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2010

January 31st The webcam has now been fixed. The PC we swapped to replace the original server seems to have avoided the codec change that wrecked our pictures in November. So, fingers crossed, normal service has been resumed.

January 30th It's the webcam - again. However, this time the PC that 'looks after it' failed this morning and we are currently re-designating networkd PCs to fill the gap. Until we're back (Sunday, hopefully), there is the last picture before the PC failed.

January 1st May we both wish all our visitors the very best for the new decade and 2010. Hopefully we can bring you even more information about the Village of the Saints.

2009

December 28th We have now completed the 1911 Census update along with “Heads of Families” during which exercise we have, I hope, corrected some errors of fact. The January 2010 update, scheduled for January 1st, will not be a full one as, following the death of Annette’s mother just before Christmas, we have been somewhat involved in the funeral arrangements. Hopefully normal service will be able to resume in the New Year.

November 7th "Honey, we shrank the webcam!" Not really, but the latest Microsoft upgrade(?) has caused picture problems with our webcam software. An new firmware upload fixed the disturbances, but limited its output to a smaller size. This didn't work either, so we have managed to resume the larger pictures, but by a very odd method. As the manufacturers have stopped support for the webcam, we shall be looking for a new one next year.......

July 15th I thought things had been a bit quiet! Following the introduction of Internet Explorer 8 we have had a couple of reports of one menu not working or even appearing - Church Records. This is quite important, and, I think I have fixed it. There seems to be a problem with the way IE8 deals with the script that sets the menu - I’ve made a small change and it has returned to the land of the living. However, if anyone finds similar problems, please email me so I can investigate.

March 15th The webcam is now restored to its original position and connected via a pair of ‘powerline’' ethernet adapters. Fingers crossed!

March 14th We still can’t locate the camera wirelessly, but, for the time being, it is mounted in our study window looking to the South. It will be affected by the sun in the middle of the day, but we hope to be able to relocate it after a bit of cabling in the loft!

March 13th If you refer back to our entries for November 13th & 15th you will see we experienced problems with the webcam following a router replacement. Today, not an auspicious date(!), I upgraded the router. Everything else is great, apart from the webcam which has disappeared once more - oh dear!

March 4th We’re continuing with the gradual upgrading of menus and titles, which makes it easier for us to add sections and re-organise pages as new information is found. Hopefully I won’t break anything in the process!
I forgot last month to mention that the “Panorama” pages no longer require Quicktime to view them.

January 29th First entry for 2009. We’ve been a little busy here with other projects and have only recently got back to the Froyle website. The February update, due on Sunday February 1st, will have news about the 1911 Census. Sadly, it’s not good news, but visit us from Sunday to find out more. Also, we’ve been refreshing pages (again!) to keep up with the methods that weren’t available to us ten years ago. For example, you will find that Photographs from the Archive now has a much better and easier to follow navigation system. I did this after I got lost in the mass of pictures!!

2008

November 23rd Thanks to an enquiry about names on the War Memorial from Richard Edmunds (thank you Richard for jogging my memory!) I have finally created two pages about the memorial and listed the names inscribed on it. You can find them by following Froyle at War from the Contents and there is a War Memorial menu item there.

November 15th The Webcam is now back. After spending a day ‘looking’ for it I had given up, when, it suddenly re-appeared! I’m currently making copious notes in case it does it again.

November 13th Many apologies for the loss of the Froyle Webcam feed. We replaced our router this afternoon (the old one had broken) and everything came back after the change - except the webcam. We just can’t find it! It’s sitting in its usual place overlooking our garden but has disappeared into cyberspace. I’m sure I will track it down tomorrow, or, hopefully, when the system boots up in the morning it will reappear - some hope!

October 4th The latest update is of some papers and a photograph that were found in the Sacristy of St Mary’s in Upper Froyle. Amongst the wills was one from 1919 made by James Messenger in Australia and includes a bequest to the Froyle bellringers, and I quote:-
.............and to pay the income of the residue of my trust estate half yearly to the Bellringers for the time being of Upper Froyle Parish Church in the County of Hampshire England to be applied by them in the following manner that is to say they shall keep in proper condition and repair the graves of my Father and Mother and shall on the twentysecond day of January in each year ring a muffled peel of bells in the said Parish Church after which ringing they may pay one eighth of the current half yearly income for the purpose of providing for themselves a supper or otherwise for division amongst themselves and shall apply the balance in and towards the maintenance in alternate half years of the oldest poor men end the oldest poor woman then residing at Froyle in the County of Hampshire aforesaid the choice of such persons being within the absolute discretion of the said Bellringers for the time being and the receipt of any representative from time to time appointed by such Bellringers to receive the same shall be a valid receipt and discharge to my Trustees for the payment of the said income..............

The modern day Bellringers are most fascinated by this....!

August 8th Even more re-branding! Froyle has won “Best Small Village” in the Hampshire Calor Village of the Year 2008 competition.

July 1st A little bit of re-branding has taken place today. We’ve tidied up the main Froyle logo (with the inset saint) and added the subtext “The Village of Saints”.

June 23rd Open Day 2008We have finally packed everything away following a most successful Open Day on Saturday, June 21st. Nearly 150 visitors, some from as far away as Kent, dropped in to the Village Hall. In the process we learnt more about the forge in Upper Froyle and, from Michael Holt, the son of the Sergeant in charge of Froyle’s searchlight in World War 2, the location of the ‘moved’’ well at “The Prince of Wales”. The picture on the right shows a group of Brownjohns and Robinsons (all Froyle names!) reliving their school days.

June 5th We have just discovered the location of the old Home Guard hut from World War 2! We’ve known where it was during the war for a long time, but in 1947/8 it was moved down into Upper Froyle to become a garage - and it’s still there! More details and a picture in the July update.

April 6th Today we have added the late John Willcocks’ “Notes on the Heraldry of St Mary’s”. He was an expert in Heraldry and the notes include fairly technical descriptions of the various shields etc. There are some illustrative pictures and we plan to fully record the interior of the church in due course.

April 1st As I reported on the Welcome page, the biggest change in the Village since the Second World War was announced at the end of March. The departure of Treloars for a combined campus at Holybourne will have quite an impact on Froyle. Treloars originally bought the majority of Upper Froyle and, while there have been buildings sold off in the past (the Hen & Chicken for one!), we await the outcome of their planned move with interest and some trepidation. Hopefully we shall be able to record it for future generations.

February 16th Over the past few days we have been checking (and correcting!) some of the pages. We have been concentrating on the “Then & Now” sections and have been able, thanks to English Heritage, to add information about those buildings that have a Listed status and feature on the “Images of England” website. We have also taken the opportunity to provide somewhat larger pictures for the “Then & Now” pages and have, hopefully, improved the Upper and Lower Froyle map menus. Work continues!

February 6th Just added the third part of “Facets of Froyle” which includes details of the Drapers, Millers, Burninghams and a fascinating ‘particular’ of the Manors of Froyle and Husseys - a kind of valuation taken in 1658.

February 1st

The latest update is quite large and represents just half the information contained in Theo Beck’s “Facets of Froyle”. As the year progresses we hope to enhance the text with links to more information and pictures about people and places that are mentioned.
Inventories seem to be the current ‘thing’ and Ruth Olive, who is studying antique furniture, has sent us an inventory of the possession of Thomas Newman that was taken in 1630 following his death. As well as providing a fascinating glimpse into the lifestyle of people living in Froyle, it gives tantalising glimpses of places that are new to us - where was Ham House and what was Yarnhams like some 200 years before the current Dower House was built? Reasons for some investigation!


January 24th Apologies to anyone trying to view our Panoramas page using Internet Explorer 7 with the Quicktime 7.4 update. If you experience a “An error occurred inside a plug-in contained on this page” it seems to be a bug in the latest 7.4 update - it does not occur with Firefox or Opera! We await news from Apple as it seems to be affecting an awful lot of other websites.

January 20th We have added the Froyle Gardening Club Programme for 2008 and also put in a link in Froyle Business Links to “The Anchor” public house website. As the refurbishment project there comes to an end, this is the place to look for news of the pub’s opening date.

January 4th We have recently been looking at some house documents and have finally discovered when mains water and electricity arrived in Froyle. We always knew that it happened‘in the 1930s’, but we found out that Mr Duncan, the owner of Coldrey, signed an agreement on December 12th 1933 with the Wey Valley Water Co for a pipe to be laid to the village across his property. A similar agreement was signed for electricity cables (overhead supply) on October 30th 1929.

January 1st Happy New Year to All! This month we will continue to add pages to Theo Beck’s “Story of Blundens”. The ‘problem’ at the moment is how to organise it for web access - so, as soon as I can make up my mind(!) more pages will appear.

Work continues on “The Anchor” in Lower Froyle - more pictures when the refurbishment is completed.

The Froyle Archive has been asked to produce a photographic exhibition running from March to June this year at the “Rural Life Centre ” in nearby Tilford. The subject is “Froyle, Village of Saints” and we will update its progress here.

We hope to begin sending out specific invitations to former pupils for the Froyle School Reunion on June 21st.

Chris & Annette Booth




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