Missionary work

The New Year has started on a positive note. I will soon be working with St Peter’s school on their local history project, where I hope to impart a sense of history and belonging. The children will be interviewing their parents and other family members about their stories and memories. We hope to be able to capture interesting memories from non-native as well as native Sopwellians.

I have now uploaded over 60 posts on to our website which is looking really good. We are hoping to beta test it in a few weeks’ time. There are lots of lovely oral history recordings posted as well as many old photographs collected from interviewees and from my Facebook friends – if they have given me permission of course. I am still learning a lot about the Sopwell area and the intention of the website is share these memories with others, not only from St Albans but also everywhere else.

Interestingly, I spoke to a guy today - he was trying to convince me to buy an ISA (!) – who had never heard of Sopwell, so I had to tell him where it was and about its history and what a lovely place it is to live. Cheekily, I told him he could find out all about it by popping along to Waterstone’s to buy the book! Well, you never know. I think I am becoming an ambassador for Sopwell as I sing its praises wherever I go.

More positive news: our famous cedar tree in St Stephen’s field is being assessed on Thursday this week to see if it as old as we think (hope) it is. Pity old Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn didn’t carve their initials in it when they were courting. I will keep you all posted.

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Sandy Norman