Local History

The Otter Valley History section aims to encourage, help and disseminate historical research of interest to the locality. It has undertaken a number of collective projects over the years. Some of these have resulted in formal publications. See in the Books section of this web site.

Our venture is to create, on this web site, an expanding historical archive to which anyone can contribute. It was originally designed to record short biographies of individuals who once lived in the Lower Otter Valley; though, for obvious reasons, it is only concerned with people no longer living. The concept has now been extended to include short family histories (though not family trees) and historical articles relevant to the area. It provides local historians, and those with an interest in history, an opportunity to record small pieces of work in a way that is instantly and publicly available. Its success depends upon a flow of new contributions.

Anyone may submit an article. All articles will be reviewed by a moderator, who is appointed by the OVA Executive Committee. The moderator may ask for editorial changes to be made, otherwise editing will be restricted to correcting obvious minor typographical or format inconsistencies. The moderator may also reject articles that might be considered to be inappropriate or insufficiently researched, or refer articles to the Executive Committee for a final decision. The content of any article, therefore, reflects the views of the author and, unless otherwise stated, the author retains the copyright of their work.

By way of general introduction, a comprehensive historical summary for each community within the Lower Otter Valley has been included. These histories are individually authored and were compiled in 1983/4. Over the intervening years some aspects of interpretation may have changed, or be challengeable, in the light of what we know now.

We have named this venture OVApedia. The entries are fully indexed and can be searched using free text search.

Search the OVApedia archive under Search OVApedia.

Detailed advice on style and format for submitting an article is given under Submit an Article.