Newsflashes
"Rayleigh Through Time": This recently published book is now available at a 10% discount if purchased via the Amberley Books website. This link will take you directly to the book order page on the site.
Hockley U3A 5th June: A very successful Powerpoint presentation was given by Helen, our Chair, to the local history group of the Hockley Branch of the University of the Third Age. This has led to further useful contacts.
Rayleigh Library: We will be at Rayleigh Library again on 19th June between 10am and 1pm - it would be great to see you then.
Hockley "Together on Sunday": We will be there to give a presentation during the afternoon of 7th July.
RDCA @ Rochford and Rayleigh Libraries
We were at Rochford and Rayleigh Libraries this past week (14th and 15th May) meeting the public and local councillors and displaying some of the material in our archive.
We will be at Rayleigh Library again on 19th June between 10am and 1pm - it would be great to see you then.
Rochford Library - Tuesday 14th May am
We are having a display at Rochford Library on Tuesday 14th May (market day) as part of the Local History Week. If you are in the area do come along to take a look or to have a chat (the library is just off the square beyond the CoOp).
Rayleigh Library - Wednesday 15th May am
We will also be at Rayleigh Library during the morning of 15th. Do come along if you can.
Rayleigh Through Time
A fellow community archive group has recently had published a collection of Rayleigh images, most of which have never been published before. Have a look at some of them here.
Can anyone help Sheryl?
I am a descendent of one of the owners of Gusted Hall, John Peck; 1814-1900. I was wondering if anyone call help me locate his gravesite? I have a photo of the headstone, but do not know it's location. I live in Australia, so getting around to looking for the site is a near impossibility.! ... If anyone can help please add a new comment at the end of this collection of comments or drop us an email to mail@rdca.org.uk.
I am a descendent of one of the owners of Gusted Hall, John Peck; 1814-1900. I was wondering if anyone call help me locate his gravesite? I have a photo of the headstone, but do not know it's location. I live in Australia, so getting around to looking for the site is a near impossibility.! ... If anyone can help Sheryl Sutherland please add a new comment at the end of this collection of comments or drop us an email to mail@rdca.org.uk.
Foulness Heritage Centre - Sunday 7th April
The interesting Foulness Heritage Centre at Churchend will open its doors for the first time in 2013 on Sunday 7th April. Thereafter it'll be open each first Sunday of the month until October. Have a look here for more information. These are among the few occasions in the year when the public are allowed to visit Foulness Island.
Tudor Queen Productions - does anyone remember this?
Mary Holding (nee Hackshaw) writes ...
Tudor Queen Productions was an amateur dramatic group active in Rochford in the 1960s and onwards. Leader of the pack was Eric Gooch and we used to meet for rehearsal at the old site of Rochford Secondary School under his direction. All the plays etc were performed in the hall at the school. I remember Eric's wife Pam and also Mary Kyd. We covered some of the classics and also had fun with a panto "Dick Whittington".
Each year we would enter a float in the annual parade with donated trailer and tractor. I wish I could remember the names of the rest of the actors. Please help me out if you can by sending further information or photos to mail@rdca.org.uk.
New addresses
Some of us were getting fed up with stumbling over the keyboard with the complicated "history" address. The site name is now shortened to www.rdca.org.uk and we have the snappier email address mail@rdca.org.uk. The old versions are still valid however.
Plough and Sail
A very successful evening took place at the Plough and Sail, Paglesham, on Monday 18th February 2013. Peter Thorogood was there with his large photo collection. There was an animated exchange of memories and considerable interest expressed in adding more material to the site.
Of note:
Peter Thorogood has very kindly lent us a large amount of material on the district which will appear on the site in early 2013. Here are some examples: Farming the Land and the Water, Life on the Land and Save Our Trees. We have also recently added some short audio clips to the articles by Len Bickford. More articles will appear during the coming months.
Rochford Arts Trail
Our archive had a stall at Rochford Library on 3rd November 2012, as part of the last day of Rochford's Art Trail for 2012. A very good turn-out, many thanks to all who dropped by.
Rayleigh Arts Festival
On Saturday 22nd September, RDCA took part in the Rayleigh Arts Festival at Rayleigh Mill Arts and Events Centre. A busy day, many people met. Lots of interest in the new photos of Paglesham, and we introduced ourselves to the Chairman of the Rochford District Council.
Discovery Day at ERO
On 8th September, the Essex Records Office hosted a Discovery Day at the ERO, Chelmsford, which provided an introduction to the Record Office and showcased the local history archives.
Articles and volunteers - July 2012
Nine new articles have been published on the site in the last month. We are also extremely pleased that three new volunteers have joined the Group. More volunteers, more articles and more comments are always welcome.
Scrolling Banner change - June 2012
Send us YOUR old images and we will make them into a scrolling banner. Details here.
Rayleigh Windmill - 2012 Exhibitions
Sails in the Wind: 12 May - 27 June
Diamond Jubilee and Olympics: 30 June - 12 August
And from 15 August - 30 September, an installation by Max Dolding showing how the mill may have looked in 1907, the last time it operated as a working mill driven by wind power.
Further details can be found here:
Rayleigh Library - Wednesday 9th May 2012
We were at Rayleigh library on 9th May with a display of local photos and memories. Many thanks to all the people who stopped to look at the display and speak to us.
Hullbridge Library - Thursday 19th April 2012
RDCA had a display of Hullbridge past and present at Hullbridge Library on Thursday 19th April. Many local people came in to share their memories and experiences with us. A very enjoyable afternoon.
Hockley Library - Thursday 22nd March 2012
RDCA representatives were at Hockley Library to demonstrate the site and talk to the local people about their memories. Lesley Vingoe, who has written a book on the history of Hockley, came along to support us and chat with visitors. Our materials were supplemented by those brought along by Chris Radley, who has collected a number of documents of local interest including the plot layouts which were sold to form the Plumberow and Harrodate estates as well as the will of a former publican of the Bull Inn, a Mr Osband. Perhaps most interesting was the plan of the proposed Wadham Park Estate which was planned at the beginning of the 20th Century but was never built. Chris kindly provided us with a scan of part of the plan and this along with an associated article will be added to the site shortly. We now look forward to our next event at Hullbridge Library at 1pm on 19th April.
Ashingdon Art Group - Tuesday 6th March 2012
Representatives of RDCA visited the Ashingdon Art Group on 6th March at the Ashingdon Community Hall. Many thanks go to Janet Smart for arranging this. A fascinating morning ensued, with a number of people sharing their memories about life in Ashingdon and elsewhere in the Rochford district.
John Chambers was a mine of local information and has also taken many cine-films which we can hopefully publish on the site. Farming life in Rochford, the Queen's coronation, Silver and Golden Jubilees and Rhubarb Kilworth (chimney sweep, local character and father of author of "Witch Water Country", Garry) all featured in a lively discussion, which showed how much local and social history there is to discover in our district.
Great Wakering meeting - Saturday 18th February 2012
“The RDCA team were out in force at Great Wakering Library on Saturday 18th February to meet with the locals and hear about their recollections of life in the village and surrounding area. The event was set up by Sue Greengrass who works at the library and also has a close interest in the village’s history and community and she had done a great job in getting people along who had lots to tell.
"Gordon Wiseman came to tell us about the barges that worked the surrounding waterways and Gordon Butler told us about the brick makers craft and life in the village in the 2nd half of the 20th Century. With a promise of more to come from these chaps and others this was a hugely successful event and thanks go to all involved”
Brian Pettit, Chairman RDCA
24/02/12
Site rework
The site is in the midst of an extensive restructure which started on 10/02/12 and will finish mid May. This involves a radical reorganisation of the materal, better searching and a better graphical interface. Thereafter a little more will need to be done but at a slower pace. We hope you will now find the site easier to use and navigate. If you want to participate by adding material yourself then please click here - note that the help file is greatly improved to cater for beginners to the more expert. Of course we are always available if anyone finds adding material to the site too difficult or time consuming - in that case why not think about contacting us here or come along to one of our periodic meeetings at local libraries.
Domesday relaunched
The BBC opened it's Domesday Relaunched site this month, May 2011:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday
The BBC site is a partial loading of all the data in the 1986 Domesday project which gathered words and pictures from across the UK to be put on Videodisc.
School children were heavily involved at the time and there will be many who vividly remember making contributions. Their stories about the project would be worth retelling in this archive.
Unfortunately, the Domesday project was far ahead of it's time and the hardware proved to be too expensive. So only several thousand discs and players were ever produced.
Also the way he data was stored was novel and the discs were only readable on special Philips players. So obsolescence had almost overtaken the data by the millenium as players were becoming scarce and the Videodiscs themselves were deteriorating.
Fortunately, the BBC have now recovered much of the data and have put it on the web. Towards the end of the year they will hand the material to the National Archive. But in the meantime they would be interested in receiving corrections and missing material and updated photographs.
So, to see what is there for your area just put in a post code on the site and then have a look at the nearest data block.
The images and text are not as spectacular as you might expect as all this work was done in 1986 as part of a national project but nevertheless it's very interesting and relevant to what we are doing in the archive.
RDCA is now official
The RDCA archive is now fully operational and had its official launch on 2nd April 2011 at the Essex Records Office, Chelmsford, in front of VIPs and Library representatives from across South East Essex.
The launch went very well and there was a great deal of enthusiasm from the 6 archives represented and from those supporting the venture financially.
Press realeases have been issued and the Benfleet archive have uploaded videos of the 5 speeches:
http://www.benfleethistory.org.uk/page_id__198.aspx
Thank you, Benfleet.