I live in Overton with my wife Cynthia. We moved from Basingstoke to our home beside the River Test in 1987 and have never regretted it. After retiring from a career in the City my main hobby was the garden, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but after a while I felt I needed something more.
(Left – me enjoying my gardening).
I revived an old hobby, photography and started taking pictures of the village. This in turn gave me an interest in the history of Overton. In 2005, Irene Tungate, a keen member of the Overton History Society, gave me some old pictures of Overton and I attempted to take similar photographs of the present day, from the positions where the old photographers would have stood. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds as most of them seem to have been taken from the middle of the road.
(Right – Irene Tungate and her husband Gerry at the 2004 Sheep Fair).
Peter Baker took an interest in what I was doing and displayed some of the pictures in his Fireplace Shop. People started to come in to look at them and then began to bring in their own old pictures. I scanned these into my PC and worked on them with Adobe Photoshop to get rid of creases, spots. stains etc. They were then reprinted and returned to Peter’s shop for people to see. But nothing lasts for ever. Peter has since retired and the Fireplace Shop has been replaced by two new shops.
(Left – Peter Baker at the 2000 Sheep Fair).
Quite quickly my collection of pictures of Overton and the surrounding area, past and present, had grown to about 2,000 images. There was a lot of interest in it and I decided that the best thing to do with the pictures was to put them on the Internet so that everybody could see them. I was lucky at this time to meet Mark Winter who has his own business in the village, Acclaim Marketing Services. Mark’s work includes building websites and he very generously offered to provide one for what was rapidly becoming a community project.
(Right – Mark Winter).
I was then introduced to Brian Burgess who had a wonderful collection of over 800 pictures of the village which he had built up over many years. There have been several generations of Burgesses in the village and Brian had a deep interest in village history. I was delighted, therefore, when Brian very kindly allowed me to borrow his collection. This wasn’t done lightly as, sadly, there have been several instances of cherished photographs being stolen or damaged while on loan for display or copying. I am pleased to say that all 800 pictures were scanned and returned undamaged, and Brian subsequently loaned me several more. (Sadly, Brian has since passed away).
(Left – Brian Burgess in his youth).
More recently, I joined the Overton Photographic Club and found them to be a very friendly and helpful group of enthusiasts. Several of them gave me pictures to include on the website and helped me with a number of technical problems. They are too numerous to name here individually but I must make special mention of their “Chairman” Sue Teagle who, with her kind husband Jeff to pilot her, has taken several aerial pictures of the village and surrounding countryside.
(Right – Sue Teagle, the intrepid aerial photographer).
This brings us up to early 2007 when Janice Stott, who was raised in the village, joined the team. Janice is a keen photographer and also has an interest in village history. She has already unearthed some wonderful aerial photographs showing the development of Lordsfield and is working on a number of other interesting sources of village photo history.
(Left – Janice Stott).
2015 – Some Changes
Our original objective was to build and maintain a photographic record of Overton and its surrounding area, showing the past, through to the present and continuing on into the future. The underlying purpose was and still is educational, and I hope the website will be used by a wide range of people, be they new to the village and wanting to find out about their new home; teachers working on projects with their students; those delving into family histories; Overton people who have moved away, perhaps abroad; or just old Overtonians who want to enjoy a trip down memory lane.
(Right – Overton crossroads).
By 2015 we had over 3,800 files on the website and I think we can claim that it has been a success. This success led to wider ambitions including developing the website into a digital museum with a library of relevant documents and publications. Another attractive idea was to make voice recordings of some of the older residents to capture their lovely Hampshire accents and record their personal stories.
However, as so often happens in life, ambition and enthusiasm had to be tempered by reality. At this time we had a very substantial and growing backlog of images to process. The hopes of adding written documents was proving to be impractical with our existing software; and voice recordings had proven to be a non-starter. Then, as the final straw, we were hit by some major health problems. The website had to be put on one side for a while. This turned out to be for three years. Fortunately Janice Stott was able to step in and kept the project ticking over. Thank you Janice.
2018 – The Future
The village has changed a lot since I started this project, with lots of new houses built and plans for a lot more to come. Apparently, in the national planning strategy, Overton is suitable for development because it has a railway station. Other considerations seem to have been cast aside, seemingly with an assumption that everything will sort itself out in time. Probably, the main factor is that Overton is a residential island in the middle of an unlimited sea of agricultural land ripe for development. A national shortage of houses makes further development seem unstopable.
(Left – Overton Hill development, March 2007).
| As a result of expansion of the village that has already taken place we are suffering from a major increase in road traffic, problems with parking, plus strains on the sewerage system and other public services. Despite all this Overton is still a good place to live but that in itself continues to generate a demand for more houses. |
| We will seek to record on this website the main changes as they occur. And of course, we still welcome more old pictures from times past. In doing this we will have to comply with new legislation about data protection, privacy and the rights of individuals. In truth I don’t think the new requirements will cause any fundamental changes to the way we process the pictures and information that are given to us for the website. We have always taken our responsibilities seriously and adhered to a policy of being fair and accurate in the presentation of the images and documents that we display. Any mistakes or other problems which are drawn to our attention are investigated and dealt with immediately. A brief summary of our procedures for processing material for the website under the new General Data Protection Regulations(GDPR) is set out below. Copyright The images on the website are intended for non-commercial use and may be downloaded for personal, educational or other non-business purposes. The source of each image is shown as part of its description. In some cases, this is the name of the photographer but in many others it is not. If you wish to use any of the images on this website for commercial purposes you should first contact us so that appropriate arrangements may be made for a licence.As far as we are aware, in every case where we believe copyright might exist, we have the approval of the owner to include their images on this website. If you believe that you own the copyright to any image shown and you do not approve of its use in this way, please contact us so that the appropriate action might be taken. GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATIONS (GDPR) On 25th May 2018 the GDPR comes into effect. This new piece of legislation builds on the 1998 Data Protection Act and it relates to personal data concerning identifiable, living individuals.The nature of our website is that processing personal data is an intrinsic part of what we do. This includes obtaining photographs, together with names and other details of people in the photographs and placing them on the website for the world to see indefinately. Notes made when the material is given to us are kept securely and privately to support any details that are disclosed. People giving us pictures and other information are well aware that, unless we are specifically asked not to, we may add them to the website. Indeed, that is the very reason for providing them to us.It has been our policy from the outset that if, for any reason, anybody is unhappy with a photograph on the website or the information given about it, we will amend it or if necessary remove it completely. This applies to all photographs, not just to pictures of people.Copies of all pictures put on the website are printed and filed to mirror the image on the website. Information received by email is printed and filed together with the hard copy of the photograph. Similarly, any other correspondence and any notes made of conversations with the supplier of the image are filed together with the printed copy of the picture. Any notes or correspondence that are not required as part of the historical record are destroyed. All files are kept safely and treated as confidential. They are not available to to any unauthorised person. Personal information given to us but not used on the website, eg contact details for the suppliers of the pictures, is held securely and privately together with the respective images. It would not be disclosed to any third party. In the event of any request for such information, the enquiry would be passed to the supplier of the picture and it would be up to them to contact the enquirer if they so wished.The only information kept on our computer is that which is published on the website; and images awaiting processing. There is no computer database of contributors’ names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers or of any other personal information. All such data is treated as confidential and access is restricted to a small number of Overton Pictures personnel (currently two).If anybody who has provided pictures or information for the website would like further details on how we process personal data, or has any concerns about how we have presented their data, please do not hesitate to contact us. Tony Morris Revised May 2018 |