Three Rivers Museum chairman on keeping memories alive

As we close this weekend (November 11/12) of more solemn reflection and remembrance, I’ve been thinking about how we collect and present our memories. There are so many ways of doing that, and we’ve seen some of them in the last few days.

I was invited last week to look at the scrap books of a local lady, now aged 90. She’s been keeping (and organising) her cuttings and ‘scraps’ for at least 50 years: they come from the Watford Observer and other local papers, and from calendars such as those produced years ago by Tames of Rickmansworth. I include unashamedly pictures of a couple of her pages: many are carefully noted with details, descriptions and other comments, which together give her now the recollection that she wanted when she started. And she’s included simple postcards of her and her husband’s travels over the years: each means something to her.

Scrapbook cuttings from Watford Observer. Image: M Hedges

In our small museum we try to tell the story - what was it like to live and work around here? So much of that story is in the memories of people who were here at the time: some working in the past and no longer with us, some keeping alive more recent events which happened before many readers were born but are still part of the picture, and others recalling – and capturing – events just last week, or last year. The Watford Observer has been running ‘Nostalgia’ pages for years and years (my friend with the scrapbook has many) – but they also report the news, and publish primary school class photos every year. They too are part of the story – the heritage – of this area.

A missing link preserved – the yard of the George Inn, Rickmansworth 1910. Image: Three Rivers Museum / M R Tame collection) (M Hedges)

And of course we have diaries. What colossal value they are to the local historian - provided, of course, that we keep one! Many, of course, are intensely private, not intended for public consumption, and that must always (always) be respected. But in Three Rivers Museum we now have two examples, completely different: one is the wonderful record of farmer John White from 1846 to 1896, another the schoolgirl diary for 1917 of Elizabeth Giles of Stockers Farm, which gives a fine insight into the daily life, at school and around here, of a teenager. From both of these the ‘story’ can be told.

A page from the diary of John White – March 3, 1886. The last sentence…. Image: Three Rivers Museum

So there’s a real value in keeping a record: but where, and how? And what do we do with it later? You might keep a ‘memory box’ of souvenirs: you might record an audio diary on your smart phone, or write daily (or weekly) in a small book. Keeping track of your digital life is a whole different matter, and no-one’s really cracked that. And what happens to it later if, like me, you look at the pile of clutter round the house and decide that ‘something must be done’? Well, that’s up to you – to each of us. But the main thing is to keep alive the memory of what’s happened, and what it means for each of us.

A simple schoolgirl diary – Elizabeth Giles. Image: Three Rivers Museum / Giles Browne

We will, I hope, remember them.