Category: Stories from the Archives

Most cultures acquire myths of various kinds. They often demonstrate a commonly held belief or some statement of acceptable behaviour. As sources for history, they

On Sunday 14 October 1900 ‘large congregations’ attended Basingstoke’s Congregational Church to mark the centenary of the laying of the foundation stone of their premises

The workhouse records held at county record offices and the TNA are a goldmine of information. Many of them deal with administration. However, there are a

In the 1950s, Portsmouth was one of those few corporations whose archives were still virtually unknown to historians, although a local interest was already at

2017 was the bi-centenary of the death of Jane Austen and a group of heritage organisations in Southampton decided to re-assess the time that she

Finally, we knew they did come from the abbey cloisters! The capitals in St Bartholomew’s church in Hyde, on the outskirts of Winchester, have been described

How best to support the poor and needy is at the heart all political thought in a civilised society. For local and family historians the

Most people at some time ask why the place they live in has acquired its name. Almost a century ago the English Place-Name Society set

By the north side of the tower of Holy Trinity Church, Wonston, near Winchester, lies the red marble tombstone of the Rev. Alexander Robert Charles

Most classics have a barrier to surmount before the ‘go’ button is reached. Jane Austen, arguably Hampshire’s lead brand, is not to everyone’s taste. But

The Buriton Village Association has been able to demonstrate how the village has grown between c.1100 and the present, by digitally overlaying information from maps

1920 was a ‘red letter’ year for the Wesleyan Methodists of Basingstoke since it marked the golden jubilee of a permanent presence for their branch

Archives can often yield the most elusive information about subjects that are generally little documented.  So it was that I was looking for some material

Finding the truth about my father being torpedoed twice during the war …. explained his annual trips to London, and why he was not in

There is much to be discovered from huge collections of easily accessible moving images and sound recordings. One of the great challenges of telling modern

If a pioneer from Church Crookham had succeeded, Hampshire fields might have fewer solar panels and more tobacco plants. For obvious reasons, smoking is today

Wartime ‘Sandhurst’ on the downs Now completely gone, a huge hutted camp once hastened ordinary men towards Army commissions during WWI on an expanse of

The things that make life bearable risk being the ‘Cinderella’ of conservation and record keeping, but are well worth keeping. You can read an awful

Clever detective work is putting flesh on the way Hampshire was governed before the arrival of the Normans. During the last hundred years many small

Recent decisions to cancel a celebration in Hampshire of the bicentenary of Rural Rides by William Cobbett on grounds of historic antisemitism and racism have

Sherfield English straddles what had been the mid 19th century turnpike road, and consists of scattered dwellings with two clusters on the main road, one

Stoney Cross today consists of a handful of dwellings, a filling station, a Travel Lodge hotel, and a Little Chef restaurant; all alongside the modern

It’s only when you examine an area’s historic houses carefully that you realise that those charged with deciding which should be given statutory protection don’t

Historians owe much to a poet, a workaholic and a “placeman UNTIL the beginning of the nineteenth century the Rickman family of Hampshire lived in

The National Motor Museum is unique in that our collection includes four cars that have held the outright Land Speed Record. While all are remarkable,

Poole Pottery was founded by a builder’s son from the Itchen valley ENTREPRENEURS give their eye teeth to acquire names that are household words. It