Alastair Rae lived in Staveley for many years and he loved the village. Despite being a full time vet in Boroughbridge he had many interests, among them chairman of the Staveley Historical Society and vice-chairman of the Parochial Church Council of All Saints church.
These roles both fuelled and benefitted from his deep interest in the village, its history and its people. Over the years he amassed and was asked to be the custodian of a large quantity of historical documents, photographs, registers, scrapbooks, which he drew upon to write three histories of the village.
After his sudden death in 2020 his collection was passed to a group of volunteers to preserve it and make it accessible to a wider audience by creating a website. Other materials will doubtless be added in future but the Alastair Rae Collection forms the kernel of the archive.
