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Project title : Your Place in History:

Context: Describe the background/reason for this project. What challenges or opportunities were you faced with?

4th November 2014 saw the 175 th Anniversary of the Newport Chartist Uprising of 1839 and Archives was keen to contribute. We had developed links with the Chartist Anniversary Committee and their Education Sub-Committee, and, in September 2014, we would be recruiting two Project Officers who would deliver the ‘Trials to Trails Project’ (part of the Cynefin Project) – a crowdsourcing project focused on the transcription of the Chartist trail documents.

In January 2014, Gwent Archives arranged a meeting with Les James, a member of the Chartist Anniversary Committee and editor of the ‘Celebrating the Chartists’ newsletter. As a group, we wanted to contribute towards remembering the Anniversary, develop a ‘bank’ of volunteers who may be interested in volunteering on the ‘Trials to Trails Project’ and create awareness of the Chartist related documents that we had in our collection. The Chartist Anniversary Committee already had a loose calendar of events for September 2014 onwards – mainly consisting of day schools, lecture programmes and the Annual Chartist Convention. Due to this, and that the majority of the events focused on what had happened in Newport, we felt we needed to take a different approach. The Chartists had travelled from all over Gwent to Newport, and this was something that was often overlooked.

Since May 2013, Gwent Archives had successfully been delivering a series of events called ‘Your Place in History’ (YPIH) – an all-day event which consisted of a two hour guided history tour of a locality in the morning, with lunch at the Archives, followed by a display of documents and tour of Gwent Archives in the afternoon. We had achieved good numbers and reviews with previous YPIHs and developed partnerships with those able to deliver the mornings’ tours. With this in mind, it was decided that we would deliver a ‘Your Place in History: Chartism’ series which would look how Chartist affected that locality in the morning session, with the afternoon focusing on the Chartist related documents we have in the Archives and the ‘Trails to Trials Project’. The resulting Your Place in History: Chartist events took place at the following;

21 st May 2014 – Your Place in History: Chartist &

28 th May 2014 – Your Place in History: Chartist &

25 th June 2014 – Your Place in History: Chartist Pontypool & District

16 th July 2014 – Your Place in History: Chartist Newport

The morning sessions for the first two events were delivered in partnership with Access to Heritage, who we had worked with in previous YPIHs. The YPIH: Chartist Pontypool & District and YPIH: Chartist Newport were delivered in partnership with local Heritage Consultants who were linked with the Chartist Anniversary Committee. Aims and Objectives: State the aims and objectives that were set for this project – where possible these should be SMART objectives – for example, how many new users or people attending the event were you hoping for? If possible, include budget and timescale information. What is a SMART objective? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound

Aims & Objectives

• To contribute towards the 175 th Anniversary of the Newport Chartist Uprising • To generate interest in the upcoming ‘Trials to Trails’ Project • To look at Chartism outside of Newport and at the wider Gwent area • To attract new audiences • To raise the profile of Gwent Archives • To strengthen existing partnerships and create new partnerships

Audience

• Current users of Gwent Archives with an interest in the Chartists. • Potential new users with an interest in the Chartists, who either had not considered visiting us previously, or had been unaware of the Archives existence. • Current or new users who had an interest in local history, and were unaware of their localities connections with the Chartists.

Delivery of Event

• Based on previous YPIHs, numbers were limited to 15. This ensured group manageability, but also for transportation reasons, as we would need to use a minibus to transport participants back to the Archive for lunch and to collect from the audience at the end of the day. We knew we could achieve between 10 to 15 bookings for each event. • The standard format for a YPIH was 10am – 3.30pm, which usually consisted of a 2hr slot for the morning session of a guided history walk, a 1hr slot for travel and lunch at the Archives, and a 2hr slot for the afternoon session of documents and/or a tour of the Archives. Based on previous experience, we knew that this was achievable for the events which took place within Blaenau Gwent, with some small adjustments for Torfaen. However, we felt the distance from Newport to Gwent Archives was too far and would impact on the length of the day. With this in mind, we managed to find a host for the lunch and afternoon session in the form of Newport Museum. • The morning session of YPIH: Chartist Blaina & Nantyglo and Tredegar & Sirhowy were delivered in partnership with Blaenau Gwent Access to Heritage, with the morning sessions of YPIH: Chartist Pontypool & District and YPIH: Chartist Newport delivered in partnership with local Heritage Consultants with links to the Chartist Anniversary Committee.

Resources

• Staff time was minimal – created publicity material in-house and distributed mostly electronically, preparation of refreshments, preparation of document display and Education Room, one member of staff attending the morning session and one member of staff supervising the afternoon session at Gwent Archives/Newport Museum. • Each event had at least one ‘recon’ day, where a member of staff walked the route with the partner leading the morning session of the day. This meant that we were familiar with the route and able to answer any enquiries in the office regarding difficulty, distance and plan of route. • Lunch - £90 x 4 events = £360 • Minibus - £120 x 2 events = £240 . Blaenau Gwent Access to Heritage was able to supply a minibus for 2 events, free of charge. This meant that Gwent Archives only needed to arrange transportation for YPIH: Chartist Pontypool and Newport. • Total Cost = £600 • Contribution by Cynefin Project = £300 • Total Cost to Gwent Archives = £300

Strategy & Planning: Outline the strategy taken to achieve your objectives and justify your marketing approach – did you undertake any research for example; have your developed new or existing partnerships; did you target a new audience or try a new approach to promoting your services?

To deliver the morning sessions of the YPIH: Chartist events, we needed to approach existing partnerships and create new ones. For Blaina & Nantyglo and Tredegar & Sirhowy, we approached Blaenau Gwent Access to Heritage (BGA2H). We had already delivered YPIHs with them in previous years, so already had a partnership in place. Through BGA2H, we were able to create a link with Blaina Chartist Visitor Centre, who allowed us to use the centre as a starting point for the Blaina & Nantyglo walk. We have since strengthened this link with the Centre, who will be hosting our ‘Gwent in the Great War’ exhibition in 2015.

In terms of new partnerships; for Pontypool and Newport, the Chartist Anniversary Committee linked Gwent Archives to two Heritage Consultants that we had not worked with previously. Due to the distance of Newport from Gwent Archives, we approached Newport Museum to host the afternoon session. They were also willing to display some of their Chartist related documents for the event. Like Blaine Chartist Visitor Centre, the Museum will also be hosting our exhibition in 2015.

In order to promote the event, we took a more coordinated and wide-spread approach. Previously, after creating publicity materials in-house, display posters in-house, distribute publicity material amongst our mailing list of existing users and networks, publicised it on the Gwent Archives website, Twitter and Facebook and would have gone out to the target area to distribute posters and flyers. For the YPIH: Chartists events, we did the above, but also circulated it to Communications Officers for the five counties, who distributed the information to the boards and free press publications; utilised our new quarterly newsletter; and advertised the event in the ‘Celebrating the Chartists’ Newsletter, a free monthly e- newsletter.

Tactics and Implementation: Set out the plan of activities undertaken to implement the strategy and evidence these over time and against budget. Include examples if appropriate – you may append or link to two additional pieces of supporting evidence – if internet links are included please ensure these will remain live until March 2015. What promotional activity did you undertake; did you use social media and/or traditional media?

• January 2014 – Initial meeting between Gwent Archives and Les James from the Chartist Anniversary Committee. Months and localities were decided upon.

• February 2014 – Basic details of YPIH: Chartist Event (month and where) with contact details to register interest circulated in No.3 of ‘Celebrating the Chartists’ Newsletter. Meeting arranged with Blaenau Gwent Access to Heritage to discuss possible partnership. Dates, times, transportation and lunch arrangements agreed, with ‘recon’ day arranged.

• March 2014 – Dates and details for YPIH: Chartist Blaina & Nantyglo and Tredegar & Sirhowy confirmed in No. 4 of ‘Celebrating the Chartists’ Newsletter. 21 st March, Gwent Archives distributed the posters for all four events on the Gwent Archives website, Facebook, Twitter, our Spring 2014 newsletter, and distributed amongst our mailing list of existing users and networks. We also contacted each of the Communication Officers for five local authorities, and posters were distributed amongst the community boards and free press publications. Meeting arranged with Heritage Consultant for Pontypool; date, times, transportation and lunch arrangements agreed; route discussed but to be confirmed.

• April 2014 – ‘Recon’ day of YPIH: Chartist Blaina & Nantyglo and Tredegar & Sirhowy. Continue to advertise events via social media and ‘Celebrating the Chartists’ newsletter.

• May 2014 – Meeting arranged with Heritage Consultant for Newport; date, times, transportation and lunch arrangements agreed; route discussed but to be confirmed. Newport Museum confirms able to host afternoon session. Confirmation of Pontypool route. YPIH: Chartist Blaina & Nantyglo and Tredegar & Sirhowy event successfully delivered - £180 spent on lunch and refreshments. Current spend £180 .

• June 2014 – Redistribution of YPIH: Chartist Pontypool and (updated) Newport posters via mailing list, website, social media, our ‘World War One Commemorative Newsletter’, and ‘Celebrating the Chartists’ newsletter. YPIH: Chartist Pontypool event successfully delivered – £210 spent on lunch, refreshments and transport. Current spend - £390

• July 2014 – Continue to advertise YPIH: Chartist Newport event, which is delivered successfully later that month - £210 spent on lunch, refreshments and transport. Current spend – £600 . Cynefin Project covers cost of Newport event, and refreshments for Pontypool event - £300. Total spend - £300 . Results/Measurements/Outcomes Present the results of the project, state whether your aims and objectives were achieved and if they were delivered on time and within budget. Evaluate the project using measurements where possible, such as number of new members/visitors, added value to the organisation and digital marketing metrics where applicable (google analytics, Facebook insights, tweetreach). Reflect on what could have been done better; is the project sustainable, could it be rolled out to other user groups or organisations?

Event Numbers Overall, the Your Place in History: Chartist events were successful. Out of a total of 60 spaces, we were able to fill 56. Unfortunately, there were some differences in terms of numbers booked and numbers who attended – this was partially due to the weather on the day, with the event in Tredegar & Sirhowy being most affected.

We managed to attract a number of new users to the Archives, but not as many as we predicted as few seemed to attend a session as a ‘one-off’, preferring to book places on all four events. We also managed to reconnect former users, who had previously used the service when we were based in Cwmbran, but had yet to visit Gwent Archives since our move to .

• YPIH: Chartist fully booked (15), with 12 attending • YPIH: Chartist Tredegar & Sirhowy 12 booked, with 7 attending • YPIH: Chartist Pontypool 14 booked, with 14 attending • YPIH: Chartist Newport fully booked (15), with 13 attending • Total: 60 potential places, with 56 booked and 46 attending

Feedback After each event, we asked each person to complete a small feedback form so that we could evaluate where they had found out about the event, to rate the morning and afternoon sessions (Poor/Below Average/Average/Good/Excellent) and if they would be interested in receiving information on the ‘Trials to Trails Project.

We found that the majority of the feedback that we received was positive – most described the day as “interesting” and “informative”, with the morning session helping to bring “history to life.” The majority described the event as ‘Excellent’ on the feedback forms, with a few entries for ‘Good’ and ‘Average’. The negative feedback seemed to be reserved for afternoon session (as seen in the feedback below) – mainly due to the dry nature of the session compared to the morning and due to the difficulty in reading the documents. We tried to resolve this by introducing transcripts where possible or documents with clearer/neater handwriting but were limited in those we could use as examples.

One weakness was in gathering information on where users had found out about the event. The majority had seen the leaflets and posters, but based on the form, we are unclear if this was through our mailing list, our networks displaying or distributing our leaflets or posters or from places where the Archives had physically distributed leaflets and posters. However, we have learnt through the forms and through verbal feedback that few had learnt of this event via our social media or website.

• Word of Mouth 8 out of 48 • Leaflets and Posters 21 out of 48 • Newsletter 2 out of 48 • Website 7 out of 48

• Described Morning Session as ‘Excellent’ 30 out of 48 • Described Afternoon Session as ‘Excellent’ 27 out of 48

• Wanted to Receive Information on ‘Trials to Trails Project’ 29 out of 48

• “Having spent a very nice day on your Chartist tour around Tredegar, and subsequently the session at your office, I would like to say it was an enlightening experience to someone who knew little or the Chartist movement until today. However, although the morning session gave me enough to whet my appetite, especially after an excellent lunch period the afternoon session left me a little disappointed. It didn't quite live up to expectations, I would have preferred more conversation, and input to what had happened in Newport, and the later trial rather than the pouring over the manner scripts [sic]. I understand the reason for this session to encourage interested persons to give their time to collate all information and indictments, but unfortunately I'd be unable to help as, I have to be honest had some difficulty understanding some of the hand writing. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn about our historical valleys, and you have whetted my appetite enough to book 2 places on your next 2 tours on the movement on 25th June at Pontypool, and 16th July at Newport respectfully. I will look forward to hearing that my places have been booked, and I'll relish the chance to hopefully learn more.” – Feedback from YPIH: Chartist Tredegar & Sirhowy

Partnerships In terms of partnerships, we have strengthened our partnership with Blaenau Gwent Access to Heritage – these partnerships delivered another (non-Chartist related) YPIH event in in August 2014, and hope to do so again in 2015. We were able to create potential new partnerships with Blaina Chartist Visitor Centre and Newport Museum, who will both be hosting our ‘Gwent in the Great War’ exhibition in 2015.

Sustainability Gwent Archives has been delivering Your Place in History events since May 2013. We have been able to deliver these for free due to availability of a small outreach budget and shared costs between partnerships (in this case Blaenau Gwent Access to Heritage and the Cynefin Project). However, we may apply for CyMAL funding in future. We are hoping to deliver another two Your Place In History: Chartist events later this year; potentially in Abergavenny and Blackwood.

We know that this format can be rolled out to other user groups and by other organisations. Glamorgan Archives has delivered a similar event called ‘Step Back in Time’, which is mainly aimed families and children.