The Robert Bailey archiving project is under way with careful guidance of the Pensford Local History Group. Robert Bailey sadly died in July 2019. Known to many of us, he was indeed a well- loved and admired local character who had worked in the Pensford Mine as a stint measurer until November 1958 when the pit closed. He had built up the most amazing collection of memorabilia including 1500 photographs, 1700 slides, cine films,  numerous documents and artefacts, many of which helped him regale us all with local evening talks – one of which raised somewhere of the order of £1000 for The Community Trust. The Trustees were delighted to receive a request from the Pensford History Group for financial support to create a physical and digital archive of Robert’s collection which had kindly been donated to Pensford village by Robert’s family.

The project has proceeded with speed and is hopeful of completion during spring 2021. The History Group has advertised many photographs on the Pensford News and Views Facebook page to secure community help in researching the  identify of those pictured and the locations to try to fully complete the archive. Paul Cooper, a member of the History Group said that , “COVID 19 lockdown, in some ways, has been positive for the project team as it has enabled us to spend more time on the project. We also felt that those isolated by the virus would like to feel connected to the community and hence why, in part, we are posting frequent Facebook updates, asking for assistance in identification of some of the images we have. This has met with a good response from many and is of great assistance to us.”

Andrew Hillman said “so far funds of £1300 have been released from a total grant agreed by The Community Trust of £2000. We are all grateful to The History Group for their meticulous and hard work in creating a heritage archive asset from information that would otherwise be lost. We look forward to a time when there can be a community event to socialise this historic story. I am sure the History Group will keep us all posted.”