HRGS Projects

Social History

• Street Names – Would you like to help us find out the meaning behind local street names. We currently have a list of over 1600 streets we are investigating.
• Famous Local People – A timeline showing notable famous people who have walked our streets over the millennium of time. A few researchers would like to create a timeline of local famous people, which will also tell us a little bit about their lives, and enable us to publish this information in a book.
• A Stroll Through Time – Capturing the memories of two local historians. We are currently working on recording their recollections of how life used to be in times gone by, both along Sittingbourne High Street and Milton Regis High Street.
• 1940’s Diary – Digitise, transcribe, research the diary of David Joyce who kept a diary throughout 1940. Once the research is complete, researchers will then decide how best to tell the story that David Joyce has left us.
• Transcriptions of Burial, Birth, Marriage Records – Transcribing parish records from microfilm held in the HRGS research Archives.
• Digitisation Project – To digitise over 4,000 local photographs, maps, indentures, microfilm, and 6,000 artefacts currently in the possession of the group…it will make them more accessible to researchers. For more information click here.
• G H Dean & Co Ltd – Researching and collecting images and stories about the history of G H Dean and the families linked to it, who helped shape Sittingbourne and the surrounding areas, over the last 200 years. This research will then be transformed into a book and touch screen story in our exhibition.
• Swale Trail – working with Liz Foster and her team from Quiz Trail CIC, to help produce a historic look at the local area to encourage local interest.
• History of Teynham – HRGS are researching the local village of Teynham to produce a publication to help preserve the history of the village.
• Churches – Several of our members are actively involved in pulling together the history of local churches that have been the corner stone to our community over a thousand years.

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War Memorial Projects

• Produce Avenue of Remembrance Information Boards – working with Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council, HRGS are creating information boards that will help tell the story of the Avenue of Remembrance and the men it commemorates.

WW1 Projects

• WW1 Projects – Research into the fallen of Swale Click here for more detail.
• WW1 Presentation Folders – or the local churches and community groups. Click here for more detail.
• WW1 DVD  – Working in conjunction with local film animator Colin Harvey and Swale Media and Arts Group we are proposing to produce a DVD to tell the story of the role played by the community and the significance that Swale played during WW1.
• Crime during WW1 – One members project into the crime reported during the First World War, showcasing the impact that war had on the local community.

WW2 Projects

• The Train that Jumped the Gap – Remembering a Second World War Rail Disaster at Bridge 181, Oak Lane Upchurch, Kent. Click here for more details.
• WW2 Research Project – Research into the fallen of Swale,  and to create bio-pics for each fallen local name to be included on a touch screen in our exhibition. Click here for more details.
• WW2 Presentation Folders – Muston church was the first church to receive a WW2 research folder of their fallen in November 2024, more volunteers are welcomed to assist with this project.

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Archaeological Projects

• Boyces Hill Archaeological Dig – an archaeological survey and investigation of a Late Iron Age / Early Roman site that HRGS commenced in 2023.
• Pottery Fabric Library – HRGS holds a large selection of ceramics and is looking to work with other groups to share information.
  This project is building upon the ceramic fabric examples contained within the Milton Regis Court Hall assemblages found at various excavation sites from around Sittingbourne and Swale between 1970 – 2000. Additionally, it will include examples of fabrics found at the HRGS sites from Bredhurst and Boyces Hill. The intent is to identify and date the fabrics, record and digitally photograph them to produce an online archive. This will be supplemented by having a physical archive of the fabrics as a reference tool.
• Handling History – Click here to see more about this project on KMTV Handling History by Poppy Jeffery.
• Bredhurst Archaeological Dig – HRGS have been excavating at Bredhurst since 2011 and this page includes information on the dig.
• Clay Pipes in North Kent – To investigate various collections across Swale; to draw, catalogue and analyse clay tobacco pipes from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which will result in a publication.
• Archaeological Finds Review  (Handling History) – To examine more than 4000 archaeological finds which had been left in one of the old cells at Milton Regis Court Hall by the dissolved Sittingbourne and Swale Archaeological Research Group in the late twentieth century.  These finds need re-packaging, analysing, conserving, storing and presenting. A selection would be then available to display in the Heritage Hub in Sittingbourne, and other local heritage groups within the Swale Museum Group area.
• Lloyds Wharf – working with Raybel Charters, HRGS are investigating the history and archaeology that can be found at the Wharf on Milton Creek.

For more information on our archaeological digs and how to volunteer, click here.

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