Calver Weir Finale

Calver Weir Exhibition

The Calver Weir oral history project came to a glorious end this weekend with an exhibition in Calver Village Hall.

Over 200 people visited the exhibition over the weekend. The launch was attended by 10 interviewees, 2 Heritage Lottery Fund officers, all of the oral history team and about another 15 residents and visitors.

Interviewees watch the movie

The event was the culmination to 18 months hard work by the team, who had recorded 22 interviews and searched Derbyshire Record Office's collection of Calver Mill documents. Highlights include finding the sources of the 19th century mill's cotton and the range of tools required each year to keep it operating, childhood memories of playing on the weir and river, working life at Sissons stainless steel factory and the filming of Colditz by the BBC. The main success was seeing a group of people come together, learn historical skills and work as a team.

The oral history team

inHeritage has been involved with the project throughout, mentoring and guiding the volunteers and producing a travelling exhibition, booklet, movie, comic and podcasts. We have also created an archive which is deposited in Calver, Derbyshire Record Office, the Peak District National Park Authority and the East Midlands Oral History Archive.

Booklet, comic and celebratory ale 

The Movie

The exhibition

The comic

The food

Calver Weir Oral History

The Calver Weir oral history project is coming towards the end of the interview phase this month. Volunteers have completed over 14 interviews. Five of these are now online, which cover the early history of the mill, Sissons and the restoration of the weir. Future podcasts will include the river and Colditz.

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

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

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. 

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

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.

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.

Calver Weir Audio Trail

November provides another reason for inHeritage to remember the last month of autumn. The Calver Weir Trust have asked us to create an audio trail along the River Derwent between Calver Mill and Froggatt Bridge. News of our work on the Monsal Trail project reached the Trust who contacted us about creating a trail for them.

The Trust has recently secured a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to restore the historically important Calver Weir. As part of the project they are widening access to the area around the Weir, known for its wildlife and historic interest.

More information about the project can be found on the Calver Weir website - http://www.calverweir.org.uk.