Brook Rural Museum awarded £13,843 from the Association of Independent Museums’ (AIM) ‘New Stories New Audiences’ Grant!!
From January 2024, Brook Rural Museum will be working in partnership with the University of Kent Special Collections and Archives Team to deliver the AIM Oral History Project ‘Local Stories: Memories of Hopping around Brook and Wye, Kent’, with support from the Wye Historical Society (WHS) and the Farming Community Network (FCN).
The aim of this project is to recruit and train a group of student volunteers to collect, share and preserve audio recordings of local peoples’ memories associated with the experience of hop picking and farming in and around Brook and Wye, Kent. The recordings will provide a personal, local and emotive insight into the history of hop farming in Kent as well as accessible content for use in exhibitions, research and learning activities, including digital engagement. The recordings will be archived with the University of Kent Special Collections and Archives for future use.
The project will conclude with a local history exhibition hosted in the University of Kent’s Templeman Library Gallery Space in the Autumn 2024.
If you have any memories about hopping in and around Wye which you’d like to share with us, please get in touch at: engagement@brookruralmuseum.org.uk
The grant has been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.
