Historypin

On 26th March, Peter and I attended a workshop held at the University of Hertfordshire on the possibility of using the Historypin website to enhance our project.

Historypin calls itself "A global community collaborating around history" and so could be useful for groups exploring the history and memories of their locality, such as us. You can watch a 90 second introduction video here.

I found the morning session difficult to follow as it was all general stuff about what Historypin was and its global following, and I couldn't see how it would be relevant to us. Added to this, as I was sitting at the back, I found I couldn't catch everything that was being said. Neither could I see the screen very well.

I know I wasn't the only one who found it all very difficult to take in. There were loads of questions from the other participants, and, as usual, the problem of copyright reared its ugly head. I kept quiet on that although I could have contributed lots. The other delegates seemed to answer each other's questions anyway. I learnt more over lunch and was reassured to hear from the team leaders that there is no obligation for us to use Historypin. It is likely to involve a lot of work in any case.

The afternoon session was more practical - I sat at the front (much better) - and then the pennies started dropping!  I began to see how it could be an advantage to become a "Channel" - Historypin speak for someone who joins up and adds images. I think most people understand practical stuff; if it can be seen working in practice, then it is easier to see the relevance, or not. I could see that simply adding a few photos with a link to our website would provide us with another shop window for our site, another way for people to find our site!

We were then told that we can link images into a "Tour", maybe a walking tour, and another penny dropped. Yes, we could put our five planned walks around Sopwell up on Historypin! As we are restricted on text, we cannot add all the history detail but we could direct visitors to our website to find out more, and try to persuade them to read our book! Alternatively, we can link to audio recordings on YouTube, so we could add a spoken commentary. Historypin also provide a free Smartphone app, so users could access the information while they were walking, using their mobile phone as a virtual tour guide!

Since then, we have opened a "More Memories of Sopwell" channel on Historypin and have started uploading a few photos and pinning them onto Google Maps. It's early days still but it has been very straightforward so far except that if an image is not on a street, such as the ruins of Sir Richard Lee's Tudor house in the Nunnery Open Space, it is automatically allocated the nearest street and house number. Often, this information is not helpful to a potential visitor. At the moment, we are not sure how to get round that problem.

We are now advertising for help with the project, some voluntary and some paid. Specifically, we need oral history interviewers, transcribers, help with publicity, website entry and most important - a website developer.

If anyone is interested, please send your details to info@sopwell.org.uk.

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Sandy Norman

Mammoth bones and milk bottles

There are lots of good things to report since my last blog report.

The plans for the launch and party on the 18th May are taking shape. We now know what we are doing. If all goes well, we should expect a good attendance, so the aim of making the community aware of the Project will be achieved. As well as being an entertaining afternoon, we hope to recruit many people to interview at the event.

The University of Hertfordshire is promising a video booth - not sure exactly how it will work but it should be fun. One of the table displays we are planning is of local memorabilia - things of interest that have been unearthed around Sopwell. We have a promise of mammoth bones found in Watling Street and milk bottles from Sopwell Mill farm so far! If you have found anything in your house or garden or allotment, please let us know.

To encourage children to attend, we are also planning a painting competition with the theme of Sopwell. I am determined the children should know about Sopwell's history.

We have taken delivery of two splendid portable banners which we can set up at suitable occasions, though, at present, when I take them around, I have to find a "nice young man" to put them up as I cannot reach and I'm not allowed to stand on anything.

The business cards have arrived now and the leaflets are in the process of being designed. And we are all set up with the digital recording equipment. We have devised some initial questions and we are planning some oral history interview techniques training. Contact with Mandeville school is progressing and St Peter's school is keen to take part too.

With regard to personal progress, I am now starting to get out and about on my new hip. I am still a bit wobbly but this will improve over time.

It's all happening!

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Sandy Norman

New hip, new website!

Happy New Year to all my Sopwell blog followers!

By now I thought I would be well on the way to recovery from my hip replacement surgery, but my operation, already scheduled a lot later than I expected, had to be postponed because I caught a dreadful cold and cough virus. The operation should take place next week – touch wood. This is why this post has been delayed.

I have not been idle, however. We now have a date for the launch of the More Memories of Sopwell project which is Saturday, 18th May at St Julian’s Church, Abbots Avenue, St Albans. Celebrations will start from 2pm until 5pm.

We are combining the launch with a party for the 10th Anniversary of the founding of the Sopwell Residents Association (SRA). The SRA's inaugural meeting was held in the church, so it seemed fitting to have our celebrations in the same venue. Details will be thrashed out in the next few weeks but it promises to be a fun occasion. More on this later. Put the date in your diaries now!

Publicity banners have been designed and are well on their way and, thanks to my colleague Peter Segers and my son Barnaby, I have finally got my head round what I want on the website and how I want it to look.

It may sound a bit obvious to many of you, but it is really important to work out exactly what is wanted before involving a website designer. I knew vaguely what we wanted but had no idea how to write it all down. Fortunately, there are some very helpful “how to” sites on the Web and I used one to draft a specification. I had to read between the lines as their purpose is to help those design a website with a product or service to sell. We are a non-profit making community organisation so our purpose is more educational and informative. That said, our goal is to attract visitors to the site to discover about the history of Sopwell and learn about the fascinating memories of those who live(d) there, so our purpose is somewhat similar. And, we do have a product - we still want to sell more copies of our book Sopwell: a history and collection of memories, although that is not our main purpose. While undergoing this exercise, I learnt lots of new terms such as ‘website livery’, ‘conceptualising’ and ‘search engine optimisation’. I am not sure I understand all of it though but it was an interesting exercise!

I am now planning to put my feet up for a while but the project will still progress over the airwaves.

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Sandy Norman

Cultural diversity

As part of this project, we are aiming to contact many of the diverse cultural communities in Sopwell in order to interview them to hear some of their stories. For some strange reason, Sopwell has attracted rather a large proportion of non-white British communities - far more than the national average - and with a larger than the national average of local authority housing, has been labelled "a deprived area". You would think that this would attract attention to the project in the local newspapers but still no mention of our good news! What does one have to do to get publicity in St Albans? Any advice would be appreciated.

We have many people from Bangladesh who I am anxious to interview. I have been told that a large concentration of them in our area only have a spoken language, so our aim of sending out leaflets in various languages would be rather pointless. One idea we have had is to go into the local primary schools -Mandeville, St Adrian's and St Peter's - and encourage the children to explain about the project and maybe interview their parents or grandparents. I have already made contact with Mandeville who are very keen to participate. I am sure the children will love using all the equipment. We will start planning this in the New Year.

In the meantime if anyone wishes to contribute to the blog, suggest contacts or even has a story to tell which relates to the project, please do get in touch.