos and memories of past pram races to be part of a display on the day. (Monday 29th May).
Perhaps you will be able to spot yourself, a friend or relative taking part in a past race!
These can also be part of a growing collection of images of Pram Race days past to be shared on our website.
If you would like to contribute, please get in contact with us at ropleyhistory@gmail.co.uk or drop the photos into us at our fortnightly Thursday archive workshops in the village hall.
Getting involved
There are many ways to get involved with recording and sharing our local history. To offer articles and information about Ropley’s history or to get advice about research you can either come along to our Thursday archive workshop sessions, go to the ‘Get involved’ page on our website or contact us at ropleyhistory@gmail.com
You can also comment about articles on the Comments page on the website.
Also join us on Facebook and take part in conversations about photographs and articles posted.
Thank you for your continued interest, involvement and support –
Ropley History Network and Archive Steering Group
Supported by Ropley Society, Ropley Parish Council, Hampshire Archive Trust and also The Heritage Lottery Fund