THE CHANGING FACE OF RYDE’ PROJECT LAUNCH SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER, RYDE LIBRARY
Visitors to Ryde Library last Saturday (16 November) discovered life in Ryde 100 years ago. Display boards revealed details of some of the people living in the town, the houses and streets they lived in, their occupations and the types of events and entertainments that took place. A vast array of archive material was available including maps, street directories, shop adverts, census returns, books, newspapers and school admission registers to encourage visitors to explore Ryde in 1913 and how the onset of the First World War would change life forever. The start of the war was only months away and soon the men and boys would volunteer and leave Ryde for ‘the adventure of a lifetime’ and to fight for their King and Country, not knowing the horrors and true reality of what was to come. Many did not return.
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‘The Changing Face of Ryde’ project was officially launched Saturday by Ryde Social Heritage Group and will continue throughout the First World War Centenary to unearth what happened to the town and its families as war approached, during the conflict and beyond. Every family, rich or poor, would be affected in some way. Ryde had grown and prospered during the Victorian era, maintained its status during Edwardian times but what happened next?
To answer this RSHG will be helping families in the community to start their own research using our own extensive research files, local archives and resources, and family stories, to build the story of Ryde and connect current and future generations with the lives, stories and impact of the First World War.
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A large map of Ryde had details of the origins of some of the streets and photographs of the town around it together with snippets from local papers. Strings led from a snippet of information to the actual street location on the map. Here are a few examples:
Isle of Wight Observer 4 May 1861 Isle of Wight Observer 17 January 1863 |
Isle of Wight County Press 17 June 1911
Oakfield – Street names were to be provided in Oakfield because people kept getting lost. A number of complaints were made about the lack of street names in the area, because visitors were having trouble finding people’s properties. A surveyor was called in to provide the signs and he discovered there were three properties, all with number one on them.
Isle of Wight Observer 16 August 1913
Complaints – The residents of the Strand are complaining that the police do not or cannot, protect them from flower thieves in the early mornings during the summer.
RSHG members, together with Richard Smout, IW Heritage Manager, were on hand to show people how to start collecting information, link the pieces together and record and share their discoveries. There were examples of some of the different ways to preserve memories and stories – written accounts, oral recordings, scrapbooks, family history shrines and ‘story boxes’.
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| Visitors were encouraged to open the ‘story boxes’ and unlock the contents. Using imagination and detective skills, the theme of each box could be revealed; it could be a person’s life, a family story, a street scene, a favourite place or pastime. Your own story box can be any of these things; just something you are interested in. The box can be any size or shape, for example a chocolate box or biscuit tin, you might even need a small suitcase! You can decorate the box to illustrate your theme – draw, paint or glue pictures and stickers, find an old map or simply cover a box with left over scraps of wallpaper (covered cat or dog food boxes are ideal as a starter box). What about the contents? You can put anything inside the box to make up your story, photographs, maps, tickets, documents, newspaper cuttings, programmes, curios and mementos – the choice is yours.
Empty boxes were available with magazine cuttings and stickers to take home as starters. Dylan, age 7, spent a long time choosing decorations for his story box and found tiny paper models of army men and tanks. He then decided Dad would need to start a story box too and presented him with a box he had already decorated with stickers, not giving him the chance to say no! Dad agreed, but only if Dylan could tell him 3 facts about Ryde from the displays. A little bit of cheating happened next! – Dylan, instead of reading from the exhibition, simply asked three different volunteers for a snippet of information and relayed the facts back to his Dad perfectly! Fantastic creative thinking! We look forward to seeing the completed boxes at our next exhibition. |
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Start collecting up those items you have around your house and put them in a box. RSHG members can show you how to add extra information and will be holding workshops, exhibitions and open days in the New Year where you can research, document and create a story box or family history shrine. There will be opportunities to display and share your discoveries and explore local archives. Together we will be creating ‘The Changing Face of Ryde’.
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Please contact us or leave your details at Ryde Library if you would like to take part in a workshop to either create a story box or family history shrine or to research the history of your family or street. We will be arranging visits to places such as the IW Record Office, Ryde Library and Ryde Cemetery to show you the archives available and how to use them effectively.
It was great to engage with families in the library and be able to show them that history is all around them and can be great fun. We encouraged visitors to stick a pin on a map of Ryde to indicate their current residence. Using colour coding, a picture emerged of the range of visitors coming to the exhibition – red if you had always lived in Ryde, blue if you came from another part of the Island, green from another part of the UK and yellow from abroad. Most of the pins on Saturday were red. This was just one of the fun ways children and adults can take part in the project together, learning how to read a map and find their street and locate the position of their house. |
| The first ‘Changing Face of Ryde’ exhibition is open in on the ground floor in Ryde Library during normal library hours until 20 December. Have a look at the shop adverts from 1913 – how many of these businesses survived after the First World War? What happened to these families? Join our project today to start finding the answers to these questions and contribute to the history of your town.
RSHG has joined the Imperial War Museum’s First World War Centenary Partnership, a network of local, regional, national and international community, cultural and educational organisations who will be organising events and activities in their areas throughout the centenary, sharing their discoveries and unearthing ‘The lives of the First World War’. Visit the Imperial War Museum’s new website www.1914.org to find out more. Our first planned open days at Ryde Cemetery will take place on the weekend of 24/25 May 2014 when the theme will be ‘Ryde on the Brink of War’. There will be displays, exhibitions, ‘Meet the Residents’ character walks, cemetery trails and childrens activities. Visit the graves of the fallen and discover which houses were turned into Red Cross hospitals and the work of the volunteers in caring for the sick and injured. Our volunteers are happy to arrange group or individual visits to Ryde Cemetery and its Heritage and Learning Centre at any time. Please contact us for help finding graves, using the archives, guided cemetery walks or illustrated talks. The Education section of our website has a selection of our learning resource materials and ideas for studies. The Heritage and Learning Centre has a computer suite, exhibition space, RSHG research folders and cemetery maps, tea, coffee and toilet facilities on site. |
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More information will be regularly posted on our website so keep checking back for news of events and workshops.
Thank you to Ryde Library staff, Richard Smout and all RSHG volunteers for making the event a successful and enjoyable day.