A community arts organisation is looking for locals of North West Leicestershire to contribute their memories of the area towards a project recording local history.
The project, N.W. Leicestershire Voices, is asking members of the community to reach out if they would like to share their experiences of life in North West Leicestershire. Contributions will help to create a new series of oral history recordings for future generations.
Coalville-based community arts organisation, Mantle Arts, has launched the new project bringing people’s memories of the past to life and collecting new oral histories of the region for the future.
Matthew Pegg, Project Director at Mantle Arts said, “Its fascinating to hear people talking about what happened to them in the Edwardian period and during the First World War. Some of the people on the original recordings were born as early as the 19th century.
"We want to make this compelling archive of local history available to more people. And we want to record some new oral histories to preserve people’s memories of North West Leicestershire in the second half of the 20th century.”
The 18-month project, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund with a £65k grant, is to digitise and preserve a collection of 1980s recordings of local peoples’ memories stretching back to before the First World War.
They've shared a sneak peek of some of the memories in the video above.
Along with preserving the recordings via digitisation, the recordings will be used in a range of projects to make local history archives more accessible to the community.
The archive will include four exhibits, installations and displays, a range of CDs, a podcast series, and educational resources for schools.
Snippets of the recordings along with videos and images will be released via Mantle’s social media channels over the coming weeks.
If you have a memory to share with Mantle Arts, get in touch by emailing matthew@mantlearts.org.uk.
