The Yateley Society

We hold mostly digital archives relating to the town of Yateley (including Frogmore and Darby Green) in Hampshire and parts of surrounding areas.

Due to a fire some years ago most of our original documents and pictures have been transferred to Hampshire Record Office but we have retained digital copies of these. I would describe our collection as a reference library and we respond to a number of enquiries during the year. Gathering data is ongoing as this is useful when responding to Planning applications as we are involved in that too together with Conservation.

Our digital files take up about 500Gb and cover the full existence of Yateley from Saxon times through to today. Our index has over 12,100 lines but is known to have some duplication. Several publications exist but only one recent publication – Yateley in the Great War pub 2018. Our digital files go back to the early years of computing and the restriction of 8-character file names so the ‘refreshing’ aspect is a full-time job although I am getting some expertise in converting old files to new ones (and making the names longer!).

We run a Coffee and Chat History session in a local cafe once a month. The Society is a registered Charity and a Civic Society.