Brading is a vibrant and active town whose community maintains many local initiatives. The Town Council hosts the Annual Town Meeting to celebrate these local groups. It provides an opportunity to promote and recognise the many hours freely given by members of the community. At the 2018 meeting the following groups were represented:
Brading Town Council, Brading Primary School, Brading Town Football Club, Brading Choir, Brading Youth Football Club, Brading Community Archive Group, Brading Residents Association, Brading Drama Group, Community Navigator, Brading Men in Sheds, Brading Bell Ringers, Brading Station Volunteers, Brading Community Partnership, Brading Youth Club, Brading WI, Brading Neighbourhood Plan, Hampshire Police, St Marys Church, Brading Town Trust, Brading Horticultural Society, Brading Methodist Church.
An important person in preserving the legacy of our community was Molly Pewsey:
Molly Pewsey taught history at Sandown High School but in her spare time was Brading’s unofficial local historian. She collected photographs, documents and built a large collection of tape recordings of the memories of older Brading residents. Molly was often to be found in the Primary School at Brading helping to teach local children to read. After their retirements Molly and her husband John worked tirelessly supporting Brading and its community. Just before her death in 2014, Molly bequeathed her collection of heritage documents to Cathy Mills, who had just retired after many years as Brading’s Town Clerk.
Cathy consulted with Dr Ruth Waller on what should be done with Molly’s archive and how there was now no-one working on Brading’s heritage. The result was the creation of BCAG in partnership with the Brading Town Trust and Brading Town Council. Molly’s collection has now been donated to the Town Council.
