WESTBURY Heritage Society and Matravers School are launching a new oral history project to preserve the heritage of the community in a modern multi-media format.
Both members of the Heritage Society and Matravers School pupils will be involved in carrying out interviews and filming to create a digital archive of living history.
The area board has already approved a grant of £995 to purchase video cameras and reporting equipment, and it is hoped that the project can get up and running in a matter of months.
Keith Miller from the Heritage Society said, “We’re working to put together the collective memory of lots and lots of people. We feel that it’s really, really important that these memories are encapsulated while they can be.
“It could be people’s work memories, or war-time memories. And they need not be elderly people – they can be youngsters who have been involved in situations that are really quite remarkable.
“That should then produce a date base that has a huge significance, that means a) we can make sure we have a really good understanding of what’s happened in the area in the past, and b) provides an educational database so that youngsters can get access to information.
“The project will be ongoing. This isn’t a programme to run for six months and then that’s it – it’s a permanent feature.”
Pupils at Matravers School will work alongside adults from the Heritage Centre to visit people and get actively involved in recording and compiling entries, while the Heritage Centre will offer an opportunity for people to drop in and record vox pops.
Once items have been entered, people will be able to access the archive from Matravers School or Westbury Visitor Centre, and once there is enough material it is hoped that the archive will go online.
