Listen to the oral history project below…

Wednesfield History Society has received a National Lottery grant of £8,800 for an exciting oral history project – Preserving and Sharing Wednesfield’s Heritage.  The project will explore the life experiences of people who have lived in Wednesfield over the whole, or part of, the past 80 to 90 years.  This period has witnessed a huge amount of change in the area from a pre-war semi-rural environment, to modern urban sprawl; from decaying gentrified farms to very little agricultural land usage at all except that carried out by hardy allotment keepers; from small industry, to large-scale industry, to industrial decline.  Only those who have lived through this experience can reveal the lost heritage to those who can now see little vestige of it – that is, to younger members of the community and to people new to the area.

Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the project has three main aims.  Firstly, to share the heritage gained with the community at large and preserve it for future generations;  secondly, to  use that knowledge to enable local young people to explore and compare their parents’, grandparents’ and in some cases great grandparents’ lives with their own; and lastly, to encourage the community at large to record its own life experiences and memories and to pass them on to those who follow us. Wednesfield History Society will help with this wherever  it can.  The organisation is very much committed to both capturing history as it was lived before the knowledge of it fades away altogether, and to showing that everyone in the community has a part to play within that community.

Vanessa Harbar, Head of HLF West Midlands, said “We’re delighted to support Wednesfield History Society to celebrate there area’s heritage and preserve the memories of local people. Thanks to National Lottery players, they will explore and play a part in preserving an important part of the town’s history.”

For further information, or to participate in the project, please contact Wednesfield History Society at info@wednesfieldhistory.org

Update – 3rd August 2019

This project has now ended.  A free booklet is available presenting the outomes of the project and its role in Preserving and Sharing Wednesfield’s Heritage – see link below:

Preserving & Sharing Wednesfield’s Heritage through Oral History

Oral History – booklet