Northumberland Village Halls Heritage project
Autumn newsletter 2021
Welcome to our first newsletter about the Northumberland Village Halls Heritage project, organised by CAN and working in partnership with Northumberland Archives. We plan to keep you updated about the project through this newsletter, and you can also join our Facebook Group.
Project kicks off with Oral History training
After being put on hold during the pandemic the project restarted in late August with the first cohort of volunteers completing their training in oral history recording delivered by Northumberland Archives. A second round of this training was delivered in October
In total 24 volunteers from 14 village halls across Northumberland took part, learning how to create a lasting legacy for their community. They listened to examples of oral history recordings, things to consider, what questions to ask, and had practice sessions using the digital recorders.
Their next task is to go out into their communities having identified people to interview about experiences of their local village hall over the years. We're particularly keen to record people's recent memories of Covid and how that impacted their village halls use.
This is the first event of our two-year Village Halls Heritage project to preserve, record and share the heritage of Northumberland’s Village Halls. 30 village halls have signed up to take part and will receive training, a small grant and support.
Future dates
We plan to roll out this training to all halls taking part in the project, of which we've identified 15 halls taking part in year 1, and another 15 in year 2. Look out for future dates from us which we'll send via email to your designated contact person.
Book now for Northumberland Archives training session at Woodhorn
Dates: Friday 19 November 2021 OR Friday 10 December 2021Time: 10am – 1pm (with break for coffee)
Maximum Attendees: 9 people
We have arranged two sessions for project volunteers to visit Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn and be trained by staff in the following:
- How to use the archives, including a back of house tour
- Sources for village hall histories
- How to deposit records with them
- How to care for your own records retained at your village hall.
Join our Facebook group
We've created a Facebook group for any Northumberland Village hall to get involved in the project and share their stories and photographs.
Please join us and share your memories with us all, ask questions, get tips and advice on researching your hall's heritage.
Lesbury Village Hall gets its project underway
Lesbury Village Hall has started off its search for stories by featuring an article in its newsletter about the project along with old photographs. They go on to say:
"We have found quite a few photographs and pantomime scripts from the hall and from the time the bowling green was built. All we need now are your stories and some help in identifying people in the photographs."
They plan to hold a quiz night based on the photos they have found, including this one above to find out names. We think it's a great idea to get people thinking and looking through their own albums!
Oral History - What is it and why is it important?
Our thanks to Linda from Northumberland Archives who has written about this topic for us in a blog, just as our Village Hall volunteers prepare to carry out oral history work within their own communities!
In the blog Linda explains:
"Oral History is defined as collecting memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews, ie the spoken word ......
For me, it’s important because it brings history to life. It’s a very powerful experience to hear the voice of someone who was there at the time."
Read more of Linda's blog in our Facebook group
If you would like to hear examples of oral histories, why not try listening to Northumberland Archives 'Northumberland Voices' Podcast' on spotify.
How did the pandemic affect your hall?
Village halls had to shut down in March 2020 for the first time in their history due to Covid. This will be a significant historical event and of great interest to researchers in the future. We know some halls were used to support their communities in a variety of ways including becoming food distribution points, making up Christmas hampers and even a space for making scrubs for NHS staff.
We're really keen to get these stories captured whilst memories are still fresh. So please consider this recent piece of history when thinking about themes to focus on in your planning. Even if your hall simply shut down and wasn't used this will have had a significant effect on the community losing such an important space.
We'd also love to hear your stories informally, either by sending them to us via email or on the Facebook group.
Would you like to write a blog about researching your hall's heritage?
Northumberland Archives is looking for people to write about their experiences of researching their village hall for their blog. The pages feature blogs by staff and by guest bloggers on a wide range of topics about Northumberland history. They ask for a maximum of 1,000 words and a photograph.
If you are interested please contact suwood@northumberland.gov.uk.
The people behind the project!
A big hello from your steering group! We are the people behind this project helping it hopefully run smoothly!
From left to right in the photo:
May Wilson, Breamish Hall, Powburn
Sue Wood, Northumberland Archives
Carrie Brookes, CAN
Louise Currie, CAN
Julia Plinston, CAN
Missing from this photo is Sarah Hallberg, Secretary of the West Northumberland Community Buildings Consortium.
Contact Us
Click on our names above for CAN staff email addresses, join our Facebook group to share your stories, or visit our website to read the background to the project.