All Our Stories Community projects supported by Cambridge Community Heritage About Cambridge Community Heritage

Cambridge Community Heritage (CCH) is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to develop research collaborations between the University of Cambridge and community groups in eastern England. Over two years in 2012 and 2013, Cambridge Community Heritage connected dozens of communities, groups and schools with university experts to develop and run a wide range of projects exploring the past.

During Phase 1 in 2012, community groups across eastern England were invited to approach CCH with their ideas for projects exploring aspects of their heritage. Groups attended structured networking events to discuss their initial ideas and then received one-to-one support to help them develop these into proposals that could be realistically submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘All Our Stories’ fund. 90% of the CCH groups were successful, with each group receiving up to £10,000 to run their dream community heritage project.

In phase 2 of the project in 2013, the CCH team provided support as needed to 25 community groups, including local historical societies, church groups, traveller communities, schools, football clubs, women’s groups and military regiments, in running their ‘All Our Stories’ community heritage projects. The CCH team provided training and advice days in aspects of archaeology, local history, archives, oral history and writing for publication as well as written technical guidelines and in-person supervision as required for activities spanning oral history, local history, archaeological excavation, field-walking, recording, editing and archiving.

The Cambridge Community Heritage ‘All Our Stories’ projects have given thousands of people across the eastern region a myriad of chances to explore and enjoy their heritage in new ways and to meet new people, develop new networks and learn new skills while doing so. In addition, the projects have generated a tremendous range of new knowledge for the future across a range of heritage-related disciplines, as well as inspiring ideas and enthusiasm for similar collaborative community research projects in the future.

Projects in 2013

Friends of Ashwell Museum - Ashwell Archaeology This project offered us the exciting opportunity to involve our community in adding archaeological detail to our knowledge of the development of the settlement of Ashwell. Ashwell has an Iron Age Hillfort, a Roman Goddess, Senuna, and temple site, and a large Medieval Church with graffiti detailing the suffering of the villagers during an outbreak of plague. We wondered how these are linked? Where did the earliest settlers in Ashwell live? Where were the Anglo Saxons? We involved the community in answering these questions and then broadcasted the questions and answers as widely as possible. Cambridge Archaeology Field Group - Wimpole: silent voices and deserted homes The project objective was to establish the date range and distribution of the settlement pattern in the parish of Wimpole. Today, there are few standing buildings, apart from Wimpole Hall itself, but locally people know that this was not always so. However, very little documentary evidence exists for the presence of these early settlements or any record of their final abandonment. Our focus was to try to use fieldwork to understand the development of the landscape and to tell the story for the benefit of local people and visitors to the area. Cambridge United Football Club - Cambridge United, United Cambridge Fans United has a unique collection representing the club’s 100 year history. In this, the club’s centenary year, the supporters trust collected memories from early players, managers and fans before they were lost forever and engaged the local community in the club’s history. The outcome was an opportunity for all to access the club’s unique view of history through a performance showing historical aspects of life for past players, managers and fans and a smartphone app which allows users to explore the history of the club, tour the grounds, access memorabilia, memories and the performances.

Elywildspace - Memories of Ely Pits and Meadows We have had a great response from people wanting to share their memories of Ely pits and meadows. They have shared memories of digging clay, especially during the 1947 flood, including one family where three generations worked in the pit. They have also shared detailed memories of working as engineers since1945. We now know that during WW2 a tank trap was dug across the full length of Ely Common and that prisoners of war helped to fill it in 1945. People have shared detailed memories of hay cutting activities on the Common and we are following up leads about grazing cattle and horses. Every interview seems to lead us to someone else with a story to tell. We have also started to collate wildlife records. We have a geologist lined up to write a section about the memories in the clay including fossils and we plan to repeat our successful open morning in Ely Library. We are discussing the form that our podcast and website will take and how to use the fantastic photographs that people want to share. We also hope to start up a monthly podcast in November. We are enjoying ourselves immensely and local people have been keen to tell us all they know.

FenArch, Fenland Archaeological Society - The Fenland in Roman The project initially focused on fieldwalking, excavating and recording little known Roman settlements within Fenland. Once these elements were complete the project was shared within Fenland by using digital media for talks at various museum societies and general public events and by creating educational resources (including digital media) to take the stories into the schools of the region. This involved not only the artefacts but learning resources such as dig packs, clothing and information designed to widen the understanding of the local heritage. There has been the opportunity for these groups to participate in the activities. Foxearth Church Heritage Initiative Our projects had three aims: Creating and developing a local Heritage Centre, located within the parish church of Foxearth, to preserve and display local artefacts,photographs & memorabilia relating to Foxearth. Interviewing & digitally recording everyone living in the village (as was done in 1987), enabling young & old to compare how life has changed in our small rural community and to make their own record for posterity. Enabling residents to research the history of their own houses/ buildings in Foxearth using reminiscence, archives and archaeology (test pit digging) and to compile a social history of the village. Freudian Slips - ‘It will all come out in the wash’ (Stories from women laundry workers across the generations) Since the late 19th Century laundry work has been significant employment for Cambridge women. We interviewed past and present workers from the commercial laundries and uncovered stories about their working lives and some of the key events from the past fifty years or so. eW also recorded stories about our mothers’ and grandmothers’ wash-days in the home. All these stories were displayed at an interactive exhibition at the Cambridge Museum of Technology in September. The exhibition included installations, large textiles, laundry artefacts, sound recordings, photography by CamIris, a soundscape and short performance pieces. The grant has enabled us to launch our website, run performance and creative writing workshops and we are now rehearsing a performance piece ‘Freshly Laundered Smalls’ which will take place in April 2014

Heritage Writtle with Writtle Archives - Historic Writtle: Village life through misfortune and war - Roman period to World War II Heritage Writtle members have written a book about Writtle at War for a 2014 launch. It is a précis of the information available on war/ misfortune-associated activities in Writtle from prehistory to WW2. Local archives, records and internet searches were used, as well as interviewing older members of the village for their memories, with consultation of local interested organizations. Writtle has had a long involvement with associated activities and includes stone and iron age defended areas, moated medieval houses, Napoleonic camps, billeted regiments, WWI airfields, Marconi’s original premises, POW camps, SAS training areas, feeding the population etc. We aim to include the above in a book and also in presentations on the subject to local organisations etc.

Hildersham Village History Recorders - Hildersham: A century of change between 1800 - 1900 - A village transformed Hildersham is a small rural village in South Cambridgeshire. In the century between 1800 and 1900 its inhabitants, their homes, working life, farming methods and landscape were dramatically transformed. This change is documented by a wide range of archival material that is not always available or has survived in intact in other villages. The purpose of this project was to not only transcribe and digitise these records, but equally importantly to analyse and interpret these archives in order to identify and link individual families to the houses and land from this century, many of these houses still survive today.

Meldreth Local History Group - Understanding Our Past: Exploring the Hidden History of Meldreth Meldreth Local History Group organised the digging of 32 test pits, with the aim of learning more about how our village developed and evolved. Over 50 volunteers, from pre-school age to over 80, were involved on each of three weekends. The artefacts found date from around 1200BC to the present day. We have shared our progress via our website, the village magazine and the local press and will be holding an exhibition in Meldreth Village Hall on 24th November. Our project was hugely successful and we are delighted that more people than ever before have become involved in our work. One Voice 4 Travellers - Open Roads and Eastern Skies: Stories of Gypsy Women The everyday experiences of Gypsy women in East Anglia, past and present, told to a new generation of young Gypsies who were trained to gather and record the anecdotal evidence of our history and make our stories accessible on our website. We have also produced a CD of interviews of Gypsy women, sharing our stories with a wider audience, so that others may know how we and our families lived, loved, and worked. Some of our stories are sad, some happy, but all are in our own words, and our own Voices.

Pirton Local History Group - Recording timber framed buildings Our project launched at the end of 2011 with an exhibition of the community’s efforts to ‘knit-the- village’ and hand-make wool replicas of buildings in Pirton, including two pubs, a shop, the church and 24 houses, to inspire residents to get involved in learning more about the history of the village’s timber framed buildings. First, we have used members of the local community to make a record (drawings, photographs) of a selection of the small domestic timber framed buildings in Pirton. We have currently collected information on 15 houses. Second, we have used the information to produce a web-based digital map so that users can ‘click’ on a building and see all the information that has been collected - including the description, recording of architectural details, photographs, plans showing its evolution, details of past inhabitants and owners, photos of the houses and people who lived in them, maps, inventories and furniture.

Rattlesden Local History Group - Bringing our archive to life Our project aimed to involve the community in its history by make a village archive available for local residents to view and using it as a means of acquiring oral histories. This has been achieved by purchasing storage media for the archive, organising sessions when it can be viewed, inviting older residents at the sessions to record their memories and publishing the oral histories. Royal Anglian Regiment Museum - The history of the East and Royal Our project has been to record audio and video memories of The Royal Anglian Regiment. What makes this project special is that we are recording more than just the memories of soldiers, giving equal importance to those who come into contact with them and were affected by them: their friends and families, local people from the places where they come from, where they have had their barracks, and where they have held their Freedom Parades. This material will be available in our archive, our permanent exhibition, on our website and, where possible, in local centres.

Saffron Walden Museum with Saffron Walden County High School and Newport Free Grammar School - Saffron Walden Castle Bailey The origins of the Norman town are thought to date from 1141 when Geoffrey II de Mandeville obtained a charter to move the market from Newport to his castle at Walden. The outer ditch of the mid-12th century town and castle was thought to be located on the Common and two sections were found and excavated by students from local secondary schools under the direction of Access Cambridge Archaeology. Pottery from the bottom of the ditch dated it securely to the mid 12th century; finds from the topsoil reflected activity on the Common in later centuries. Local residents enjoyed following the dig’s progress in July and viewed the finds at our special event in September. Newport Free Grammar School is using the project as inspiration for an archaeological finds project which students will take out to its feeder primary schools in 2014. Sharnbrook Local History Group - Sharnbrook’s moated earthwork: castle, manor house or what? Sharnbrook Local History Group has carried out an investigation into the origin and purpose of a circular moated earthwork in an area known as Castle Close – castle, manor house or what? We have reviewed old documents, surveyed the earthwork and surrounding area, and worked with Cambridge University archaeologists to excavate a small area where an earlier geophysical survey indicated a possible building. The evidence from the excavation – pottery, horseshoe nails, hearth and clay from an oven, and post hole – confirm it to have been a high status manorial site occupied for just a century or less between 1100-1200AD, with a moat and fortified bank intended for defence.

Shillington History Society - Shillington Test Pits We wished to find out more about the history of our village by enabling residents to excavate archaeological test pits in gardens and allotments. No previous excavations had been carried out and historic records were largely confined to the church and manor. The results helped us understand more about the past lives of ordinary people in Shillington, enabled us to make comparisons with life today and discover which parts of the village were occupied in different historical periods. It also informed us about areas of the village which merit further investigation in the future.

Shirley Primary School, Chesterton - All Our Journeys Our school serves a diverse, muliticultural area of Cambridge. 50% of our pupils are from different minority ethnic backgrounds and their families have settled permanently in Chesterton, Cambridge although some of them are still travelling for cultural and work reasons. We wanted to map our community’s journeys, find out the stories behind them and share them with others. What brought our families to Cambridge and why did they decide to settle here? What work did they do? What did they bring with them? What life-styles did they want and what did they leave behind?

Sturmer Local History Group - Sturmer Steps A project to create a recreational and informative trail, detailing the Sturmer village history and natural history through the use of interpretation boards and printed A4 leaflets. The trail is about 4 miles long using disused railway line, which is already a well maintained, attractive and well-used track. The history of the community is explained by interpretation boards in the children’s park; at the village hall; the garden centre and the mere, after which the village is named (bog on the River Stour - Stourmere). The A4 leaflets include a map and history of the community.

Suffolk Horse Society - Working Horses, Working Lives: Sharing Our Stories of the Suffolk Punch

We have recorded the stories and memories of 28 horsemen and women, most now in their seventies and eighties who worked with Suffolk Punch heavy horses. Many talk about growing up with their fathers working as horseman, how things were done 100 years ago and some of the associated secrecy and folklore. Their stories describe long days working the land with a team of horses, walking 20 miles a day as a stallion leader and the care and time taken with breeding and showing. We also have recorded horsemen who earn their living working with horses today. Tilty Archaeology and Local History Group - Tilty

Tilty is an Essex hamlet which, like so many other communities in the UK, was profoundly affected by the Second World War. Some went off to fight, whilst others stayed behind taking care of homes and families, and coping with the exigencies of war. Pillboxes were built, searchlights shone from the hill-top – where memorably a Mosquito crashed – and, in 1940, residents and evacuees participated in a BBC radio Christmas broadcast. This project commemorates and celebrates Tilty and the neighbouring villages in wartime; we have recorded and shared the many and diverse memories, artefacts and documents provided by local people.

Toft Historical Society - The Early History of Toft Eleven test pits were dug in the summer with a second campaign in the autumn. The focus was an area covering both banks of Bourn Brook, but smaller sites within the village were also included and the original subject of research was extended to include a study of tracks and commons, in particular the retracing of the ancient Lot Way where it crossed the village, before disruption by the 1812 Inclosure. The project is ongoing with the analysis and documentation of findings and will terminate with a public exhibition and film presentation.

West Wickham & District Local History Club - West Wickham Big Village Dig This project aimed to involve as many community members as possible in excavating archaeological test pits to discover when and where medieval settlement took place in the parish of West Wickham, Cambridgeshire. More than 100 people of all ages had a hands-on archaeological experience which inspired and stimulated a wider interest in the history of the village and its environs. These excavations enabled the community to come together and learn together through a fun and exciting project which enhanced social and educational well-being through active participation in archaeology.

West Norfolk & King’s Lynn Archaeological Society - Gaywood Valley Archaeological and Historical Project The Gaywood Valley contains important archaeological sites. The Gaywood River runs from Massingham Heath to the Wash at King’s Lynn, including the historic Fleet (fishing community). Rural, suburban and urban communities linked by the river have explored and shared new knowledge about the historic landscape, villages and buildings over 8 weekends, 5 artefact-workshops and 9 finds processing days. The valley community has come together, excavated 47 test pits (1m x 1m), surveyed 23 shovel test pits, walked and metal detected fields, studied documents and surveyed buildings. Through artefacts and familiar places, people have shared and celebrated this new valley story. Wormingford Community Education Centre - Wormingford Landmarks We set out to explore and interpret a prehistoric site and its place in the landscape around the village of Wormingford. We held talks, walks and film making workshops. We built a roundhouse, made a Neolithic garden and created an ancient soundscape. We learned how to identify worked flints and how to make flint tools. Families explored the archaeology by taking part in art workshops and making stop animation films looking at how things change over time. People of all ages learned archaeological techniques and one of our fieldwalkers found a StoneAge axe!

Cambridge Community Heritage in 2012-13 was part of ‘All Our Stories’, a major national collaboration beween the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the BBC, which was developed to enable community groups across the UK to carry out their own hands-on projects exploring aspects of their heritage. Many projects were inspired by Michael Wood’s major BBC 2 history series ‘The Great British Story’, with HLF providing money to cover community group costs and AHRC funding universities to provide expert support. The scheme was launched by Michael Wood in November 2012 and ran until December 2013.

CCH, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3ER https://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/communities/cch

November 2013