Yapton & Ford Through the Ages
Yapton & Ford Through the Ages
The Project came about during discussions at our monthly club meetings and between various members of the Committee who are actively involved in researching various aspects of the village (houses, people, etc.). After reading about similar projects elsewhere in the UK we invited guest speakers from the County Records Office and Chichester University College to speak at several of our meetings and, as a Group, we decided to formalize the research and ensure the material was available for future generations.
Over the following 12 months we distilled all the ideas into the 3 projects:
- Heritage Walks
- Oral History
- Website
Heritage Walks
We believe it is important to document the history of the local buildings and in that way to preserve our architectural heritage. This is the focus of our Heritage Walk project. Our proximity to Arundel Castle provides a catalyst for research into the social history of medieval times while in more recent times, the building of the Portsmouth to Arundel Canal, the South Coast Railway and Ford Aerodrome gives impetus to the modernisation and change associated with the Industrial Revolution and an increasingly mobile population.
Oral History
More recent history should not be forgotten either; we have a number of older residents who are born and bred in the villages and it is important to record their knowledge of how Yapton and Ford have changed over the last 100 years. This is the focus of our Oral History project. Yapton has changed considerably in the last 60 years both geographically and sociologically and we believe there is no substitute for first-hand experience of what our villages were like before the changes. We can then preserve this knowledge for future generations.
Website
But it is no good doing research and acquiring information if it is just going to be squirreled away and never seen again. We hope to build and continually develop a website so other people outside of our Group are aware of what information is available, either to assist in their own research or simply for general interest in our villages.
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