Remember when? How a heritage project can improve community cohesion
“Sharing these stories brings the community together. People young and old understand how their local heritage has shaped their village; and it’s not just about looking back, it’s about making sense of now.”
- Julie Nicholson, Managing Director, Digital Voice
Digital Voice has been running GeoStories for over a decade, a programme of work dedicated to capturing and preserving local history. These projects involve young people hearing first hand what life was like in their town or village; older people getting a chance to share stories and memories; everyone learning new digital skills; teachers provided with resources for future lessons. The stories are then preserved for future generations and that’s where we see our work as vital because, unless your town or village is ‘famous’ for some reason, then it’s likely that this rich history won’t make it into a book or onto a website.
What we’ve also noticed over the years is just how much more connected a community feels after working together in this way. The Chopwell Lockout is a great example of an important historical anniversary bringing the community together, and it happened right on our doorstep.
Little Moscow
In June 1925, miners were locked out of the mine after they refused the owners’ offer of less pay and worse working conditions. Chopwell was already well known for its strong left-leaning politics and had some strong, very vocal union leaders who had been inspired by the revolution in Russia (hence the nickname, Little Moscow). The Chopwell Lockout preceded the General Strike in 1926 and continued more than six months after it finished. In total it lasted 17 months and during that time, the community came together to support one another. Soup kitchens were set up and care packages came from across the world, including from Russian miners.
On its 100th anniversary, the people of Chopwell commemorated this important part of its history with a series of events and projects and we just had to get involved.
Digital Voice worked with several groups, using creative digital media to bring the story to life.
With Chopwell Primary school, children in Year 5 created a short film using the latest AI technology, to animate what it would have been like for children during the lockout. Chopwell Youth Club created a script and animation to document how long the lockout lasted and the effect this had on children and their families.
Digital Voice created a new podcast which included a treasure trove of audio recordings about the lockout found in Gateshead library and Beamish Museum.
We also created a documentary film that captured all of our projects alongside the events organised by the wider community including a brand new play, a big band night and even a lockout themed Dungeons and Dragons event.
In the making of the documentary we found that people felt a greater sense of connection to both their shared heritage and their current community:
“Chopwell is a community and still is, and we still come together for things like [this]”
“The people of Chopwell are fantastic, when it matters. They help each other out.”
“There’s a lesson for us to remember, 100 years on, that there is a way to stand up against these forces, and to support each other, to grow our own food, look after each other’s kids, look after our community (...) I think a lot of that happens in Chopwell. One of the things I’m proud about living in Chopwell is that it’s got a great community spirit.”
Just a few soundbites from the documentary, which you can watch here:
Thank you to everyone who took part in a project, an event, researched, found archive footage and materials, shared their stories; if you’re looking for community spirit, Chopwell has it in spades.
If you’d be interested in working with your community in this way, please get in touch.