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The Abergavenny Local History Society Town Survey: A Case Study Anna Tucker & Beryl Pullan The Abergavenny Local History Society was formed in 1978. By 1979, it had grown in sufficient strength and confidence to feel in a position to undertake research in the form of a group project. It was felt that the role of a Local History Society was not only to inform and entertain its members with lectures and field trips but also to undertake active research on its locality. Most local history research is undertaken by interested individuals and group projects are usually only done through evening classes with a lecturer already experienced in the subject providing guidance. Abergavenny Local History Society is a group of interested people, none of whom had done any original local history research previously. A project had to be chosen that would involve a number of different people and that would introduce them to the skills and sources available in the area. Prompted by a talk by Mr. Keith Kissack of Monmouth it was decided that a survey of all the town centre properties in Abergavenny would be a fruitful exercise. This would serve two main purposes. Firstly, it would provide a record of the town as it was in the survey period (1979-1984); secondly, the present would then be a good point from which to work backwards into the past to see how historical information could be unearthed. The town centre properties were chosen since these are most subject to change due to commercial pressures to constantly keep abreast of the market. The record was to be in two forms, a photographic record accompanied by written information. It was decided that the photographic survey should be in both black and white prints and colour transparencies. Negatives and black and white prints are likely to last longer than transparencies; however, it was necessary to have slides so that the information could be disseminated later in public lectures and these would actually provide the 'colour' and liveliness of the town. Mounting these in glass covers and labelling them all took several sessions! Both the black and white negatives and the colour slides are now lodged in Abergavenny Museum to provide an archive of the town for the future. The black and white prints were