Spring Project Update: 4th April 2016

We Spring into Action

It has been a very busy few weeks as we get stuck-in to the next phase of work for the project.

In mid-March we held our third Partners Progress meeting in Taunton, attended by 12 representatives of 7 partner organisations, with a lively discussion and consultation on future work.

Through the month we ran an intensive programme of 15 training events across the region to train a team of new and existing volunteers in map georeferencing and this work has already begun.

We also began detailed planning with project partners to get their collections onto Know Your Place, and attended some specialist training to top up our knowledge of Copyright. We will be sharing what we learned in some new copyright information soon.

In the meantime, thanks for your patience in waiting for replies from the project team while we’ve been out and about visiting across the region during this busy Springtime.

Update #9 Daffodils pic - Copy

Spring daffodils at project HQ in Yate.

Project granted extra time

Over the past month we have also spent time taking stock of our progress and doing some intensive project planning of the work remaining to deliver.

This revealed what we had long suspected, which is that some delays experienced at the start of the project have had a modest but longer-term effect on our timetable.

As a result, we have decided that rather than rush our work to finish in the original project timescale, we would prefer to spend some additional time to make sure that we don’t compromise on the quality of the last stages the project, where we will produce a touring exhibition, learning materials, community projects and a programme of outreach events.

Fortunately, our funders and partners are fully behind us and the Heritage Lottery Fund has approved a three-month extension of the project until March 2017, with final report paperwork to be submitted in April 2017. We are delighted with this news, and look forward to putting that extra time to good use in the coming year.

Tell us Where to Go

Our next big piece of work is the development of a touring exhibition and programme of events over a six month period starting this autumn and visiting South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Bath & NE Somerset, North Somerset and Somerset on our travels.

The exhibition and events will introduce Know Your Place to new audiences across the region, and be aimed specifically at the general public and families with no prior knowledge of the project.

We are developing the touring programme now, and need your help to tell us where to go.

We invite you to suggest what local landmarks and community venues could be involved in the exhibition and its related programme of events. To make your suggestion of where we should go in South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset and Somerset, please drop us a line entitled “Where to Go” stating:

  • Your county;
  • The venue you want to nominate (including their contact details); and
  • Why Know Your Place should go there.

We will unveil the programme of events and exhibition venues developed using your suggestions, later in the summer.