Ray first became involved in the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council Local History Committee (GLHC), the forerunner of GLHA, in 1986. He is well-known for his interesting and informative presentations, particularly on local industries, and in the early days, delivered two talks at the Local History Afternoon. Ray comments that one was at exactly 24 hours notice, much to the relief of Chairman John Loosley, when a speaker pulled out with ‘nerves’ the day before – and it was a brand new talk finished at 5am on the morning of the talk.
As part of GLHC he created the first ‘Gloshistory’ website in 2001 and maintained and developed it until the present time, progressing from using simple HTML to PHP and WordPress. He put the Speakers List online in about 2003 and continued to maintain it when it became part of the GLHA website and was responsible for its administration until September 2024. In later years he worked with Steve Blake, the previous GLHA Chairman, in relation to approval of who goes on the list and on rare occasions, who had to be removed. Full updates of the List require email conversation with in excess of 60 speakers. Ray comments that these could sometimes be a bit challenging but always interesting.
When GLHA was formed he provided a cost effective method for retaining the Society Talks list. The cost of typing up the programmes had been a major factor in GRCC pulling funding from GLHC. He devised a system which requires groups to prepare their entries to a prescribed format. This can be read into a spreadsheet, sorted by date and output as a PDF, which reduces the workload for the administrator and also reduces the likelihood of errors. Groups have said that the Talks List has proved useful in giving ideas for speakers to book for their own programmes. Ray also instigated the Visits and Tours list which has been used by some groups.
Ray instigated and led the early Evening Walks. He originally intended them as a social get together for the member group reps but later it was opened up generally. Ray led walks at Stroud, Painswick, Sharpness Docks (twice) and Leckhampton Hill.
He also instigated and led the early workshops which were run in addition to the Forum. These included Computing for Local Historians, Websites, GlosDocs and co-leading Advanced Zoom techniques. He also produced papers which were circulated to groups with advice on various matters. These were often write-ups of things he had done for GSIA. Probably the most useful was a practical guide to GDPR, which had quite a bit of interest, and Computer security (HTTPS not HTTP).
One of his projects that will be of lasting benefit to the local history community is the GlosDocs project. Ray has collected a huge range of documents and photographs from many sources, including important collections such as that of Lionel Walrond, ex-curator of Stroud Museum and The Gwladys Davies Photographic Collection (Mills Section). Several of our member groups have contributed their Journals, displays and other records. Ray is adding to the collection all the time and making such historic documents available to the wider world. Contact Ray on enquiries@glosdocs.org.uk if you would like to contribute.
Ray is standing down as administrator of the GLHA website in order to concentrate on his other many projects, including Glosdocs. He has certainly contributed a great deal to GLHA and the local history community in general. We are very grateful for all the hard work he has put in to create and maintain important sources of information. As well as being challenging at times, Ray says it has been fun! We wish him all the best in his future projects.