A new historical resource to open up the history of villages and towns in the Uttlesford District Council area of north-west Essex was launched at the end of 2006 and has been called ‘RUTH’ (taken from the project’s name, ‘Recording UTtlesford History’). It aims to provide local historians and other researchers with online access to descriptions of documents and artefacts held in numerous district based collections and archives.

As well as covering the district’s towns and villages, RUTH will provide access to church records, museum archives and charities documents. Thanks to the new database, which is being organised by Uttlesford’s voluntary Local History Recorders and funded by a Lottery grant, the Recorders have had the database professionally designed to suit the needs of local historians and other researchers, especially family historians.

Some 45 local history recorders and local history societies have signed up to post records to RUTH and, at the time of the launch in December 2006, 638 records had already been posted. More entries and other information are being posted to the website every week. Discussions are also taking place about entering documents and catalogues from the local Quaker archives, the Thaxted collection and Saffron Walden Museum. As the database grows, it will be possible to do searches across the whole district looking for particular people and places, as well as specific subjects.

Jacqueline Cooper, Chairman of the Uttlesford Local History Recorders, says ‘This is a most exciting development for the history scene in north-west Essex. For the first time it will be possible to find out about documents and artefacts which until now have been known only within villages or organisations. As RUTH becomes better known, we hope that more parishes will want to take part and allow their historical material to be listed’. She ended by making the point that projects like RUTH are an important way of conserving records for the future generations because, once catalogued, they are less likely to be discarded and forgotten, as has been the fate of of so much potential archive material.

For more information contact Uttlesford Local History Recorders, c/o 24 Pelham Road, Clavering, Saffron Walden CB11 PQ, email: chairman@ulhr.org.uk, web: www.ulhr.org.uk.

7 February 2007

Designer of the RUTH database demonstrating its use to one of the Uttlesford Local History Recorders, Kate Barwood, of Arkesden. Photo: Gordon Ridgewell, tel: 01799 523833, email: gordon@ ridgewell.net.