Following a successful funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, participatory arts company Letting in the Light worked with the community of Newcastle-under-Lyme to explore the real story of the centre of Newcastle and recorded people talking about their lived experiences and memories of living, working, shopping and socialising in Newcastle town centre.
• Opening a Heritage Hub in a shop in the Ironmarket. The Hub provided a space where people came and shared their memories and photos, met old friends, made new friends and were reunited with lost relatives
• A series of creative heritage activities including bunting making, ceramic sign making and digital photography trails. Activities involved local schools exploring aspects of history relating to specific buildings in the Town Centre. Blackfriars Special School created a series of artworks that were displayed in the Heritage Hub.
• Recorded in-depth interviews for archives
• Created an interactive online map that enables people to move around the town centre, and listen to recordings about specific buildings and locations and view photographs, where available.
• Encouraged local people to borrow voice recorders to record the memories of their family and/or friends
