Walkley Ways, Walkley Wars Launch

 The Walkley Ways, Walkley Wars history project was launched with a bang at the Walkley Community Centre, Sheffield on Friday evening.


Almost 100 people packed out the Centre for two hours. It is great to see so much interest in Walkley’s history from such a wide range of ages and parts of the community. Bill introduced the project and two key players in the 1960s/70s slum clearance and improvements scheme gave talks - Geoff Green of the Walkley Action Campaign and Narendra Bajaria, a former planning officer with Sheffield City Council. There were exhibitions of the slum clearance plans, photographs of Walkley in the 1970s and of the memorial windows to the men of the Walkley Reform Club who died in the First World War.

There was a real buzz of excitement in the room, with almost half of the participants having lived in Walkley from before the 1960s, many either moving as their houses were demolished during slum clearance or still living in houses saved from demolition. The participants formed a cross-section of 21st century Walkley society, from teenagers to people in their 80s, and people born and bred in Walkley to more recent arrivals. Thirty-five people signed-up to take part in the research and exploration of Walkley's past over the next three years.

First World War memorial to F. Hartley of the Walkley Reform Club and Sheffield Pals.

 The project will:

1) Research the lives of Walkley people before they went to fight in World War 1 and preserve the memorials of fallen members of the Walkley Liberal Reform Club.

2) Explore the council plans to demolish Walkley in the 1960s and 70s.

3) Catalogue, research and make public the Walkley Action Group archive in the Walkley Commnunity Centre.

4) Record memories of Walkley life during the 1960s and 70s.

5) Find out what Fir St was like in 1908/09 when the Walkley Liberal Reform Club was proposed and built.

South Road, 1978

The project will train volunteers in local history and oral history who will participate in much of the exciting research.

A steering group comprising Rick Allen and Nicole Houghton (WCC), Bill Bevan, Rev Melanie FitzGerald, Veronica Hardstaff and Hugh Waterhouse will oversee the project on behalf of WCC.
We hope the project will lead to the establishment of a Walkley History Society, who will use the Community Centre as its base.

The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and is being managed by inHeritage on behalf of the Walkley Community Centre.


You can view Bill’s introduction to the project, presented to the project launch as a video on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/SUoi6t_uDZQ

November Round-Up

November has been a busy month for inHeritage! We've barely had time to draw breath.

We have been appointed to the new Walkley Ways, Walkley Wars heritage project by Walkley Community Centre, providing project management, oral history mentoring, design and interpretation on a three year community heritage project.

The final self-guided trails for the Hunter Archaeological Society's  centenary have been produced as leaflets and audio tours.

We have been appointed to work on a project in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, to help develop a series of heritage workshops around the theme of the Mark Kirby Free School, which celebrates the 300th anniversary of Kirby's endowment this year. The workshops cover aspects of life in the village in the early 1700s, including childhood, costume, food and the landscape.

We have begun work on interpretation of the Grenoside Reading Room, Sheffield, to coincide with the refurbishment of the room as a community events and arts centre.

Tideswell Tales has been continuining apace with planning work beginning in earnest on the community performance. This will take material from the oral history work to create a series of free-flowing promenade performances throughout the village in Wakes Week next year.

The report writing phase of the Castleton and Hope Lives of the Medieval Common People project is now underway, especially for the documentary research and archaeology test pits.

AHI Conference 2012

The Association for Heritage Interpretation 2012 annual conference (http://www.ahi.org.uk) focused on quality and the visitor experience, putting heritage interpretation at the heart of designing the experience visitors have of a property.

The presentations and visits have highlighted the necessity of considering the visitor experience from the outset of interpretive planning. It is not rocket science, however a number of speakers have shown the efforts they have made to change organisational thinking and avoid the scenario of staff simply deciding what they will do to visitors without finding out what visitors desire. Examples ranging from the National Trust and Historic Royal Palaces to interpretation for visually impaired people and pre-schoolers demonstrated why interpreters and property managers should consider how visitors do and should experience a place to offer a more satisfying and accessible visit. The benefits include an enhanced sense of place leading  to higher values of a property and its heritage, as well as financial return from longer and repeat visits. Numerous speakers showed the link between heritage interpretation and tourism development, and the need for thorough planning and evaluation. To me, it seems essential that interpretation is closely linked with tourism assessment of a property.

I was particularly interested in properties which encourage visitor participation in their engagement with the place, partly building on the new ways people interact with their world through social media and people's resulting expectations of interacting with 'bricks and mortar'. The concept of the participatory 'museum' can be applied to other types of venue, and is an essential approach to communicate with audiences who expect to interact actively with their world, as well as being a way to develop a sense of ownership of a property for those audiences.

I gave a presentation about providing interpretation to pre-school children and their families in such a way that this audience can enjoy a visit to countryside and historic house properties. Pre-school children can engage with and remember carefully chosen key messages, while their parents or guardians can also engage with the property rather than miss out because of needs of their children take them away from concentrating on the property's heritage stories. Appropriate interpretation can be integrated into the needs of the pre-school family through play, art, crafts, story telling and even snack time.

Conference visits were made to Blists Hill Victorian Town, Much Wenlock Museum and RAF Cosford. All three venues offer different visitor experiences which engage people with specific heritage themes. Blist Hill is a reconstructed 1900 industrial town populated with costumed interpreters, Much Wenlock interprets the local cultural and natural heritage witha focus on the birth of the modern Olympic movement, while Cosford has opened a huge Cold War museum which goes someway beyond just being about big planes. I would take the Blist Hill property managers to task about their claims for 'authenticity' as if they are creating something which is an unsullied real 1900 experience rather than. 21st Century tourism representation.

Overall, the conference has offered much to inspire interpreters to place an understanding of visitors central to developing interpretation projects.

Calver Weir Podcast

The first podcast from the Calver Weir oral history project is now online. It features Ray Fowler talking about his experiences, projects and successes as Sales Director at Sissons, who made stainless steel products at Calver Mill during the second half of the 20th Century. Some were shipped to the Falklands. The interview was recorded by the oral history volunteers and edited by inHeritage.

http://www.calverweir.org.uk/page1/page1.php

Henge Diggers Exhibition

Bill Henge Diggers exhibition opens in Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum on the 8th September.

You can find out more on Bill Bevan Photography.

Details of the exhibition opening times on are the museum website.

The exhibition is funded by the Arts Council with support from Manchester Museum and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.

Tideswell Photography Workshop

Today Bill led a workshop on street photography and portraiture for Tideswell Living History Group. Members of the group learnt skills and principles to enable them to take street scenes of everyday life in Tideswell and district and portraits of oral history interviewees.

The day was divided in two - the morning on street photography and the afternoon on portraiture. Each began with a presentation on ethics, composition and lighting with examples from my own work and that of others. Participants then practised the photography skills on Tideswell's streets and with each other. Practise sessions were followed by each participant talking through three examples of their shots with feedback from others.

Example of the fantastic street photographs taken by the participants can be seen on Tideswell Tales. Everyone took great photos of Tideswell and some great portraits of each other. I look forward to seeing the further results of their work in the future.

Hunter Schools Test Pits

 Pupils and staff from Dalton Listerdale School, Rotherham after a good day's digging

Today is the last day of the Hunter Archaeological Society test pits. Children and archaeologists have battled through the rain to dig almost 70 test pits in their school grounds in Barnsley, Dronfield, Rotherham and Sheffield. Almost 150 junior school children between 7 and 11 have had the hands-on opportunity to be archaeologists and dig up their playing fields in search of clues from the past. The excitement of finding objects has led one class to do an 'archaeology is cool' dance at the end of their session. Finds include pottery, clay pipes, bottles and old marbles.

Our educational heritage officer and cartoonist are following-up the test pits with sessions interpreting the finds.

The Sheffield Star has featured in project, despite it mis-identifying Hunter member Martin Waller in the photograph - http://bit.ly/RM5B7S

 

Jim Rylatt with pupils from Dobcroft Juniors, Sheffield

The Hunter test pits are one of our ongoing educational and community archaeology projects. To see completed projects please visit out projects page.

No News Is...

... good news. We hope. My apologies for not posting inHeritage news updates for May and June. We've simply been too busy to find time to update the news section. Which does count as good news.

The highlights of the last two months have been:

Bill toured Scotland for two weeks in May to work on his next book - Walk Into the Dark Ages. He covered hundreds of miles, from Dumfries to Shetland, Aberdeen to Iona, visiting and photographing Dark Ages sites.

The Hunter Archaeological Society Centenary Weekend was a roaring success in mid May.

The Lune Aqueduct Digital Memories project is up and running, and the first oral history interviews should be done this month.

Hope and Castleton historical societies have been making some interesting discoveries in the record offices. The wet weather delayed the landscape survey work, which is now well under way along with the test pits.

The first Calver Weir oral history interviews have been undertaken and the first podcast should be online within the next couple of weeks.

We'll endeavour to keep you updated with July's news as it happens.

Calver Weir Audio Trail

The Calver Weir Audio Trail is now available online to download and copy to your mp3 player ready to explore the heritage and wildlife of the area around the weir and Calver Mill.

The trail takes you on a journey along the River Derwent from Curbar Bridge to Froggatt Bridge and back. On the way you can discover the features in the landscape which tell the history of the mill and its weir. You also encounter the rich wildlife which makes its home along the banks of the river.

To download the trail, visit http://www.calverweir.org.uk and click on the New Audio Trail link on the right hand side of the home page. 

Tideswell Tales Website

The Tideswell Tales website is launched today.

Bill led a training workshop on using the free website service wordpress.com to promote and communicate the Tideswell Tales project to members of the Tideswell Living History Group. He taught participants how to add and edit pages, blog posts, media files and photographs - including how to create image galleries. We also went through how to upload audio files to AudioBoo and SoundCloud, then how to embed the audio files into Wordpress pages. The members of the groups created news pages with embedded radio broadcasts and new themed sections with pages containing oral history recordings.

Using social media audio services saves expensive media hosting fees and embeds excellent, easy-to-use media players into project and society websites. Wordpress allows societies to create free function-rich websites containing news, events, information, photographs, documents, PDFs, and embedded audio and video, which are easy to maintain with a little training.

You can listen to the project launch radio interviews and the first oral history excerpts at Tideswell Tales. Click on News or use the drop-down menus under Audio.

Oral History Training

Tideswell Living History Group at the oral history training workshop

The oral history training workshops for both the Calver Weir and Tideswell Tales oral history projects have been a great success. inHeritage brought in Colin Hyde of the East Midlands Oral History Archive to lead both sessions. The Tideswell workshop was held in the Tideswell School of Food, made famous by the BBC's Village SOS series.

The potential interviewers of both projects gained a lot from them and reported very positive feedback. Brilliant, fantastic, excellent were all used to describe the sessions. The sessions showcased good oral history projects, then went through interview techniques, using audio recorders, ethics, consents and archiving. Each participant had the chance to interview someone else in the group.

All the participants now feel that their projects are really underway and ready to carry out their first interviews.

Colin is just one of a number of Heritage Lottery Fund and Oral History Society approved oral history trainers from around the country we can supply for groups and societies beginning their own projects.

Colin Hyde

Worcester Time Detective Trail

We've just taken delivery of the time detective trail for Worcester County Council's Beyond the City Walls exhibition. Aimed at 7 - 11 year olds, it is an interactive cartoon-based guide to the exhibition.

The artwork is amazing. Another great job by our cartoonist Marvin Harding. 

The trail features three researchers who focus on different types of evidence - archaeological, documentary and oral history - to discover the history of the Butts before the building of the Hive. 

Hunter Library Exhibition

The inHeritage-designed panels for the Sheffield Central Library exhibition about the Hunter Archaeological Society. 

Worcester Panels

The 9 pull-up panels for The Butts exhibition, to open in The Hive, Worcester in July arrived today. The panels look great and the bamboo casing and poles for the pull-ups give them a much better look than the standard brushed aluminium.

All of the last elements of the exhibition are arriving this week including the baskets, rugs and washing line for the under 7s Rogue's Gallery. The costumes are already here featuring a Roman female, Tudor archer and Victorian cattle worker.

The motion activated Message in a Speaker is also here and about to be programmed.

Calver Weir Memories Day

Today was the first public event of the Calver Weir Oral History project. Bill facilitated a memories day in Calver village which brought together the volunteers and participants willing to share memories, photos or other info about Calver Mill, its Weir and the River Derwent nearby.

The village Methodist Hall resounded to stories about stainless steel kitchen sinks, boyhood games along the river and the mill's appearance in the BBC series Colditz. Colleagues who worked at W & G Sissons, occupants of the mill for much of the second half of the 20th century were reunited after many years, including the Sales Director and his secretary.

Volunteers gained their first experience of collection memories - and of scanning documents. The Chair of the Calver Weir Restoration Project was later interviewed live on BBC Radio Sheffield.

We now have almost 20 people who wish to be interviewed or have other historical information they are willing to share.

Delving into Medieval Hope-Castleton

Residents of Hope and Castleton are getting stuck in to the Medieval Common People Project being organized by Hope and Castleton Historical Societies. The project has got off to an exciting start with visits to three record offices and a training day in landscape archaeology. The project is also drawing in people from other parts of the Hope Valley and Sheffield.

Lichfield Record Office Research

We have made visits during February to learn how to use Derbyshire Record Office, Lichfield Archives and Sheffield Archives. Archivists at each have shown participants how to use their catalogues and do searches, as well as what types of documents they have. At Derbyshire and Lichfield we even had the chance to begin our research on the day, because the Archivists kindly brought a selection of documents from their stores for us to see and look through.

A good example is the day we spent in Lichfield. Andrew George, Principal Archivist, gave an clear and enjoyable introduction to the types of records available. Both villages were part of the Medieval Diocese of Lichfield, therefore a wealth of ecclesiastical records are stored in the Archives. There are wills, inventories, Bishop's Registers, charters and a range of other documents which give an insight into Medieval life in Castleton and Hope. The group left the excellent training day enthused and buzzing - both with what they discovered on the day and the potential discoveries to be made.

We are following the documentary research up with more visits to the record offices and monthly research sessions. Our next one is on Wednesday 28^th March, 7pm at the Old School Hall, Hope. All are welcome. We will discuss what subjects we hope to research and share discoveries to date.

Landscape Survey Training Day

The landscape survey got off to a great start with a training day on how to do archaeological survey. After an introduction to the subject, we headed up the valley side north of Hope to practice some of what we had learnt. Our aim is to record the archaeological features associated with the old routes between the two villages – which may date to the Middle Ages.

If you would like to find out more about the project, and how you can get involved, please contact Di Curtis, 01433 620724, dicathope@aol.com or Angela Darlington, 01433 620281, amstafford@hotmail.co.uk.

Tideswell Tales

Friday the 16th March was the first meeting of the Tideswell Tales project since the news that the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant to the Tideswell Living History Group.


Bill at inHeritage has been fortunate to work with the group of people in Tideswell, Derbyshire, to develop the oral history project, following on from the success of the Tideswell Trails project. 


Bill worked closely with the group to create a series of self-guided trails, funded by the Peak Park's Sustainable Development Fund. The desire to conduct oral history interviews was born out of the Trails project and Bill facilitated the project development then grant application which led to the successful award of the grant in mid-March. We set up the Tideswell Living History Group as interest in the village widened and we realised there was a strong community demand for the oral history project.

The project will collect the memories and old photographs of Tideswell and district residents, ex-residents and visitors - adults and children - in order to preserve and communicate over 150 years of community life through voices and pictures of all ages. It runs from March 2012 to September 2014.

We have identified three themes: 

1) Childhood now and then: recording adults and school children talking about school, home life, holidays, activities and games in Tideswell. 

2) Community Celebrations through time, from Tideswell Wakes Week to VE day and Coronations to Jubilees (linking to the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2012). 

3) Tideswell Traders through time, shoppers and shopworkers at shops, mobile shops and markets (linking to the 75th anniversary of the last cattle fair in 1937). This includes Holdsworth’s which was Swift Levitt’s magnet factory during WW2. Workers are still alive and we’d like to create resources ready for the 60th anniversary of VE Day in 2015.

We are currently organising memories days, oral history training and will soon be creating a dedicated website for the project. We'll post details of the website and events here as we finalise them.

AHI Committee

I spent today at the spring committee meeting of the Association for Heritage Interpretation. I was voted on to the committee, and as a trustee of the Association, in September, and this was my first committee meeting. It was a packed meeting, both the agenda and the size of the room for the number of members. We discussed and agreed lots of activities and decisions to help move the Association forward during the harsh economic times of the present.

One item specifically relevant to me, as the current website editor, was the future of the website.  We will be creating a members only section soon with resources for members of the AHI to access. These will include past conference papers, past issues of the journal, best practice guidelines, etc.

The AHI is also in the process of drafting a new constitution and finalising arrangements for the 2012 conference. If you are involved in heritage interpretation and would like to find out more about the AHI and its activities check out the website.

Worcester Cartoon Panels

Here is a sample of one of the full cartoon panels that make up part of the exhibition about The Butts in Worcester. This is panel 7 which covers the cattle market, and where Kasey discovers her grand-grandfather at work. The full exhibition opens in The Hive in July.

Lune Aqueduct and Lancaster Canal

We had an inception meeting today with staff from British Waterways to begin a year-long project called 'Digital Memories of the Lune Aqueduct'. This project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, aims to discover, record and communicate people's experiences and stories of the aqueduct and canal. We will train volunteers to undertake oral history work, along with local history research, heritage interpretation and podcast production.

We met at British Waterways beautiful Red Bull Yard in Staffordshire - and I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the area which also has a canal-side pub of the same name serving great food.

inHeritage won the tender because of our track record of oral history and audio trail work, including the Railway Memories from the Monsal Trail project completed last year for the Peak District National Park Authority. We were also chosen as the preferred contractor because of our experience and commitment to community training.

The project is one of two oral history projects we are managing this year. The other being about Calver Weir and Mill.

Colour Cannons

Here is the coloured version of the cannon cartoon frame for the Worcester Archives exhibition in The Hive. Please see previous news story. The frame will appear on the leaflet publicising the exhibition - so look out for it around Worcester soon.

The cartoon element of the exhibition builds on our success of creating vibrant and exciting heritage comics, such as the one produce for the Romans on the Don project and in Warwickshire.

Cartoon Worcester

Here's a sneak preview of one of the pencil roughs from the cartoon panels for The Butts exhibition at The Hive. Twenty-seven frames will form a cartoon story based around Kasey, the great-granddaughter of a person who worked in The Butts cattle market, searching the Archives with her iPad. She sees different key periods in time before finding her great-grandfather in the 1930s. The story will be embedded in the 9 panels which will form the opening exhibition at The Hive.

It is the first time explosives have features in one of our heritage comics since one we produced about the Warwickshire connection to the gunpowder plot and another about a gunpowder works in the Brecon Beacons.

Hope-Castleton Lichfield Archives Training

Fifteen members of Hope and Castleton Historical Societies, along with other volunteers from the Hope Valley and Sheffield, begin discovering Hope and Castleton's Medieval past in Lichfield Archives.

Andrew George, Principal Archivist, gave an clear and enjoyable introduction to the types of records available. Both villages were part of the Medieval Diocese of Lichfield, therefore a wealth of ecclesiastical records are stored in the Archives. There are wills, inventories, Bishop's Registers, charters and a range of other documents which give an insight into Medieval life in Castleton and Hope.

The group left the excellent training day enthused and buzzing - both with what they discovered on the day and the potential to come.

The Hope-Castleton Medieval Common People project is one of a number of ongoing projects managed by inHeritage. Please see our projects page for those we have completed.

Memories of Calver Weir and Mill

inHeritage have just been contracted to help the Calver Weir Restoration Project record and preserve the memories of people associated with Calver Mill and the weir.

We will manage an oral history project on their behalf which will train a group of volunteers to record interviews with people who are linked with the mill, weir and the adjacent part of the River Derwent. The project begins with a memories day in March and runs to April 2013.

The press release for the project is below:

Search begins for memories of Calver Weir and Mill

The Calver Weir Restoration Project is launching an exciting oral history project about Calver Weir, Calver Mill and Calver Marshes. Led by volunteers from the local community, the project aims to discover and record the memories of people who worked, lived and played at the mill and adjacent River Derwent.

Calver Mill ended its working life as a cotton mill in 1923 but continued with other uses including as a World War 2 fluorspar depot and then as a stainless steel factory until the 1990s. Calver Weir was essential in managing water flow to the mill, as well as supporting a rich wildlife habitat at Calver Marshes. The weir has recently been restored with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, who are also funding the oral history project.

Potential interviewees include people whose parents or grandparents worked at the mill or maintained the weir; workers at the later converted mill buildings; anglers, bird watchers and local residents.

George Wolfe of the Calver Weir Restoration Project says “We are looking for people whose parents or grandparents worked at the mill or maintained the weir, workers at the later converted mill buildings, as well as anglers, bird watchers and local residents. We would like to record their memories to create a historical archive of the recent working past of the mill and the use of the River Derwent in Calver for recreation. We are also training a small number of volunteers from Calver in oral history recording.”

If you would like to find out more, the project is launched in Calver Methodist Church with a Memories day on Tuesday the 27^th March. All are welcome who have memories of Calver Mill, Weir and Marshes. The day runs from 2pm to 5pm and includes refreshments. Volunteers will be on hand to write down any memories you may have and take your details if you would like to be interviewed at a later date.

If you would like to find out more or enquire about being involved please get in touch with Bill Bevan, 0114 2345411, bill@inheritage.co.uk or George Wolfe, 01433 631308, geowolfe1@gmail.com.

ENDS

Notes to editors

About the Calver Weir Restoration Project

We are a registered charity formed in 2004 with the objective of saving the weir from collapse and restoring it to good condition. Calver Weir is a Listed Grade 2 structure, built in the 19th century to provide water to power cotton spinning at Calver Mill, on the River Derwent, in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire.

Now that the restoration of the weir has been achieved, CWRP is working hard to add to the enjoyment of visitors to the area, by improving footpaths and access points, and carrying out important conservation work and providing information on the history and wildlife.

Hunter Archaeological Society Centenary

inHeritage will be working with the Hunter Archaeological Society to celebrate their centenary in 2012.

The Society has a rich history of researching and conserving the archaeology and historic buildings of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. Over the Society's 100 years they have taken part in notable projects, including the 1930s watching brief on Sheffield Castle, and the 1970s excavations of Swine Sty prehistoric settlement in the Peak District.

During 2012, inHeritage will help project manage a range of activities designed to celebrate the Society and the importance of community archaeology. We will lead workshops on interpretive writing and exhibition production, as well as assist society members write and edit a booklet and exhibition. We will produce a free-to-use Google Sites website for the Society, the first dedicated website the Society will have, and train members in its maintenance. The new web address for the Society is - www.hunterarchaeologicalsociety.org.uk

The press release for the project is below:

Hunter Archaeological Society wins Heritage Lottery Fund support

The Hunter Archaeological Society has received £36,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire: Lives in the past, discoverers for the future. Led by volunteers from the local community, the project will celebrate 100 years of community involvement in historic and archaeological research and conservation.

The project will inspire and train a new generation of ‘heritage explorers’ to continue this long tradition of amateur involvement in archaeology. The project will form part of the centenary celebrations of the Hunter Archaeological Society, a charitable society set up in 1912 to study and report on the archaeology, history and architecture of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. The Society is named after Joseph Hunter, one of the first people to research and record the region’s history. Joseph was born to a cutler in Sheffield in 1783.

Ruth Morgan, Honorary Secretary of the Hunter Archaeological Society says “We’re very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund who have awarded the Society a grant to celebrate the contributions that individuals and communities have made to the discovery of the heritage of our region. We are looking forward to telling more people about the Society during this important year in our own history.”

The Society is organising a series of events during the year with the assistance of the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Local Studies Library and Museums Sheffield. These include a Centenary Weekend, 11^th - 13^th May, with a conference on community archaeology, a reception at Sheffield Town Hall and dinner at the Cutlers’ Hall. The weekend launches a series of guided walks and excursions throughout the summer -these will be available later as self-guided trails, and there will be a special edition of the Society’s Transactions.

Weston Park Museum will host an exhibition on the work of the Society from February. Members are researching the life stories of past members and these will feature in an exhibition in Sheffield University Library in the autumn and a specially produced booklet.

Primary schools in Barnsley, Sheffield and Dronfield will take part in a project which includes digging test pits to get hands-on experience of archaeology.

You can find out more about the events and the Society at www.hunterarchaeologicalsociety.org.uk

Fiona Spiers, Head of HLF, Yorkshire and the Humber said “This is a fantastic project which will allow the community to learn about the Hunter Archaeological Society and the contribution it has made to their local heritage. Through aprogramme of hands-on events and activities focusing on archaeology and community history, people of all ages will have the opportunity to learn new skills and get involved in the heritage that matters to them.”

ENDS

Industrial Heritage Interpretation Training

Today, Bill visited Wortley Top Forge to deliver a training workshop in heritage interpretation to members of South Yorkshire Industrial History Society.


The session was one of a series of ongoing training workshops for community groups working with industrial heritage sites in the East Peaks LEADER area. This area, to the north of Sheffield, has funding for groups to conserve and interpret their industrial heritage. Bill is contracted by East Peaks LEADER to deliver the workshops to those groups who have been awarded a small grant.


Bill has also produced interpretation guidelines on producing panels and leaflets. You can download the guidelines as PDFs from the East Peak LEADER website:


How to write Lively Leaflets

How to write Appealing Panels

Hope Castleton Medieval People

Hope and Castleton Historical Societies have been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to learn about the ordinary medieval people of the two villages in Derbyshire.

inHeritage will be working with the societies to facilitate the project. We will help manage the project, provide skills in landscape archaeology, historical and interpretive writing, booklet production and graphic design.

The press release is below:

Hope and Castleton Historical Societies win Heritage Lottery Fund support

Today, Hope and Castleton Historical Societies have received £26,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, Digging Hope and Castleton’s Medieval History, in Castleton and Hope. Led by volunteers from the local community, the project aims to discover where the common people lived during the medieval period. The two societies are working together between now and March 2013 – and they need your help.

The project will try to find out about the ‘hidden history’ of Castleton and Hope villages between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Civil War in 1642. While history can often tell us about kings, lords and landowners, it is more difficult to track down the ordinary people who lived and worked in the Peak District’s villages. This is because they don’t appear in as many historical documents, most of which are about property, and their history can remain hidden.

Di Curtis of Hope Historical Society says “We are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund who have awarded the Society a grant to look into the medieval history of Hope and Castleton. This means we can undertake documentary research, dig archaeological test pits and survey the old routes between the two villages.”

Angela Darlington of Castleton Historical Society says “The test pits will be dug in people’s gardens in both villages during the first two weeks in July. We are looking for finds such as old pots that can show where people lived during the medieval period. Each test pit will be a metre square. We hope to dig each one in a day.”

Finds from the test pits will be shown at an open day then some will be put on display in Castleton Museum. Pupils and students from Castleton and Hope primary schools and Hope Valley College will also join in a range of activities to learn about their medieval ancestors.

If you live in Castleton and Hope and would like to find out more about the project there is a talk at Castleton Village Hall on Monday 30^th January at 7:30pm. The Societies are looking for volunteers to help with the test pits, surveying the old routeways and doing research in the record offices. If you would like to get involved in the archaeology or documentary research, or are happy to have a test pit dug on your garden please get in touch with Di Curtis, 01433 620724, dicathope@aol.com or Angela Darlington, 01433 620281, amstafford@hotmail.co.uk.

The project is managed by the two societies with the help of Bill Bevan, and the archaeological assistance of the University of Sheffield.

Explaining the importance of the HLF support, HLF Grants Officer in the East Midlands, Greg Pickup, said: "We were delighted to support this exciting volunteer-led project. It will provide opportunities for the whole community to gain new skills whilst exploring a hidden part of the Hope Valley's fascinating heritage. The project will uncover stories that have been buried for centuries, allowing people to discover how the lives of common people shaped the history of Hope and Castleton in Medieval times."

ENDS