‘Melksham Remembers’ receives funding support

An ambitious project to create a digital archive that records the incredible stories of local people during World War 1 has received support from Wiltshire Council and Melksham Town Council.

The project will go ahead following a successful bid for a grant of over £20,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and funding support of £1,649 from the council’s Melksham Area Board.

The project will include photos, audio recordings, family stories and more as it creates the digital archive.

Wiltshire Council’s Melksham community engagement manager Rhys Schell explained, “There is a wealth of skill and expertise within our community and by working together we can build on the research that has already been completed”.

Throughout the project the group are looking for people to come forward with local family history linked with WW1 and there are plenty of opportunities for volunteers to get involved. As the project progresses, the group plan to work with the local organisations and schools to deliver arts based activities based on the research, with activities such as creating a documentary and holding reminiscence sessions proposed.

Rhys continued, “I’m delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund have recognised the potential that this project has and the steering group are really enthusiastic about taking this forward. The aim is to have an accessible ‘digital archive’ in place by November 2018 to commemorate 100 years since the end of the war. The work doesn’t stop there though, as the lovely thing about this project being digitally based is that we can continually add more data and images. We want to work with the community on delivering this project so if anyone has an interest or a local family connection to World War 1 please do get in touch with me”.

People should contact Rhys Schell on rhys.schell@wiltshire.gov.uk or 01225 716752 for further details.