On Saturday 3 February, the main auditorium at The Spring hosted a summit meeting for leaders and trustees of local history groups across south Hampshire and West Sussex. Organised and facilitated by the ever-energetic Neil Spurgeon, chair of the Havant Local History Group, and hosted by Sue Dickinson as her final event before taking a well-earned break from ‘holding the fort’ at The Spring, the event turned out to be an extremely effective networking forum. A project has already been set up to research the local ‘Swing Riot’ history as a contribution to a wider programme of events to mark the bicentenary of the associated trials at Winchester Assizes. (Read on to learn more!)
While the session was aimed at a closed community of invited individuals, these group initiatives exist for the benefit of us all and demonstrate the richness in the heritage of Havant and our surrounding towns and villages, from Chichester in the east to Gosport in the west.
To give you just one example of the skills and enthusiasm ‘on tap’ within these groups, take a look at this remarkable lockdown project from the village of Westbourne. Click the image below and read the detail on the page before sitting back and appreciating the video. I promise, you will not be disappointed!
The groups participating in the 3 February Summit are listed below, with a line or two of descriptive text against each of them. Click the underlined and italicised text to open up a web reference giving further detail.
| The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre What more can we say? Havant is indeed fortunate to have The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre at its centre. This event was just one more demonstration of the enormous value that The Spring brings to the borough. |
| Havant Local History Group The group of local ‘historians’ who meet monthly at The Spring, chaired with boundless enthusiasm by Neil Spurgeon. |
| Havant Civic Society Since you’re already on this website, we probably need no introduction. |
| Rowlands Castle Heritage Centre A ‘virtual museum’ in Rowlands Castle aimed at advancing “the education of the public in the history and heritage of the village, its former inhabitants and the surrounding area.” |
| Emsworth Museum Probably needs little introduction, but with recently refreshed layout and content, if you’ve not been for a while or not yet visited, do take some time out to do so. |
| Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust (*) |
| Chichester and District Archaeological Society The one-stop site for local archaeology resources and expertise. |
| Railway Work, Life & Death Project A joint initiative between the University of Portsmouth, the National Railway Museum and the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick. |
| Friends of Havant Cemeteries The Group aims to conserve, enhance and discover the natural and social history contained within Havant borough cemeteries, specifically St Faith’s, New Lane and Warblington natural burial ground, and provides opportunities to become involved in practical conservation volunteering, wildlife surveying and social history research. |
| Petersfield Area Historical Society Founded in 1973, the Petersfield Area Historical Society promotes the study, recording and research of local history. The Society holds monthly meetings with a guest speaker from September to April and organises visits to places of historical interest during spring and summer. |
| Bedhampton Historical Collection The Bedhampton Historical Collection (BHC) was founded in 2007 with an impressive collection of artefacts and ephemera donated as a bequest by the late Cynthia Hoy, a founder Trustee of the Bedhampton Manor Trust. The collection is managed and cared for by the BHC team and has now been catalogued on a searchable database with support from Hampshire Museums Service for local studies, research and education purposes. |
| Westbourne Local History Group The Westbourne Local History Group was formed in 1978 by a few like-minded individuals with an interest in the lives and times of the village of Westbourne and a determination to record and make public its history. Until recently, this was done principally by publishing booklets on specific topics. The animated record of the history of the Church of St John the Baptist shown above sets a high bar for other local history group websites! |
| Portsmouth University Heritage Hub The Heritage Hub brings together researchers and professionals from across the university to tackle key issues in heritage and heritage conservation locally, nationally and internationally. They encourage traditional, creative and innovative methods and tools to protect and preserve tangible and intangible heritage. |
| Hampshire Community Heritage Hampshire Community Heritage was founded by Helen Wallbridge in January 2023. Helen graduated in Archaeology from the University of Leicester in 1998 with a 2:1 BSc Hons degree. Helen is an Associate member of the Chartered Instititue for Archaeologists and a supporter of the IHBC. Having previously worked for the Maritime Archaeology Trust and the New Forest National Park Authority, Helen decided to freelance to enjoy a wider variety of work. |
| Swing’30 The meeting introduced a Kent, Sussex and Hampshire wide initiative to commemorate the ‘Swing Riots’ of the 1830s. The project does not have an internet presence yet but this link will take you to background content from Wikipedia. Not covered (yet) in that page is the riotous behaviour of the good folk of Havant and Westbourne who were very active in this movement. |
| Gosport Luncheon History Group (*) |
| COPPS (Hayling) The little known story of the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties and the top secret wartime activities of the cockleshell heroes from their base at HMS Northney. |
| Portsmouth & Gosport History Seemingly stronger in Gosport than in Portsmouth, but perhaps somebody within the wider network can help them out with this. |
| Hampshire Genealogical Society If you’re looking to research your family history, take this link for details on the assistance available from HGS. |
Also engaged with the session were representatives from surrounding U3A groups, notably from Havant, Waterlooville, Hayling Island, Emsworth and Ems Valley.
Back on home ground in St. Faith’s, our ‘cub reporter’, a regular visitor to Havant from outside the borough, posted a fascinating piece on Heritage and Conservation which is also well worth a look. Click the image below to read it.
#havantmatters
Havant Civic Society 