Hello Beyond the Point readers, and many thanks for reading this blog post now and my, what an exclusive one it is! A week today Beyond the Point will proudly be celebrating two years of exploring, blogging and filming and it’s been an amazing couple of years! Starting off as just a .wordpress.com blog we have come so far now having a proper domain name, YouTube channel with over 6 hours worth of videos, very strong links within the community and most of all we have promoted local history. We are most excited about our recent news which we have had to keep secret for a few months however we can now reveal all.
Last year we submitted a nomination to the Community Archives and Heritage Group for their annual awards. They describe themselves as “a national group which aims to support and promote community archives in the UK & Ireland. We bring together bodies and organisations concerned with Community Archives, and provide a forum for the regular exchange of views and information.” We were absolutely over the moon to be told that we have won the title for ‘Best Online Website 2012’. This is an amazing achievement in which we can now say we’re an award winning website however that’s not the only thing we won! We also won the biggest award of ‘Community Archive of the Year‘ The original email stated:
Congratulations on Beyond the Point being the overall winner of the CAHG awards for this year. When we wrote to you initially we mentioned how impressed we were with what you have done and that we would like you to speak at our annual conference on 10 July. If you can get half as much enthusiasm across in your talk as you did in your awards submission they’ll love you. Everyone just loved the idea of you going off and doing something practical.
The event today was extremely lovely with many fantastic comments such as “You are inspirational” and many more. Comments from TV Presenter, Nick Barratt, were particularly reassuring. You can following the Twitter Trend from today’s event here. We are extremely proud of today and have met some amazing people. A video will be going on Beyond the Point TV next week, combined with clips from our local celebratory event next week.
Watch our speech here:
Guys, well done. Having grown up on Canvey from when I was born in 1971 until the 90’s when I married an moved on, your site it a god sent memory reviver. All those place you explore as I did as a child brings memories flooding back. Too many people of your age walk round being mindless, being loud and trying to be “a face” . Well I’ll say a worthless face. I’m 42 now and enjoy your site and education. A well deserved award and I wish you guys every success in the future…..and rest assured you’ll have a bright one.
H
Thank you the lovely comment!
I am so pleased for you both, this is a well deserved award. You inspire the young them and share with the old (me!) adventures that belong to a bygone age. How I wish I could still climb into a pillbox! Thank you for your informative and thoroughly enjoyable posts. Congratulations!
Many thanks for the congratulations! 🙂
Hi BTP Liam & BTP Joe,
I was a delegate at the CAHG conference on Wednesday and I’ve just got home to Devon after a few days in London/Surrey, so this is my first chance to email you.
I just wanted to say what a positive experience it was to hear your project story. It was honestly exciting to see how obviously you love what you do and enjoy sharing it. I’m really impressed with your commitment and the fact that you don’t seem to take yourselves too seriously – a valuable attitude. I think you were worthy winners of the CAHG award and I will be following your activities on your website in future.
I should briefly explain that my own project (which I operate with an old teenage friend of mine) is about children who lived at the Pestalozzi Children’s Village near Hastings between 1959 and 1965. We were a group of kids who had disadvantaged backgrounds – mainly European refugee families after the second world war but also a few English children as well (that was me) and came to live in a community that was meant to be like a replacement home. It was a pretty good life for much of the time and we have good memories. Which is why we started our project – The Early Pestalozzi Children Project. We are totally brand new – we are starting from scratch and are nowhere near ready to even set up a website yet. Our aim is to collect the oral histories of the Pestalozzi children so that the story is not lost.
Your project resonated with me because, for nearly seven years from 1959, I used to stay with a family in Dawes Heath three times a year for term holidays. While I don’t remember Canvey Island very well, I know we went over there and, for some reason, I recall eating cockles (don’t know if they still sell them). I also have vivid memories of going to the Kursaal fairground in “Sarfened” in the summer holidays and actually worked there for a couple of summers in 1965 & 1966 towards the end of my schooling. The people I stayed with remained my good friends and they continue to live in Dawes Heath in their 80s. I lived in Australia for most of my adult life (in Devon now) and have not seen Southend recently. I can guess that I won’t recognise much of it at all now.
Thank you so much for giving me such pleasure and for rekindling some wonderful memories. As I said at the conference: even if you see yourselves as “ordinary”, your efforts are exceptional. You are quite an inspirattion.
Best wishes to you both,
Len Clarke
Hello Len, thanks for you kind words. You’re project sounds really interesting, we find it’s even more interesting researching something that is related to us in one way or another. I don’t think they sell cockles but people do go out to the mud flats to get them! It seems a lot of people with connections to Canvey went to Australia at some point! Thank you for the comments and best luck with your project. You might be interested in this. It starts at ‘your’ point. http://youtu.be/Tu3dTzcJTgI?t=15m29s
Glad to see you found the site, and good to know another local enthusiast! Keep up your good work!
Hey guys, I’ve lived on the island since birth (1983) and still do, Thank you for your website it really does open your eyes to such an impressive history underneath ones feet! Keep up the good work can’t wait for your next exploration!
Hi Carl, thanks for the comment!
We’re glad that our website is of use to you! 🙂