The Yateley Society

Yateley Society (YatSoc) is a Civic Trust acting as the local History Society for Yateley. We also do some research in Eversley and Hawley, neither of which have formal Local History Societies.

Contact details

The Society's website Society webpage(alternative)

The Society's primary means of contact is by email to Richard Johnston, archivist and Local History Group leader. Email Peter Tipton

The Yateley Society History Group home page

The Yateley History Project history collection home page

Yateley Local History website homepage

Objectives

The Society's other objectives include Planning, Natural History and practical Nature Conservation. There is a lot of synergy between these activities. Local History work is often stimulated by planning needs. The Natural History dimension is important for understanding the history of Yateley Common which was occupied in some way or other from the Mesolithic period onwards.

Current Activities and Research

Generating and maintaining the archives - recent large donations of materials are being catalogued and assimilated

The development of Yateley after 1945 - Current main project

History and "above ground" archaeology of historic houses (we also do some work in Eversley and Hawley) - ongoing as opportunities arise

Historic Parks and Gardens

Yateley's Families (ongoing - largely stimulated by enquiries from Family Historians)

Largely completed research

The Society has mounted an annual exhibition for 25 years. The titles of the local history exhibitions in the last 15 years were:

• 1991: Yateley Society 10th Anniversary Exhibition
• 1993 Yateley in 1878
• 1997 Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters
• 1999 Yateley Fact & Fiction - An exhibition about Yateley's myths, legends & some little known facts
• 2000 A Millennium Exhibition in St Peter's Church
• 2000 5 Yateley Mansions - Yateley Manor, Hillfield, Robin's Grove, Yateley Hall and Yateley Lodge
• 2002 4 Yateley Families - Fitzroy, Cave, Bunch & Goddard
• 2003 150 Years of Adult Education in Yateley (with the WEA)
• 2003 Church End, Yateley
• 2004 Yateley in World War 2
• 2005 The Haven - the story of a home for unmarried mothers

Yateley in WW2 - large exhibition in 2004 in connection with 60 year celebrations of Normandy Landings - featuring the role of RAF Hartford Bridge (Blackbushe Airport)

The Haven Mother and Baby Home (1945-1970) - 2005 Lecture

We have completed the histories of most of our listed buildings

Archives

The Yateley History Project has a large collection of Local History information and sources for Yateley Tithing (roughly the modern Civil Parish), but also has some information for the ancient parish of Yateley (i.e. including Hawley and Cove) and for Crondall Manor.

The Paper collection includes books, maps and original and photocopied source materials, and is equivalent in volume to about three large wardrobes. In addition there are huge quantities of digitised images and computerised transcribed materials, the earliest computerised materials dating from about 1983.

Data management has become a serious problem in recent years and there is a huge backlog on the cataloguing of material, and help is sought to bring this material into order.

Some of the material, which includes most "key documents" for research on Yateley is well organised in the collection which is describved below:

The Yateley History Project

Yateley History Project home page

The Yateley History project materials form part of the "Members" section of the Yateley Society website. The open site pages allow our historical researchers, who are members of the Yateley History Project, to know what sort of resources are available. For third party copyright reasons, the materials themselves are password protected, and provided for members of the Yateley History Project to use for research to support the project. If you are interested in contributing to the Yateley History Project, please contact us.

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

Most Yateley History project materials are subject to third party copyright or data protection restrictions, which mean it is not normally possible to grant direct access to members of the public.

The Yateley History Project's policy is to answer specific questions directed by application to the Yateley Society by emailing The Yateley Society. We try to help researchers as much as we can. We expect those who obtain our help to provide their Yateley relevant historical materials to us in return, and in the case of family historians to provide their genealogical link from their Yateley ancestors down to themselves.

These open web pages allow historical researchers to know what sort of material is available. In fact we have far more than is on the closed website, both on computer and in traditional paper form, so it is better that we answer questions rather than grant access to the closed website.

A few items are already available on the "open" part of the Yateley Society website, and it is expected that there will be more of these available in future.

Richard Johnston

Hon Sec

The Yateley Society

email Yateley Society