Projects
'All Our Stories'
During the summer of 2012 the Sound, Craft, Vision, Place team worked with a wide range of community organisations to develop their ideas for heritage projects and help them apply to the HLF 'All Our Stories' funding programme. A number of these groups were succesfull and details of their projects can be found by following the links below.
Dancestry
http://www.dancestry.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/Dancestry
https://www.facebook.com/TheDancestryProject?fref=ts
Make Your Mark on History
http://cottinghamstory.wordpress.com/
History of learning disabilities in Leeds
http://www.leedsmencap.org.uk/history-of-learning-disabilities
Researcher Team Projects
Staff working on Sound, Vision, Craft, Place have been involved in a wide array of successful public engagement projects that demonstrate some of the exciting ways in which diverse aspects of community heritage can be explored.
Here are some examples:
Mining Couture
In 2011 Claire Barber and Steve Swindells, from Huddersfield University, were awarded a commission to deliver their ‘Mining Couture’ project to Snibston Discovery Museum, which is located on the site of an ex-colliery in Leicestershire. Following the closure of the colliery, the site was transformed into a popular tourism and heritage attraction, which opened in 1992, and has since become the creative inspiration for works produced through a series of commissions by artists from around the country.
Funded by Arts Council England and Leicestershire County Council, the Barber-Swindells proposal is part of an innovative arts project called Transform which is at the heart of Snibston’s regeneration programme. ‘Mining Couture’ will explore the connections between the language, tools and textures associated with mining heritage and the extensive Fashion Collection at Snibston. This fusion of ideas is the inspiration for both artists to explore working methods, host workshops for the public and to develop a set of new works.
More information is available here
History to Herstory
History to Herstory began in 2003, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, West Yorkshire Archive Service and its partners, the University of Huddersfield, The Bronte Society, Hull Local Studies Library, and Leeds City Council Libraries. Through its recently updated website the project has enabled members of the public to view over 80,000 archive pages illustrating women’s lives over the past 800 years. Users can explore a vast online archive of diaries, letters, journals, minutes and other written material plus photographs and artworks that tell the story of women’s lives as led in the home, the workplace, the political arena and even the mental asylum. Also, the lives of famous women such as author Charlotte Bronte and aviator Amy Johnson can be explored through original documents.
The site includes packages of learning materials, assembled by research assistants at the University of Huddersfield. Covering themes such as women and politics, women at work, women at war and women’s correspondence, the packages can be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. Some of the material will be used for undergraduate modules at the University of Huddersfield itself.
More information is available here
Asian Voices
Asian Voices resulted from a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant awarded in 2008 for the University of Huddersfield to document the experiences of first generation South Asian settlers through a groundbreaking oral history project. The project recorded oral testimonies of first generation settlers from South Asian communities across Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale in order to preserve their memories for current and future generations.
The interviews focus on two main themes: ‘migration and settlement’, and give an insight into issues such as work, worship and leisure. The research offers a window into the experience of settling into Britain and adjusting to life in a foreign environment and celebrates the role first generation South Asian settlers have played in helping to shape multi-cultural Britain.
‘Up and Under’ Rugby League oral history project
The ‘Up and Under’ rugby league oral history project was funded by an £85,000 grant from the University of Huddersfield. Through the project over 100 interviews were recorded with fans, players, coaches, administrators and officials of the game. Their memories have created an irreplaceable record of Rugby League’s past which has helped to and preserve, celebrate and broaden recognition of the sport's rich social and cultural history in the region.
More information available here
The Luddite Link
The Luddite Link was launched in 2012 to celebrate the bicentenary of the Luddite uprisings in which militant workers destroyed machinery (typically stocking frames and shearing frames) in the English textile areas.
The website provides access to information and resources about the Luddites in West Yorkshire, including articles about the history of the movement, photographs and audio and visual material with recordings and transcripts of the lyrics of ‘The Cropper Lads’ and ‘Foster’s Mill’, two popular folk songs about the Luddite movement in Yorkshire in 1812.
The full list of partners are: the University of Huddersfield, Kirklees Museums & Galleries, University Archives, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Sheffield Archives, Huddersfield Local Studies Library, Huddersfield Local History Society, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Mikron Theatre Company, Lawrence Batley Theatre and the Colne Valley Museum.
More information available here
Calderdale and Kirklees Cricket Heritage Project
In 2004 the University was awarded a £43,400 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Calderdale and Kirklees Cricket Heritage Project. The Project set out to explore, preserve and celebrate the cricketing heritage of Calderdale and Kirklees and although the funding period ended in 2005 work has been continued by a dedicated team of volunteers.
More information available here
Ar It Woh - memories of a village life lost
The Ar it woh - Memories of a village life lost project was funded by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Darton and Dodworth Area Forum to collect personal memories and photographs from the people who lived, worked, played and grew up in Woolley Colliery village, Barnsley, in the earlier part of the 20th Century.
More information about the project is available here
Bosworth Battle Field
In 2005 a team of researchers began working in collaboration with the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, local landowners and the Battlefields Trust, to settle the longstanding debate over the true location of the Battle of Bosworth Field. Conventional archaeological methods were combined with a review of documentary evidence, the reconstruction of the historic landscape, and a systematic archaeological survey using metal detectors. After five years of research the team uncovered a wealth of finds which not only relocated the battle to its true site location but also redefined the use of firepower in the battle and opened up new avenue of research into the origins of firepower on the battlefields of Europe. These remarkable finds have now become the subject of an exhibition at the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre which was built in 1974 at the original location it was thought the battle took place. The Centre uses a range of exhibitions, heritage trails, events and educational programmes in order to interpret the battle and its historical context.