William Stroud, 1840-1912, Pamber Parish Council chairmanPamber Heath ArchivesKate Stroud, 1876-1964, daughter of William Stroud

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Information About This Project

 INTRODUCTION

I became interested in the history of Pamber Heath after reading the `Nostalgia' articles by Carol Stevens in the Pamber Heath Memorial Hall newsletters in 1993. I then discovered that my wife's great-grandfather William Stroud had been a prominent member of the community and the first parish council chairman in 1894. I did not pursue the interest until the end of 1999 when my interest in Pamber Heath's history was re-kindled but I don't know why. All I knew was that I had developed an inner urge to preserve and document it before the further passage of time when it would be too late to find documents or photographs of the village years ago. I therefore began a personal project on the 1st of January 2000. I decided to write a book and thought that a database of information would help with that.

STORAGE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPHS

I decided to create a physical archive as well as various computer files to act as a database of information.

PUBLICATION OF MATERIAL

Rather than create a database just on my computer, I decided to make it an online database. The material would be published on a charitable web site, a little at a time, starting in January 2000. The aims of the web site would be to provide information resources and photographs to anyone, wherever they may be in the world, to assist in their family or local history research. Pamber Heath Archives was the name chosen for the web site. The book would be written over a period of about two years.

MANAGEMENT OF THE ARCHIVES

All items would be safely stored in box files and a log book used to record details about every item deposited. Each item would be given an archive ITEM number, which would be referred to as a source of information on various pages of the web site. Much of the information contained in the deposited documents would also be transferred to computer. Photographs would be scanned and thereby also transferred to computer.

PAMBER HEATH HISTORY BOOK

The book went on sale on October the 25th, 2001. The book took a long time to write, even with help, but proved very popular with over 1100 copies sold so far. There have been many reprints over the years.

DEVELOPMENT OF THIS WEB SITE

After the book was published I decided to keep on researching from time-to-time and add to the web site. The web site has been a great success and many have found the information and photographs useful in their research projects. The site has grown to quite a size and new features have been added over the years.

FUTURE PLANS

This project is ongoing but it has not been possible to research all of the available documents, particularly old newspapers, due to the huge amount of time and effort needed and so there are still many facts to uncover. If I am able, I will continue to research from time-to-time and add more information and photos to this web site. There are no plans for a follow-up book and that is very unlikely. The plan is to eventually deposit all the archive material in Hampshire Record Office to preserve it for future generations.

NUMBER OF ITEMS DEPOSITED IN THE ARCHIVES SO FAR

388 items have been deposited. Many items consist of bundles of documents or newspapers, rather than individual items.