History Group
The History Group grew out of the Wisborough Green Trust, an organisation that has been fairly dormant since the nineties. Its aim is to record and publish village history.
The group is very informal. It meets monthly to discuss items of interest brought along by the members, be they artefacts or researched information and to review individual projects. The discussions result in updating of the history reports that have been compiled over the last few years. The meetings seem quite anarchic; sometimes this is essential as the right stimulus often triggers-off the recall of long forgotten memories.
Our reports cover a wide variety of subjects. The most comprehensively studied and recorded are village shops, industries, motor trade, Carter Brothers Engineering and transport. Subjects in the course of investigation are pubs and buildings and structures other than private houses.
There are some particular subjects that merit being an ongoing project and being the specific responsibility of one person, e.g. the Second World War in the village. These projects are continually reviewed as new information or personal memories become available.
Another aspect of
our work is the acquiring and taking of photographs of anything happening in
the village. We are often reliant upon the postcard publishers of old to illustrate
the village; however, this does mean that
the more photogenic subjects are well covered, whereas the more everyday and
prosaic subjects have been neglected. This makes the access to family or personal
photographs invaluable to us.
The results of our work, both reports and photographs, have been lodged with the Record Office in Chichester with updated copies occasionally being made available to them.
Apart from recording village history, the other aim of the group is to publish the information. We anticipate this being in form of an occasional booklet or newsletter, each one with a topic and with further information on earlier topics as it becomes available. This is seen as being preferable to a once-off book that would become obsolete. History is an ever evolving subject!
We are always pleased to welcome new members to our group, but we would be particularly interested in hearing from those with research and computer skills. In addition, we are always keen to hear from members of the public with stories to tell us or with photographs that they could lend us. Please contact the Chairman, Susie Evershed on 01403 785760.