Archive Day Success in Onslow Village

Published on: 19 Sep, 2012
Updated on: 22 Sep, 2012

A steady stream of Onslow Village residents visited the village hall in Wilderness Road on Saturday with old photos, memorabilia and a wealth of memories.

The editor of Onslow Village Residents’ Association’s newsletter The Village Voice, Marian de Kretser (seated), and association committee member Catherine Ward (standing centre), with Sue Harrington and Doris Greenacre who brought items to the Archive Day.

Held by the Onslow Village Residents’ Association (OVRA), Archive Day was arranged in a bid to add more stories, old photos and details about the history of the garden village that goes back in the 1920s.

Items brought along that OVRA copied on the day, or were donated, included pictures from the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977, newspaper cuttings relating to Henley Fort’s “gibbet” (play equipment), some old photos of Wilderness Farm in the early 1960s, and rent and receipt books from the Onslow Village Association Ltd.

People also gave their memories of yesteryear and these were carefully noted down.

There were displays based on Onslow Village’s history.

Led by the association’s newsletter editor, Marian de Kretser, other members were also on hand to speak to the visitors. The Guildford Dragon News’s writer and local historian David Rose also spent the day there talking to those who came along. He brought along photos from his own collection as well as a number of fragments of bombs, bullets and shrapnel that actually fell on Onslow Village during the Second World War.

To visit OVRA’s website click here.