Partners

Sound, Craft, Vision, Place is being run by the University of Huddersfield with the much valued support and collaboration of the following partners, each of which has considerable experience in heritage related public engagement activities. These organisations have agreed to make their archives, libraries and other resources available and to use their expertise in helping community groups to explore their own heritage.

 

West Yorkshire Archeological Advisory Service

 

The West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Services' objective is to promote West Yorkshire's cultural heritage and to support its voluntary organisations with particular reference to the protection, preservation & enhancement of the rich diversity of archaeological, architectural and historic features in West Yorkshire. It aims to work in partnership to promote enjoyment, knowledge and awareness of the region's valuable & unique heritage & to explore the value & potential of the heritage for the benefit of the public. It aims to improve publicity and to widen access to the heritage to a wider section of the public. To this end it holds and maintains the West Yorkshire Historic Environment Record which contains details of all known archaeological sites and find spots and historic landscapes in West Yorkshire. This is available for consultation by the public free of charge at our Wakefield offices by appointment.

More information about the West Yorkshire Archeological Advisory Service is available here

WYAAS also publishes material on its website that may be of interest to local groups researching their locality. This includes sets of guidance notes that can be downloaded to help local groups carry out their own projects, which are available here

 

Huddersfield Local History Society

 

Huddersfield Local History Society is a membership organisation for anybody and everybody interested in the history of the town.  Our established activities include monthly talks from September to May; a summer outing; an autumn seminar; an annual journal, free to members; and a series of booklets.  We are keen to recruit new members and to develop opportunities for members to share their interests in local history and work together to find out more about our fascinating town.  Please explore our website and contact us here for further information. 

 More information about the West Yorkshire Archeological Advisory Service is available here

 

English Heritage 'Britain from Above' Project

 

‘Britain from Above’ is a four year project aimed at conserving 95,000 of the oldest and most valuable photographs in the Aerofilms collection, those dating from 1919 to 1953.  Once conserved, they’ll be scanned into digital format and made available online for everyone to see.

English Heritage is working in partnership with the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and Wales on the project which started in 2011. The project has been made possible due to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and support from The Foyle Foundation and other donors.

The new Britain from Above website will be launched in 2012 with thousands of images online. The website will give you the opportunity to share and record your memories of the places shown and also to help us identify some of the locations and buildings.

Through the 'Britain from Above' planned activities we aim to:

• open up the collection to make it accessible to everyone through a programme of online engagement and community work that creates meaning, relevance, excitement and interest

• develop our relationships with existing audiences and increase their involvement by creating opportunities to contribute information and share their wealth of knowledge, experience and memories connected to the images

• engage new audiences with the collection through activities that seek to develop mutual understanding and benefit

• provide opportunities for personal learning through participation in activities

• create a legacy by providing inspirational exemplars and learning that can help inform and transform our activity in other areas.

To do this we will be aiming to work with people who are digitally excluded from engaging with online material, those who do not easily see themselves represented in the content of our heritage (particularly BAME groups and people in lower socio-economic groups), those who are visually impaired, younger people and the wider public. We plan to work with a wide range of people in our project because of:

•  the diversity of the images in the collection

•  developments in technology that allow us to work flexibly and develop effective ways of reaching ever wider audiences

•  the value community knowledge and expertise has as a way of broadening the meaning of our heritage, revealing hidden stories and enabling the sharing of content through terms that are relevant to broader audiences

More information about the project is available on the English Heritage website here and you can also join the mailing list to receive regular newsletters and project updates by emailing: aerofilms@english-heritage.org.uk

 

The National Coal Mining Museum for England

 

Keeping Coal Mining Alive

The National Coal Mining Museum for England is the museum for the English coalfields. Its mission is to keep coal mining alive by collecting and preserving the industry’s rich heritage, creating enjoyable and inspiring ways to learn for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

Many visitors are drawn to the Museum by the thought of going underground into the historic workings, and seeing at first hand the difficult conditions under which men, women and children laboured. In talking with our guides, who are all ex-miners, people begin to gain an insight into what living and working in a mining community was all about.

They can learn much more by also using our other facilities on site: the main galleries showing varied collections of art, photographs, social history and technology; the historic site itself; and the research library, which has its own dedicated library team.

Research access to the collections is by appointment with the curators; access to the library during library opening hours: 1.00-4.00pm Wednesday, 10.00am-12.30pm & 1.00-4.00pm Thursday, Friday, and the same hours the first full weekend of every month.

Recent community projects involving the Museum teams include work with the art and photographic collections as part of the ‘Seeing the Whole Picture’ project in Wakefield and Kirklees; oral history recording in preparation for ‘Our Sporting Stories’ exhibition to link with the summer Olympics; and community consultation events for the new interactive tours as part of the ‘Making Sense of Mining’ project.

See more about the Museum and its collections here

 

The Royal Armouries

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The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom’s National Museum of Arms and Armour, one of the largest collections of arms and armour in the world, comprising of the UK’s National Collection of Arms and Armour, National Artillery Collection, and National Firearms Collection. It is also the keeper of Tower of London history.

It is Britain’s oldest museum, and one of the oldest museums in the world.

As a museum we have a duty of care for all the objects in the collection, to keep them, study them and increase our knowledge of them, so that this can be passed to future generations along with the objects themselves.

This knowledge can be shared with others who also collect arms and armour, we are actively involved with and support a number of groups committed to the study of the subject and its practical applications. As such we offer an enquiry service to the public and the commercial world alike and have often acted as consultants on a number of film and television projects.

However, we are more than just a museum with objects in display cases, we carry out and publish research on the topic of arms and armour, carry out research on behalf of other museums. Act as specialists in the field, and we even loan out objects to other institutions. We also put on events for the public and exhibitions.

This is not the only way in which we have used our knowledge and collection, previously we have done very important work in the community, working with Youth Offending Teams, on knife and gun crime prevention. As one of the largest collections of guns and knives in the world we are uniquely placed to offer a different insight into how and why people use weapons.

We have also worked with groups such as Flashpoint, Leap and launched our own campaign No To Knives: NTK, these are about raising awareness and resolving or avoiding conflict.

Huddersfield Local Studies Library

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Huddersfield Local Studies Library offers a wealth of research resources, from maps and newspapers to census returns, local history books and Parish records. Situated in the Huddersfield Central Library, the local studies library is open non-members and also houses the Kirklees West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. Staff are available to help you find relevant resources and provide advice on local history research.  The Library development team stages talks and workshop for both young and old and numerous outreach activities with community groups, schools and nurseries to promote the work of the library service.

See more about the Huddersfield Local Studies Library here