IN its latest six-monthly round of grants the Hampshire Archives Trust has awarded more than £19,000 for six projects.

A major grant of £8,000 has gone to the new Victoria County History, which, under the guidance of Dr John Hare and Dr Jean Morrin, has the long-term objective of rewriting the history of the entire county. The money will go to finance the publication of its latest ‘short’, on Herriard and Southrope, near Basingstoke. This is the product of a dedicated group of researchers.

The Hampshire Record Office will now be able to catalogue the records of 120 different Women’s Institutes with the support of a grant of £4,200. These are from all parts of the county, including Blackwater and Fleet, Highclere, Southwick and Leigh Park, Beaulieu and New Milton, as well as Winchester. At present scattered within the HRO collections, these records will now be brought together to tell the story of the WI in Hampshire 1917-2016.

A permanent digitised record of one of the most intriguing archaeological excavations of recent times has been funded with a grant of nearly £1,200 for the Hyde900 community dig in the gardens of houses in Hyde, which uncovered significant traces the medieval abbey. The money will also help to record the construction of Hyde Abbey Gardens.

The King John’s House and Tudor Trust, Romsey, has received £2,800, to enable it conserve and study an important bargain and sale deed of 1571. It will also go to the design and production of cabinet to ensure its preservation in the setting of the house itself.

Fleet and Crookham Local History Group received £1,500 to buy a major collection of postcards of the area collected over many years by the late Percy Vickery, author and former member. These were acquired at auction by a dealer, who agreed to hold off selling them if the necessary funds could be raised.

Rare films never before publicly screened will be shown in venues throughout the county between September and December by the Wessex Film and Sound Archive, courtesy of a grant of £1,500. They show the role of women in building components for Spitfires in one of the many Shadow Factories of the1940s and include recording of former employees.

HAT chairman David Livermore said: “HAT continues to make a real difference to local organisations’ projects. As always a rigorous examination of all documentation submitted was made with an assessment of how far they met HAT’s aims and objectives.

“A number of main grants applications have been received, and unfortunately while all were of merit and deserving of support some hard decisions had to be made because HAT could not afford to support them all. The deadline for the next award round is December 31.”