Wherever you live, there’s treasure to be discovered!

Not just gold and gems, but stories of buildings, locations and people.

Our heritage is a great wealth… and it’s all around us. Sometimes standing proud in the open air – sometimes hidden behind some bushes.

And to help find it, we’re looking for Heritage Heroes – could you be one?

Let us know about your local heritage here…

HERITAGE HEROES. AN INSPIRING AUDIO PRODUCTION FOR FUN KIDS. MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE NATIONAL LOTTERY HERITAGE FUND, WITH THANKS TO NATIONAL LOTTERY PLAYERS.

You’ve sent us in some pictures of heritage that you’ve seen around Alresford in Hampshire – home to watercress and the Watercress Line…

Alresford railway station on the Watercress Line

An old photo showing people loading watercress onto trains at the station to take the watercress to the London markets

Fulling Mill on the River Arle

Fulling is the process by which cloth is washed, cleaned, beaten and thickened. In the time the Fulling Mill was operating, the raw cloth would have been placed along with ‘Fuller’s earth’ (a form of clay) in large baskets. These would have been lowered into the water flowing through the mill. The baskets were then pressed, initially by human feet and later by large water operated hammers which beat the cloth. When sufficiently cleaned and shrunk, the cloth would have been stretched out with tenterhooks on a large frame. The finishing touch had the miller trimming the nap with a large pair of fuller’s shears.

An old picture showing the river-fed Public Swimming Pool

The pool opened in 1949 – feed by the river. It closed in 1968

The Eel House – yep, it was where they caught eels for eating!

A plaque noting a second world war HQ…

The Old Fire Station

The town church

A memorial to a WW2 dog…

A memorial to the bravery of Captain Cogswell of the US 360th Bomb Squadron.

On 26th September 1943 his B-17F Flying Fortress ‘Lady Luck’ suffered a fire. To avoid disaster in Alresford, he crashed east of Alresford Pond – and luckily the bombs on board didn’t explode.