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Cradley Village Hall Heritage Centre

The Cradley heritage centre is in the village hall along the lane past the War Memorial and Church. There is access for wheelchairs. It is open to the public every Thursday moring (see village newsletter) from 1030 to 1230. Equipment is funded by Local Heritage Initiative. The room offers an up to date computer system (Moore's law permitting), with printer, scanner, copier and microfilm/Fiche reader. A member of the group will assist you. Facilities include tracing your ancestors, cencus on CD ROM, finding out about village history, discovering the people of the past and how they lived, looking at old photographs, exploring maps, documents and books. Right click to download brochure side1 and side 2.

News for Autumn 2006 from Wynnell H

CRADLEY HERITAGE CENTRE

The Heritage Centre in the Village Hall is a very busy place. In recent weeks visitors have come not only from Cradley and Worcester, but from the U.S.A. (Arizona ) Canada (British Columbia) and Australia, to search for records of their ancestors. The Americans who had done their own work on the internet were very excited to discover from William Jones" maps of 1834 and 1855 the very houses their forbears had lived in and were able to go to see Kemp's cottage and Lower Halesend and photograph them.

On Thursday mornings our stewards are busy listing maps and photographs and labeling our library books, as well as using the I.T. equipment, even if no visitors arrive.

We have acquired a fiche reader and a light box to use with our slides and Neil Taylor has made us some very effective wooden structures to house the containers for rolled maps. More shelving is in place too in the Archive storage area upstairs.

Memories from Bridgit Allfrey and Roy Lockyer have been added to our collection, the latter in connection with Whitman's Hill Quarry. Public visits to the quarry have started, led by Abigail Brown, who is in charge of the project to make this important part of our environment an educational resource for schools and anyone else interested.

Outreach for the group has included a talk to senior pupils at Cradley school and a fascinating visit to the Hereford Museum Resource Centre. We have welcomed the Suckley Local History Society and Cradley Evergreens, in each case with an exhibition, tea and talks, and a visit from Malvern Civic Society is planned.

"Cradley, a Village History" now has its own website at CradleyBook.org.uk.

Virginia Mayes-Wright from the Hereford Museum Service comes to advise the Heritage Group.

Visit of Bromyard Local History Society.

Preston, Marcia Lambson from Arizona, USA, with friends from Northampton, 11 July 2006, researching ancestors in Cradley using equipment funded by grant.

Spring 2006 news

The group has been very busy, completing the survey of Storridge churchyard, and starting to record the gravestones in the Chapel burial ground in Chapel Lane. These will be put on C.D. Rom to accompany the one we have acquired of Cradley churchyard. We have also recorded more old cottages and trees and are putting these on computer.

Memories of the village are very important and we continue to put these on tape, as it will be of great interest in years to come for individual voices to be heard. Members of the W.I. and the Evergreens are helping with this project. A whole past history of the way people lived is being recorded and we have many old photographs for anyone to see. We also have W.I. and Parish Council Records and others of the Play Group and the Village Hall Management Committee, as well as Church records.

Family History is enormously popular to-day and group members have been able to show visitors to the Heritage Room the many C.D.Roms of census returns, to help them in their search. We also have old maps of the village with its houses and lists of the occupants -sometimes even their occupations.

Many documents including deeds from past years have been loaned to us and these provide a wonderful insight into the past.

We have had a conducted tour of the new Museums Resource Centre in Hereford, and will soon be going to Hereford Cathedral Library to see some records relating to Cradley.

We have hosted visits from the Bromyard Local History Society and the U.3A local history group in Ledbury. Their members were very impressed by the new facilities and equipment of our Village Hall especially the Heritage Room and Archive storage area. We gave them a good tea and talk and put on an exhibition as well.

Two of our members attended a first meeting at Hereford Record Office of a Local History Forum which will link many of the Local History groups in the county, providing information and advice.

Senior pupils from the school will be coming to meet the group and learn something of the history of their village and members of the Evergreens will be coming in June 2006. We hope to build on an initial meeting with the Youth Group.

Cradley is about to go on the International Geological Map! An interesting development followed one of the talks the group arranged in April 2005. Dr. Peter Oliver of the Earth Heritage Trust in Worcester has started an exciting project based on Whitman's Hill Quarry in Storridge, where rocks and fossils are many millions of years old. This will include a strong educational element. A steering Committee has been formed which includes several Group members and representatives of the Parish Council and a special launch day was held attended by Bill Wiggin, M.P. when displays were put on and many children brought their own fossils to be identified. A wonderful model dinosaur filled the gallery of Cradley Village Hall ! A series of talks will be starting in the Hall on 12th April 2006.

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