Introduction

Hello,

You don’t know me and I don’t know you… so a quick introduction.

Actually, of course, that might not be true. Perhaps we have met. If, like me, you have lived for any length of time in the town of Midhurst then our paths may well have crossed. I am assuming you have found this blog as the result of an internet search for Midhurst, or Easebourne or Cowdray; or maybe you clicked on a link on a related site. Either way, if we don’t know each other we at least share an interest in the town of Midhurst in West Sussex.

Recent years have seen a marked increase in awareness of  Midhurst’s past.  An impressive display of old documents, photographs and artefacts was mounted in St. Margaret’s Convent in 2007, followed by two smaller scale exhibitions at the Spread Eagle and Capron House.

The Midhurst Society published a series of excellent “Midhurst Heritage” magazines between 2004 and 2009. In 2010 the society launched the book “Midhurst in Living Memory” at the aforementioned Capron House event, the culmination of their oral history project. In the same year a group of past and present teachers published “Midhurst Grammar School Remembered”, a wonderful souvenir collection of reminiscences of the school.

I have been inspired by these efforts to share my own memories and material of growing up in Midhurst but sadly there are a couple of problems. Principally my memory isn’t very good, and add to that overzealous adherence to a minimalist lifestyle in my youth (not pointing fingers but not necessarily my own choice) means I don’t have much to jog it. What I do have, however, is a collection of old sound and video tapes of various formats and it is to these that this blog is dedicated.

I hope you find something of interest here. Maybe a recording you remember from the past and have forgotten about or (as in at least one case already) the voice of a relative long passed away that you didn’t know existed. If so, please feel free to comment.

Ok, so introductions over. On with the show…

GH (Dec 2011)