We’re looking for new trustees to add to our group of people responsible for the overall running of our local history group. If you have a passion for history and would like to work together with us to plan and develop our activities then please get in touch. This is a voluntary role, where we welcome people with some of the skills, experience or background knowledge that might help us to do more great things.
Twelve years ago, in 2013, we launched our History Group, and since then we’ve carried out a remarkable range of activities. Our focus is on the history of the Scarcroft, Clementhorpe, South Bank and Bishophill areas of York We have a programme of talks each year at Clements Hall, featuring local history speakers talking about subjects relevant to our own area. We’ve also hosted displays, performances and workshops and produced resource material for our local schools.
But we’ve done such a lot more. Back in 2016/7 we staged our two year WW1 project, exploring the impact and legacy of the First World War locally, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This helpfully included funding to upgrade our website, and as a result most of our activity and researches are recorded there, winning two national awards for digital activity.
Our Poverty Project, launched five years ago, used the Poor Law Records in Explore York to examine the lives of poor people in the parish of St Mary Bishophill Junior, with brief life stories and case studies from the 19th century. Again details are on our website. During the Covid lockdown in 2020 we created a collection of free audio-guided history walks, which people could use on their smartphones. More recently we’ve been mapping the location of scoria bricks in the back lanes of York.
