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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REPORT OF OUR JULY MEETING

RSHG Meeting July 2013
RSHG Meeting July 2013

Thirty five members and three guests attended our Members’ Meeting in July and we received apologies from twelve other members who were unable to attend.

Janette welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave the Chairman’s report on activities in the quarter from April to July.

The Transcribing group had finally reached the railings at the Pellhurst Road end of the Cemetery, in the South West corner, shortly after the last meeting and this was a cause for celebration. However there is still quite a lot of work to do as we work our way across the cemetery to the North West corner.

In May we had our Cemetery Open Days and, after the long, cold, wet and miserable winter, we were blessed with two lovely sunny days. We had lots of visitors who enjoyed our exhibition with the theme of the Seasons, our guided tours and the Character Walk where they got to meet some of the residents from Ryde’s past.

Straight after the Open Days we commenced work on our contributions to Ryde Arts Festival week. 28 June to 7 July. This year the theme of the festival was Books and we had an exhibition called ‘Read All About It’ at Ryde Library. Nine of our members also had Family History Shrines on display as part of the Never Ending Story Exhibition at the Depozitory.

On July 6 we had our group summer outing to the beautiful St Mildred’s Church in Whippingham, which included a tour of the church and graveyard and then 25 of us went back to Shelagh’s house for a fantastic lunch in her garden. It was a great day and a lovely opportunity for members to socialise.

The most exciting news of the meeting was that on 10 July, Carol, Kate, Shelagh and Janette had attended the Community Archives and Heritage Group annual conference at University College London and had received an award for being the MOST INSPIRATIONAL COMMUNITY ARCHIVE GROUP. The award was one of four given that day, the others being for:

BEST ONLINE – won by Beyond the Point

MOST INNOVATIVE won by Six Streets Derby
and

BEST NEW won by St Margaret’s Village Archive

The overall winners of COMMUNITY ARCHIVE OF THE YEAR was awarded to Beyond the Point.

We were delighted to receive the award for Most Inspirational Community Archive Group, a tribute to all the hard work and commitment given by our fantastic volunteers.

After the Chairman’s report Arthur Williams, our Treasurer, gave the financial report which showed the group is doing very well financially.

Next Ann Barrett, our lead Researcher, gave a report on activities of the Research Group and mentioned some of the fascinating information discovered by the group in the last quarter.

Finally Carol Strong, leader of our Publications team gave a report on the activities, exhibitions and publications produced by the team since April.

Once the business of the meeting was concluded refreshments were served and the raffle drawn.

To end the meeting Ann Evans from the Friends of Brading Roman Villa gave us a delightful, hands-on presentation about life in Roman Britain. It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone present.

The next meeting will be our AGM in October