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18
Sept 2024
Interactive oral history exhibition to open at Fountains Abbey
A missing piece from the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal archive will be put in place with the opening of a new exhibition at the weekend.
The Skell Valley Voices Exhibition, which opens in Fountains Mill on the National Trust site at 12 noon on Saturday (September 21) celebrates local stories and personal connections to the Skell Valley by showcasing 16 newly-recorded oral history interviews.
Skell Valley Project volunteers received training from an oral history expert, then dedicated more than 200 hours to capturing and documenting the oral histories, featuring the stories of ordinary people who have lived and worked in the valley over the last seven decades.
The exhibition is part of The National Lottery Heritage Fund supported Skell Valley Project, which aims to create a sustainable future for the valley.
A map of the Skell Valley
The Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal archive, which contains historical records relating to the World Heritage Site and the surrounding Skell Valley catchment area, is cared for by the West Yorkshire Archive Service due to the historical boundaries of the West Riding.
The oral history interviews will complete the archive records, which currently date from the 12th century to the 1950s, bringing the records in to the present day.
Vicky Grindrod, archivist at West Yorkshire Archive Service, who curated the exhibition, said:
A diverse range of local residents, past and present, have been interviewed about lots of different themes. Topics have been so varied with themes of farming, fishing, flora and fauna, and how home life has changed over time.
There are some brilliant reflections on what people’s houses were like and what they used to do for work. Memories of smell are really evocative too. It’s fascinating how a smell can take you back to a particular part of the landscape.
The exhibition combines the new archive of oral histories with rarely-displayed historical documents, to tell the story of people who have lived in the area over the centuries through video, audio, interactive elements and portraits captured by internationally-acclaimed visual artist Joanne Coates.
Visitors can delve into anecdotes of community spirit and shared experiences, discovering local dialects along the way. Memories of lost islands in the River Skell and snowfall so thick that igloos were built, highlight significant changes in the landscape and weather during living memory.
A deed from 1138, the oldest surviving document relating to Fountains Abbey, will be revealed alongside a phonetically written letter scribed by a labourer to the Aislabies, discussing the impact of flooding on Studley Royal Water Garden in the 18th century.
An interactive exhibition
Visitors are also invited to contribute their recollections of the Skell Valley to a new digital archive while exploring the exhibition.
The Skell Valley Voices Exhibition is part of a wider project to safeguard the cultural, built and natural heritage of the area.
While the landscape and life in the valley continue to evolve over time, visitor contributions and the new oral histories will form a legacy from recent memory, which will be permanently preserved by the West Yorkshire Archive Services.
Those with a desire to dig deeper into the history of the area can listen to more of the oral history recordings, snippets of which have been used to create the exhibition, here: https://wyascatablogue.wordpress.com/listen-oral-histories/
Use of innovative technology
The exhibition will be accompanied by an innovative and interactive storytelling technology, known as a Projection Augmented Relief Model (PARM) which consists of a 3D printed model of the Skell Valley landscape brought to life with projections of maps, images and animations on to the surface of the model.
Developed by experts from the University of Nottingham School of Geography and School of English, in collaboration with North Yorkshire County Record Service, West Yorkshire Archive Service and the National Trust, the PARM provides a bird’s eye perspective of the landscape.
National Trust heritage officer, Josie Campbell, who played a pivotal part in creating the exhibition, said:
We hope local visitors will go away chatting about their own memories of the Skell Valley and that visitors from further afield are inspired to explore the area of outstanding natural beauty beyond the World Heritage Site. We hope the exhibition inspires people to think about what’s important to them in their local area too.
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