Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
RYDE SOCIAL HERITAGE GROUP
Based at Ryde Cemetery Heritage & Learning Centre. Preserving, documenting and promoting the social history of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
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January 2008 – Report of the Meeting

For our Members’ meeting on 12 January David Earle took the chair as Janette Gregson was away on holiday in Tobago. David welcomed the thirty-six members and guests and opened the meeting with the good news that Matthew Bell, our Treasurer, and Lucy, had had a baby girl, Henrietta, who was born at 11.48 pm on Sunday 6th January weighing 9 lbs 1½ ozs and arriving 11 days late!

David also reported that Carol Strong had found a free website set up by an American genealogy company with links to UK websites and arranged for our website to be listed and there is also a link to Ann Barrett’s personal website. The address is. http://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT – In Janette’s absence David read the Chairperson’s report which included the news that as a group we are still hoping to be working closely with the Board overseeing the Isle of Wight Council’s project for Restoration in Ryde Cemetery and hope to have more news of this by the next meeting in April. Janette also reported that with the Local Heritage Initiative funded project coming to an end in the Spring all efforts now would be concentrated on the outputs required to satisfy our funders. Janette has written to the LHI requesting that as we have had no success in producing the Learning Packs for schools that we transfer the money budgeted to complete those over to the budget for producing the book so that at the end of the Project we are able to publish a high quality book about the history of Ryde. We are confident that this proposal will be acceptable to the Lottery funders but are awaiting confirmation from them. The main areas that we need to concentrate on between now and May are: finishing off the artwork and printing of the interpretation board for the display case in the cemetery, getting the book finished and printed and organising the End of Project celebration evening.

TREASURER’S REPORT – In Matthew’s absence David gave the Financial Report which shows that we have about £7,500 to complete all the outputs of the project.

MEMBERSHIP REPORT – David reported that a few Members have not renewed their Membership but several new Members have joined, so our numbers remain much the same.

REPORTS FROM WORK GROUP LEADERS

RESEARCH GROUP – Ann reported that she is still getting help from Lydia, Marilyn and Diana and a lot of research is being carried out and information is being added to records on the website. Ann also reported that she has now got up to date with the “Looking Back” feature of the website.

MAPPING GROUP – David reported that the Mapping Group are proceeding westwards and that the area south of the main carriageway the end of the Old Cemetery is almost complete. The area to the north of the carriageway, i.e. the Roman Catholic section is still to be surveyed and mapped. The completion of mapping the Old Cemetery will be a significant achievement. A map showing the progress of the mapping to date can be found on the Map Page.

TRANSCRIBING GROUP – David read a report in Janette’s absence. Transcribing had continued throughout the year for a couple of hours every Saturday morning when the weather permitted and the target figure of 4000 individual records had been achieved on 10th November 2007. Thanks were given to all the Transcribers for achieving this. At the end of November the Transcribing Group decided to take a well earned break until the Spring.

PUBLICATIONS GROUP – Carol reported that the team has been working extremely hard over the last three months on the book ‘Ryde’s Heritage – Our Town, Your Histories’. She was pleased to report that the writing was completed in December and it is currently being proof read check for errors. The book will bring together for the first time the work done by Ryde Social Heritage Group Members since the Group was founded in 2002.

The January newsletter published at the meeting has a Health theme and all the stories relate in some way to the Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital at Ryde.

There will be no let up in the workload of the Publications Group we have a backlog of stories from Ann to write up and need to start planning for the April newsletter anyone wishing to help with publications should contact Carol.

NATURAL HISTORY GROUP – At the AGM in October Carol had invited Members to come to the Cemetery with their notebooks, sketch books and cameras to take part in a nature day and record the wildlife they spotted. She was pleased to say there was an excellent response and a number of different species of plants, birds and insects were recorded during the day. The weather was good and they enjoyed a very pleasant walk through the Cemetery. In the morning session they started looking at the trees on the survey done in 1999 and quickly found many changes have taken place. The afternoon session concentrated on the plants and insects.

In December the first primrose was spotted by a Member of the Transcribing Group and, by New Years Day, Janette had photographed many groups of them. The whole Old Parish Cemetery will soon be carpeted with many spring flowers and already the daffodils are pushing above ground.

This Group still needs more volunteers, experts at identifying plants and a Group Leader to take this project forward. If you are interested and could help please contact Carol.

The RSPB National Gardens BirdWatch was the weekend of 26/27 January this and this was the next event for the Natural History Group. Carol invited members and friends to come to the Cemetery and count the birds. (See report on RSPB National Gardens Birdwatch dated 2 February 2008)

PRESENTATION

After all the official business of the meeting was complete David gave an interesting and entertaining presentation entitled “A Brief History of Oakfield CED Aided Primary School. It was not a detailed historical record but contained pictures and memories of past events in the school’s history and enjoyed by all those present.

THE NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be on Saturday 12th April 2008 at 10:30am at the George Street Centre and after the official business of the Group there will be a presentation by Fred Caws on Ryde Water Works.