3rd November 2011

DORCHESTER: Celebrating Dorset's living memories one last time

By Anita Harries

After two years Age Concern Dorchester’s amazing on-line project, Dorset’s Living Memories, has come to an end.

Over 400 stories have been collected, touching the lives of more than 1,000 older people, reviving memories, stimulating conversation and creating the most incredible record of life as it was across the county.

The project has produced an on-line archive of stories, memories, and reminiscences of the people who spent their childhood, working life, and even their retirement, in Dorset. It was all made possible through two Silver Surfer Grants and a Dorset POPP Community Win Award, and focussed on the living memories of folk from the rural county of Dorset from the beginning of the 20th century right up to the present day.

The archive has been illustrated with never before seen photographs of the county, its people, and the entire fabric of a past society.

It created an opportunity for ordinary people to tell their personal stories in their own words, and allowed those who no longer live in Dorset to join in and make this a truly outstanding record of the recent social history of Dorset, written not by the historians but by those who lived and worked within its boundaries.

Dorset’s Living Memories Roadshow visited 51 residential homes, day centres, sheltered housing complexes, clubs, and town and village communities, gathering memories, listening to stories, and sharing photographs.

Contributors, volunteers, and supporters were invited to celebrate the success of the project at a spoecial afternoon held at Rowan Cottage.

Accompanied by some nostalgic music, there was a slideshow of many of the photographs from the project, and a chance to hear some of the stories collected from across the county.

Entertaining it certainly was, with everything from orange knitted swimming costumes to newspaper squares used as toilet paper and the blessing of the plough at the beginning of every farming year.

One contributor, Sandra Banks, who was a child evacuee in Dorset during the Second World War, came all the way from her home in Swansea to join in the celebrations.

Opening the afternoon’s festivities, Age Concern Trustee and project contributor, Adrian Downton, said: “What a wonderful project this has been. Memories are free, they cost nothing and nobody can take them away from you.

“So many fantastic people have done so many fantastic things, and they are all here for everyone to see and become a part of.”

Margaret Wellspring, co-ordinator for the project, took the opportunity to finally say a big goodbye to both the project and Age Concern, and was thanked for all her hard work by Hilary Foggo who presented her with a card from all her colleagues.

Margaret said: “When we started we had no idea how successful this project would become.

“To gather all the information, our staff and volunteers put on a series of roadshows in residential homes, day centres, and social clubs, telling them all about the project, giving them ideas of what we were looking for and how they could become involved.

“This stimulated older people to reminisce about the old times, share their precious family photographs, and have a jolly good time. Not only did we hold 51 of these roadshows, we engaged these older people in the wonders of modern technology.

“This is a great achievement for a small charity, as our website has reached the far ends of the earth, enquiries about our stories coming from Australia and New Zealand, which in itself is worth celebrating.”

As a spin off from this project, a calendar of Dorset’s Living Memories was produced and sold more than 200 copies.

A singalong, cup of tea and homemade cake brought the afternoon to an end.

The archive is hosted on Age Concern Dorchester’s website, www.acdorchester.org/memories

PICTURE 1: Project co-ordinator Margaret Wellspring with Michael and Sandra Banks from Swansea

PICTURE 2: Joyce Ray and Peggy Voss, two of the main contributors to the project