Hargrave project leader's trip to Australia bridges hundreds of years of history

Years of history and over 10,000 miles were bridged when the leader of a Suffolk village's heritage project took a trip to Australia.

Much of Hargrave’s history was at risk of being lost forever before Peter Reddick, with other residents decided to set up website Hargrave Heritage.

The community project, set up in 2020, gathers the history of the village for current and past residents, and was conceived through a partnership of the Parish Council and the Church Council of St Edmund’s Church.

The website has seen people get in touch to share their own stories, including Peter Gooch, currently based in Sydney, Australia, whose ancestor used to own a beer house and farm on Hargrave Green which was sold by auction in 1847.

At the end of last month, Mr Reddick, while on a trip to visit his son in Sydney with his wife Fiona, met with Mr Gooch and his wife Ruth to share stories about Hargrave and bridge a 10,500 mile gap.

“It was great,” Mr Reddick said. “We share the common thing about being residents of Hargrave.

“The connection is the long distance apart, but through the website it’s been bridged.

“He (Peter) obviously has a keen interest in taking his own family so we chatted about that and about Hargrave which he hasn’t been to.

“He’s yet to make the trip here but hopefully that will happen one day.”

Mr Reddick, who runs the Hargrave Heritage website alongside Jill de Laat and Simon de Laat, Paul Rogers, parish council chairman Dave Taylor and Jill Upton, said there were plans to compile all the information gathered so far to hold an exhibition. It will be held in May at St Edmund’s Church, in Church Lane, IP29 5HH.

It’s a long way from where things were before, when the history of the village was at risk of being lost.

“We had a village recorder for about 30 years who diligently collected pieces of paper of various varieties of the history of the village,” said Mr Reddick who has lived in Hargrave for 17 years, adding: “But what she couldn’t do was make it available for the public to see so when she retired someone inherited four large boxes of cardboard and the parish council was confronted about what to do with it.”

It was then the idea for the website came about. The website won heritage funding in 2019 and by November 2020 it was up and running.

Visit www.heritage-suffolk.co.uk