Marks Tey Heritage Project
The project has been gathering and organising material to explain the history and heritage of not only of St Andrew's but also of various aspects of the village. Thousands of pages of documents and photographs. have been scanned by a small dedicated team of volunteers. Currently in excess of 10000 files are being fully catalogued and downloaded onto the unreleased website.
Fresh material is arriving all the time. Recently loaned were 30 audio tapes of the life story of George Polley (b 1916 in Marks Tey) and dictated by him. These are are being digitised at the moment. Promised is some VHS film of the 1970's Carnivals.
By the end of 2025 there will be
- A website which anyone can explore
- Hard hat tours during the works on the tower
- Exhibitions in the church with interactive material
- A collection of oral histories from residents on their memories of the village. This may be their time at school or working at the likes of By-Pass nurseries or W H Collier
- The School, having taken an active part, will have learnt about the history of the school and village from their recording of its history and hearing the oral recordings of past pupils
This project is made possible by funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund allowing the employment of a team of professionals including Kate Goodall, Clare Driver and Francesca Lomabardi and a dedicated band of local volunteers (Brian and Patsy Beech, Celia Dodd, Leon Parker, Trevor Leung and Andrew Waters).
We have recently recruited Liz Baalham and Clare Lucas to lead our Community Engagement
The fist oral history recordings will be made on April 11th. Donation of written histories are welcome.
There was a display at the Community Library in May followed by one in the School. In September there are guided tours of the Church on 13 September in the morning. On Oct 25 and 26 a major exhibition in the Church