Fiftieth anniversary of the Romsey Local History Society

Romsey Local History Society

Fifty years ago the inhabitants of Romsey were becoming seriously concerned about the destruction of the historic buildings of the town.

While the Romsey and District Society concentrated on saving the buildings LTVAS (Lower Test Valley Archaeological Study Group) focused on researching and trying to understand the history and development of the town. Led by Test Valley Archaeological Trust excavations took place with many LTVAS members as the voluntary workforce. Coupled with this was the development of history research both to prepare for archaeological investigation and also to research the town's history and make it available for the increasing number of interested locals and incomers to the town.

In more recent years we have lost our local archaeologist and less excavation is done as fewer buildings are fully demolished. This is probably fortunate since most of our enthusiastic diggers of the 1970s are now rather elderly for this sort of work. We now use the name Romsey Local History Society since it makes our main interests clearer.

Romsey was lucky in having a number of local men who were involved in the development of early photography and their photographs form the starting point of the collection of  36,000 pictures acquired or copied during the last 50 years. A number of local residents whose families have been in the town for many generations have written memoirs of their lives in the town eg Robert Everett and Tom Slater, and current residents share their memories of childhood in the area. In addition, LTVAS members have become involved in rescuing archive collections like the Tylee, Mortimer and Attlee solicitors' records and smaller collections of deeds from individuals which enable us to trace the history of Romsey buildings.

1875 Plan of Horsefair Brewery on loan from newcomers to the town from deeds they acquired with their house (Image: Romsey Local History Society)Over the years the society has published a number of books on local history and carried out research on a number of specific topics - Mills and Waterways, Local Farming, Schools, and Saxon Romsey. Currently, we are working on the history and development of the buildings and streets in the centre of town. We are very grateful for those house owners who have given us access to their deeds to help trace the building's history. Any new volunteers to help with this will be very welcome.

The material loaned or given has been read and copied. Any documents which are significant we try to have lodged with the Hampshire Record Office while the society keeps copies for local use.  We rent the basement of Romsey Town Hall to store this material and we are open every Monday 10am to 12am for members or interested visitors to consult our collection. The basement can be opened in the evenings by arrangement if required.

Contact us by emailing romsey.history@gmail.com or consult our website ltvas.org.uk