AT the beginning of 2018 the Ross Gazette was awarded £70,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the Ross Gazette Archive Project. The project is run along with partners Herefordshire Libraries, Herefordshire Lore and MediaSHYPP and focuses on preserving the historic archive of the newspaper by digitising the entire newspaper archive and photographs that have appeared in the paper, and making it available for the public to access free of charge via the Herefordshire History website, making it accessible to a much wider audience and preserving it for future generations.

The project will also include an intergenerational reminiscence initiative, primary school learning programme, film project and work with local history groups.

Currently there are 10 years of newspapers available to view on the Herefordshire History website (1867-1877), plus the papers from WWI (1914-1919). The British Libraries continue to scan the remaining years and the Gazette hopes to have a good batch online in the early part of 2019.

A group of volunteers have been hard at work giving every photo the Gazette has a unique reference number. This has been a long task. To date just over 13,500 photos have been numbered. Another group of volunteers are scanning in the numbered photos which are being uploaded to the Herefordshire History website. Currently the photographs from 1974-1977 are available to view online. If you recognise anyone in these pictures please get in touch with the Ross Gazette or Herefordshire History.

Pupils at Walford School have been hard at work becoming reporters for the project, by finding out about what school was like for their parents and grandparents. They will be interviewing their friends and relatives, as well as the people they meet at the Walford Community lunches. The pupils will then use the material they gather through these interviews to create short films which will be shown at exhibitions as part of the Archive Project.

A group of ten pupils from John Kyrle High School Sixth Form have received training from Herefordshire Lore and MediaSHYPP to learn a wide variety of filming techniques, as well as questions to ask in an interview and given the skills to make the interviewee feel at ease. The 10 pupils divided into two groups to film and interview some residents from Ross Court Nursing Home, as well as local Ross residents. These interviews are currently being combined into a film which will be part of our exhibition later this year.

During January and February this year the Gazette will be holding reminiscence/oral history sessions at Ross Library, and are looking for stories from people of all ages as part of the Ross Gazette Archive Project. Do you, or did you in the past, live in Ross and can see what has changed? Do you work in Ross-on-Wye? Perhaps you went to school here. The Gazette wants to hear your memories and if you have any memorabilia which could be used in a exhibition which will take place in 2019 please get in touch. To register your interest in attending one of these sessions please call Charlotte Reynolds on 01989 562007 or email [email protected]