Our Stories Community Projects Supported by Cambridge Community Heritage About Cambridge Community Heritage
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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