• The aim of the Project is to bring the History of the Village and Parish “ALIVE” for the benefit of residents and visitors.

• The Village and Parish have a long ancestry dating back to Iron, Bronze and Roman times as well as having a Grade 1 listed 11th Century Parish Church. The village also has many famous and little known connections through the centuries, which we want to ensure are recorded and publicised for the benefit of villagers, researchers and visitors.

• One of our projects is to produce a publication on the history of the 3 Ringstead Mills. This will be based on the research and detailed information, which the group accomplished in 2016, which resulted in 2 public events being performed by group members in June and September of 2016 about the village's three mills and their connection with Jane Austen’s letters, which has been verified, by the Jane Austen Museum. We have also researched the social history of what was called “Shop Street” in the 19th Century and this has inspired us to produce a publication which would detail the facts and figures of our research for future reference and to ensure that this era of Ringstead’s past history will not be forgotten. Our continued involvement, to work with the local Primary School, in providing educational support and displays on the subject of village local history and is a fundamental aim of our group. We want to encourage the children of the Village and local Schools to study the history of the village and an example would be how the Victorian family occupied their leisure time by doing decoupage and baking bread which connects the mills in that they were making paper pulp and grinding flour.

• The group, with support from a local business, has erected a dedication plaque, marking the site of one of the lost Ringstead Mills. It is our intention to mark other sites around the village on a proposed history trail which would incorporate the other two Mill sites as well as other notable buildings within the village. We want to produce leaflets to distribute, within the local area, to promote and advertise the new trail and its associated local history. We would also want to position a number of explanatory boards at appropriate locations on this “Walking History Route”.

• We currently have a website:- www.ringsteadheritage.com and we need funding to enhance the capability of this site as our continued research findings and documents need to be sorted and placed onto the website. We have come to stage where we need to radically upgrade the site to ensure all our visitors experience a satisfying result from their enquiries.

• We need to purchase quality archive containers and create a physical catalogue for researchers, who wish to access the data in person, as well as adding this catalogue to our enhanced website. This will provide valuable information, which has not been available previously, without detailed independent research by individuals.

• Ringstead is a good example of a mid-Nene Valley village and we know the Nene Valley’s history is being recognised and that it needs recording in the face of so much industrialised new development taking place.

• We want to ensure that new residents, visitors to the area and local, national and international history researchers will have every opportunity to engage with the history of the village. We have already made inroads to this and form part of the local Trading Places Project and the Nene Valley Festival as these are promoting in various ways the Nene Valley.

• We should advise at this point the village is a very active one and as such our connections with history continue to this day. Our industrial landscape is forever changing and this will be another of our aims to ensure our modern history is not lost with the eventual departure of Dodson and Horrell’s mill from Ringstead as this will impact on Spencer Street's history. The Tilcroft development ,which includes Spencer Street, together with our boot and shoe factories and allied factories need to be kept in mind for further projects. Further projects will include detailed research about the history of the local farms and street names.