Liphook Community Magazine Summer 2020

HERITAGE CENTRE
How Did it All Begin?
The account that follows is courtesy of Valerie Gaskin and
Chris Sibley, key volunteers at our Heritage Centre. Val
re-wrote this ‘resume’ during the current lockdown. It
documents the early years of the Heritage Centre - a
presentation at the AGM of the Bramshott and Liphook
Preservation Society that she made in 2012.
“The birth of the Heritage Centre, like most things, developed
from a seed planted in hope and grown in the dreams of one
man: Laurence Giles.
taken 20 years ago: John Carver, Barry Pope, Adrian Bird and
Peter Harris.
Yes, a new venue was due to appear on the Liphook scene. A
collection of second-hand (pre-loved or recycled is the modern
term) furniture, the display cabinets from what had been
Coytes* haberdashery department in London Road, discarded
filing cabinets and cupboards, shelving and - dare I say it -
computers and printers - were installed. Adrian Bird’s old map
drawer also found its way there plus discarded file cupboards,
unwanted desks, and later a reception desk from a museum
in Dorset - we took in anything that was offered.
The Bramshott and Liphook Heritage Centre was born, and
an appeal was made in the Community Magazine for volunteers
to man it.
After a long and distinguished career, Laurence Giles came to
live in Liphook. His love of the area led him to become
involved in local activities, in particular the Bramshott and
Liphook Preservation Society. During this time he was prolific
in his research and his writing, and produced some 10,000
documents relating to the area, all stored in 97 boxes (called
‘T boxes’), and held together with elastic cut from the tops of
his wife’s tights! Their contents cover all aspects of the history
of the Bramshott and Liphook district, some translated from
their original Latin text.
Laurence’s Archive, including photographs, maps and other
memorabilia was later housed in the office of architect
Adrian Bird in London Road, where it remained for a number
of years. However, bigger plans were afoot and after several
years of fund raising and hard work by the Society and its
supporters, a worthy home was found - in the empty space
of the Millennium Centre.
Many hands make light work - and in 2000, with grit and
determination, our intrepid team set out to fulfil Laurence’s
dream. You may recognise the following people in this photo
Boxes, boxes and more boxes! We didn’t know what we were
getting ourselves into! But we made a start and discovered a
treasure trove of information in every box. The range of
material was simply mind-boggling! We have since become
thoroughly hooked on the history of Liphook.
We realised very early that our furniture wasn’t necessarily
arranged in the most suitable place. Our gentlemen volunteers
were more than willing to do the heavy work, especially after
we promised them chocolate cake with their coffee! Plus the
reassurance that they would only have to do it once!
But this proved not to be so. We reorganized the layout several
times before settling on the best way of working the area.
This included moving six filing cabinets and the map drawer
which, incidentally, needed to be dismantled to get it through
the door and then completely rebuilt on the other side! This
wasn’t the end of it. Since then we have installed a glasstopped
cabinet which had once graced a museum, and then
found its way to us via the shed of one of our volunteers.
Collaborating with Mark Pitchforth of the Hampshire
Records Office, we listened and learned, and took his sound
advice on archiving, cataloguing and producing displays - and
attended Archivist courses at the HRO. We put Mark’s advice
in to practice and started working on assembling displays
worthy of our Official Opening Night.
Readers, you’re all invited to the opening night - to be
continued in the next issue of this magazine!
*Coytes used to sell hardware and general goods.
Mari Wallace
17