The Project

 

 

Aims of the Project

The aims of the Elston Heritage Project are to create an archive of material covering the period since the widespread use of photography i.e. the last one hundred years and twenty years or so, much of which is within the living memory of the oldest inhabitants. The Heritage Lottery grant application set out the component parts of the Project as:

1. A Photographic Archive of old and new images with a catalogue in hard copy and DVD format, and Powerpoint presentations showing the best of the collection;

2. Two Heritage Trails with an explanatory leaflet, interpretational trail signs, and a video identifying the oldest buildings and places of historic interest in and around the village;

3. An Oral History recording on tape the memories of the oldest residents and those with long associations with Elston;

4. A photographic record of the Headstones in the churchyard, transcribing the inscriptions, recording obituary and other details of each individual's life, if available;

5. A Website communicating all aspects of the Project to the widest possible audience;

6. Exhibitions, the first of which would be a year into the Project showing progress to date, and the second at the end of two and a half years would show the results.

Within a relatively short time it became apparent that the Project should extend further.  While there was never any intention within the timescale we set ourselves, to write a history of Elston, we nevertheless needed to show how the village had developed from its Anglo-Saxon roots to how it is today.  And in the process of collecting material for their individual projects, the team members were also discovering important documentary items for which there was no immediate focus. And lastly, as Elston has always primarily been a farming community the history of the farms could not be left out.  So, within the first few weeks, the following were added to the Project.

7. Mapping the development of the village through the acquisition of historical maps and the compilation of a schedule of building works and demolitions;

8. The creation of a database of Documents and other items which might make suitable exhibits or which would serve as valuable source material for a history of Elston, should anyone wish to write one in the future; and

9. A map and record of the Farms within the Parish boundaries including any historical information about changes in size and ownership over the years.

And a year and a half into the Project as the result of a discovery, we undertook

10.  The scanning of nine decades of Newspaper Cuttings about Elston from local and national papers collected for much of that period by Margery Crawford.