The Wherwell History Group was formed in 2008. Our main objective is to research, record and preserve the history of the parishes of Wherwell and Chilbolton, and maintain an archive of sound recordings and written or photographic material.
We are keen to stimulate interest in our local history and expand our membership base. We organize a monthly programme of illustrated talks in Wherwell Village Hall (March, April & May), Chilbolton Village Hall (June, September & October) and by Zoom (November, January & February) and an annual guided visit. More details at Wherwell History Group Programme
To help get the group established, we participated in the original Living Links Community programme. This was managed by Hampshire Record Office to encourage local groups to preserve their past and the present for the future. Today, we are a member of the Hampshire Archives Trust.
Our archive is constantly expanding, either through contributions from local village people or contact via our website or contact via our Facebook group. As at September 2024, our archive has nearly 900 folders and our Facebook group has over 515 members. The archive comprises lots of village photographs and postcards from many and varied sources, some village scrapbooks (1951 to 2005 and 2010), some oral interview (video) recordings, gravestones and memorial inscriptions for both village churches and many, many newscuttings. Our website is also an archive for publications such as the Wherwell Anthologies (1974 to 2019) and Chilbolton & Wherwell Community Magazine (2009 onwards).
Additional contributions have been created for special events, such as the relaunch of the Wherwell Millennium DVD in 2011, a display at Wherwell Primary School in celebration of their 80th Anniversary in July 2009, a Charity Film Evening to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the release of film ‘The Sound Barrier‘, assisted with the production of the ‘The River is Flowing‘ – a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant in association with the University of Winchester which celebrated the spiritual history of Wherwell and Wherwell Abbey and the Home Guard Club 70th Anniversary in 2016. We have also inherited a significant bundle of archive material from two notable local authors, Percy Trodd and Eleanor Lockyer. In 2012 we created a Wherwell Time Capsule and between 2012 and 2021, we published a annual calendar of village and bygone photographs.
In November 2021, we launched a major redesign of our website. To date we have uploaded over 2400 media items, catalogued over 1000 items from our archives and created over 135 posts. Although there is still ‘work to do’ our website and integrated archive catalogue is worthy of a visit at www.wherwellhistory.com.