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.

First steps

On 28th October 2012, we, that is the Sopwell Residents Association (SRA) of St Albans, heard that we had been awarded an "All Our Stories" grant for £10,000.00 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

"All Our Stories" is a brand new small grant programme, launched earlier this year in support of BBC Two’s The Great British Story. It has been designed as an opportunity for everyone to get involved in their heritage. With HLF funding and support, community groups such as the SRA will be able to carry out activities that help people explore, share and celebrate their local heritage.

The grant for our More Memories of Sopwell project will be used to continue to expand the Sopwell Project – researching the history, collecting reported facts and stories relating to the Sopwell area – by involving more residents, including schoolchildren and the more recent migrants to the area.

The plan is to hold several workshops to identify potential interviewees and later to share the information collected, via a dedicated interactive website and a series of leaflets describing history walks around the area. The website will complement the existing publication Sopwell: a history and collection of memories in providing a wonderful resource to help everyone to learn about, and celebrate the heritage on their doorstep.

The project is not due to start until May 2013 and will end on 30 April 2014 but, as we have been given the go ahead, we can already start to organise ourselves.

The press release has gone out to two local newspapers: the Herts Advertiser and St Albans Review, but to date nothing has appeared. This is quite normal in St Albans! I have made contact with the University of Hertfordshire (UH) who are very willing to help us carry out this exciting project. And I have purchased a domain name: www.sopwellmemories.org.uk.

Now I am trying to get a team together to be the steering group.