Find
Search archives, newspapers, registers, maps, official records and specialist collections for original evidence.
Our work
Researching the past. Caring for the present. Building for the future.
Cloughey Heritage Group is a small volunteer-led organisation, but the work is wide-ranging — from archive research and community events to practical care of historic places and the long-term future of the Old Meeting House.
What that means in practice
Heritage is something we use, not simply something we look back at.
CHG finds evidence, records stories, protects what survives and creates ways for people to take part. Some of that work is public — talks, events, heritage posts and practical conservation — while much of it happens quietly in archives, meetings, surveys and funding work.
Research & record
Every good local story starts with evidence.
CHG researches the people, places and events that shaped Cloughey using newspapers, official records, maps, photographs, RNLI material, historic-building records, family papers and local memories.
We distinguish documented fact from later local history and oral tradition. Where sources disagree or a story remains unproved, we keep the question open rather than turning it into fact.
Current subjects include the Cloughey lifeboat, local shipwrecks, the Wild Deer, Castleboy, Kirkistown Castle, South Rock, the Old Meeting House, graveyards, local families and the changing village.
Explore the stories →How we research
Build the story. Keep the evidence with it.
Record
Preserve names, dates, photographs, family memories and local place-names before knowledge disappears.
Check
Compare sources, flag uncertainty and avoid presenting remembered tradition as documented fact.
Share
Turn that research into talks, displays, captions, social posts and accessible heritage stories.
Care for local heritage
Sometimes preservation means getting your hands dirty.
CHG undertook the substantial job of bringing the overgrown graveyard around the Old Meeting House back under control and improving access for families visiting graves. The Group now employs a contractor for continuing maintenance while developing the record of people buried there.
The Old Meeting House is CHG's largest conservation challenge. Survey, conservation and design work is helping the Group work through the statutory, funding and technical steps needed to secure its future.
Read about the Old Meeting House →Community
Bring people together — not only history enthusiasts.
CHG organises heritage talks, guest speakers, creative classes, social activities and fundraising events. The recurring Tractor & Truck Run is one example among talks, dancing, quizzes, family activities and other community events delivered over several years.
That matters to the Old Meeting House project: the ambition is not simply to save a building, but to return it to an active community role. Current events and booking links stay on CHG's social channels while this website provides the permanent record.
A record of activity
Not just plans for the future — work already happening.
CHG's programme has included heritage and ancestry talks, the Wild Deer and Cloughey Lifeboat, creative classes, dancing, afternoon tea, quizzes, children's activities, tractor runs, Armistice events, Burns Night and social evenings.
Many have taken place in borrowed venues around Cloughey. Together they demonstrate the kind of heritage, learning and social programme a permanent community hub could bring under one roof.
2021–22prize draw · Wild Deer talk · flower arranging · family activities2023ancestry and lifeboat talks · quizzes2024classes · Tractor Run · refurbishment plans viewing2025–26talks · Armistice · social evenings · Burns Night · Tractor & Truck Run
Behind the scenes
The work that makes the visible work possible.
Saving heritage also means speaking to specialists, commissioning surveys, meeting statutory requirements, preparing grant applications, obtaining quotations and managing contractors.
For the B1 listed Old Meeting House, that has included architectural and conservation input plus structural, timber, traffic and bat surveys. Development support from Village Catalyst and the Pilgrim Trust has helped move the project from local ambition towards something planners and future funders can properly assess.
Those awards support development, not the full restoration. Considerable work and further funding are still required.
Help build the record
Your family album may contain a piece of Cloughey's history.
Old photographs, documents, names, memories and family stories can answer questions that survive nowhere else. If you have something connected with Cloughey or the surrounding area that may add to the historical record, CHG would like to hear from you.
Even a small detail — a name on the back of a photograph, a remembered nickname, a workplace, a boat, a house or a local event — can become the missing link in a much bigger story.
From activity to lasting impact
A small volunteer group with a substantial ambition.
Our community events, heritage research, care of historic places and work with professional advisers all contribute to the long-term future of the Old Meeting House. Alongside that work, 12 letters of intent have expressed potential interest in using the proposed venue when it becomes available. The letters are expressions of interest, not firm bookings.