Heritage trail to launch in north Shropshire village
A heritage trail is being launched in a north Shropshire village after residents stepped in to preserve a collection of photographs and memorabilia.
Geoff Butter has made it a life’s work, collecting anything he could find about Adderley, the village he was born and grew up in.
He has accumulated thousands of items going back to the Domesday Book.
When Paul and Val Nash viewed just a fraction of the archive in Geoff's garden shed, they knew they had to do something to preserve it for future generations.
Paul said: “It was obvious that Geoff had something very special here. The photographs and memorabilia alone were often originals documenting the POW camp WWII, the Convalescent home for soldiers in WW1, the Adderley Hall, the Motte & Castle Hill, the Railway Station and so much more.”
Paul and Val pulled together a group of like-minded people and submitted bid to Heritage Lottery Fund.
They were shocked - and delighted - when they were awarded funds totalling over £47,000.
Val, who is chairman of the project group said: “We are so grateful to Heritage Lottery Fund for seeing the value and potential of this collection but suddenly, it wasn’t just a good idea, it was real and needed us to implement our plan."
They set to work digitising the images, designing and creating a website, setting up a heritage trail around the village, keeping the community informed and working with Shropshire Archive, The Church, Adderley C of E Primary School, Keele University, and the Oral History Society to create ways of preserving the archives.
“We have been fortunate to have a small group of people who have worked really hard to turn the dream into a reality," said Val.
On Saturday, April 27, the group will be launching their heritage trail around the village and the website adderleyheritage.co.uk which hosts the digital images in a searchable archive documenting the village's history.
Anyone who has links to Adderley and would like to attend the launch is welcome. They can contact Val Nash on 07814 071 254 for more information.
Anyone with information or stories to share is also invited to get in touch.
“If you do have anything that you would like to lend for us to copy, gift to add to the archive, or are willing to share memories or information that you think may help us in our quest to save the heritage of our community, we would love to hear from you," said Val.
