In the autumn of 2010 the Chichester Record Office asked Robert Ralph and I to help with collecting oral histories from some of the residents of the parish of Heyshott to contribute to their project called 'Joining up our Heritage'.
This project took tithe maps from 1840 for several parishes in West Sussex and produced interactive DVDs which, when viewed on a computer, allowed you to click on a location on the map that appeared on the screen and see or hear images and sound bites associated with that location.
The DVD for Heyshott parish can be obtained from the Record Office, WSRO reference TD/W67.
 
I eventually recorded nine people in all, selected because of their age, and or, involvement with the parish of Heyshott over many years. These were Betty Dudley, Betty Lovejoy, David Hills, Eric Miles plus Michael Moreton, Nellie Brown, Peter Lovejoy, Richard Coomber, Sammy Frankham, plus Robert Ralph reading a poem by W S Lovejoy about an imagined tour around the boundary of the parish in 1940.
 
All of these, except the last, were between one or two hours in length and contained a wealth of knowledge and anecdote that might otherwise be lost for ever when those people who remember how things were are no longer with us. Sadly, two have already passed away since their interview. There are fascinating stories that delight and amuse, and they are also, of course, a record of the voices and dialects of the parish in some cases.