Category:Region 7 ~ South East England

Region 7 consists of 5 areas, each is organised by its coordinator

• Hampshire & the Isle of Wight – Salty
• Kent – Kelly Smith
• Surrey – Vikki Brace
• Sussex – Caroline

We are looking for volunteers to take photographs of places of worship, this includes Churches, Chapels, Synagogues, Mosques, Temples, Meeting houses, Kingdom Halls and even ruins.

It would also be really lovely if anyone has pictures of village, town or city life to add to the Wiki, it all helps to understand people and places and brings them to life.

Do you have any local stories, which you would like to share with other researchers? If so we would love to hear them, you can either contact the coordinator for your county or submit them directly to the Wiki

The Southeast has been known for its areas of natural beauty for many years. The White cliffs of Dover stand majestically looking out over the English Channel. If the cliffs could talk they would tell stories of battles by air, land and sea. They would tell of returning adventurers and explorers and of hard working fishermen battling the elements to feed his family

The Southeast itself is steeped in history. It's where battles were fought, where Kings were crowned, where beautiful castles were built and some destroyed.

• Hastings in Sussex was where the Norman invasion began in 1066
• Portsmouth in Hampshire has long been associated with the Royal Navy, and is home to HMS Victory and to HMS Ark Royal
• Runnymede in Surrey was the place at which King John signed the Magna Carter in 1215
• East Cowes on the Isle of Wight was one of Queen Victoria’s favorite homes, she used Osborne House as a summer residence but after the death of Prince Albert it became one of her permanent homes, she died there on 22 January 1901
• Chatham in Kent was the childhood home of Charles Dickens, there are many references to places in and around Chatham in his works.

The Southeast has been associated with the sea for hundreds of years, many people who lived here worked in the dockyard building the ships that sailed the world for exploration, trade and war, carpenters, rope makers, sail makers, smiths, joiners, wheelwrights, naval personnel, merchant seamen to name but a few.

The southeast has also a great history with the fishing industry, in Hastings today you can still see the old fishing huts. Whole families would be involved, the men would do the fishing and the women and children would help with the processing of the daily catch. Many people also worked on the land, farming and raising animals, in Sussex in 1841 nearly half the working population were working in agriculture even children would help bring in the harvest, whole villages were involved.