PEOPLE'S fascination with local history in the Observer area has been given a further boost by a new website.
A group called Recorders of Uttlesford History, which this summer celebrates its 10th anniversary, has launched a site which already regularly attracts online visitors from far-flung reaches of the globe.
Its chairman throughout the past decade has been enthusiastic local historian Jackie Cooper, of Clavering, who is keen for
www.recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk to be more widely known locally.
"It's already getting very well known around the world, with 166 hits in the last week alone," she said. These largely come from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and South Africa.
Since the site went live in May it has enjoyed more than 2,000 hits and 6,500 page impressions, adds the recorders' webmaster, Ray Gaubert, of Henham. "If you were to print out all that's on there it would be well over 1,000 pages of A4," he adds.
As well as the Uttlesford group's own wealth of information, the site has links to virtually all of the 56 parishes in the district; there are currently 40 recorders but some cover more than one patch.
The plethora of articles and documents are complemented by images, including the photos above. Those of children skating on the frozen village pond in Henham were taken about 100 years ago and were acquired recently by Ray and his wife Nina, who are both involved as Henham's recorders and look after its village website as well. The darker picture taken at the same time shows Henham's last remaining village shop in the background.
Jackie says the challenge for the next 10 years is to raise the group's profile in communities to emphasise the importance of preserving evidence of the past, as well as to continue to record the present, and to get local collections catalogued electronically.
"If somebody in the past hadn't saved up things we wouldn't have any resources to look at," she points out. "Somebody has to consciously save up effects, newspaper cuttings and take before and after photographs of changes in a village."
A new feature on the website is "notes and queries" so visitors can help each other out with information and requests. It's also been made user-friendly for blind or poorly sighted people to use.
The group is trying to build up pictures of what life was like in Uttlesford villages for those tracing their family trees, "to flesh out the lives of their ancestors".
"Our site isn't just for recorders. We would love to have articles from anybody who is interested in village history and they will all be acknowledged," says Jackie.
We would be delighted to hear about your memories of people and places in the Observer area. Please send your letters and photos to: Nostalgia, Observer, 12 North Street, Bishop's Stortford, Herts CM23 2LQ or email to observer@hertsessexnews.co.uk