I went to Moorsholm last night for the second digital postcard evening arranged by Lynne and Steve. It was a great evening. Lots of people came to the village hall to look at the pictures and add their stories to the postcards. Some people brought old photographs of Moorsholm. The ways that the village has changed over the years are so interesting. Steve’s pictures of Moorsholm are fantastic and really capture the different places, activities, histories and memories that even a small village can have. Well done to both for organising these successful events. I look forward to developing this further for new areas of East Cleveland and online.

Digital Postcards At The Local

The Toad Hall Arms was the first venue for the two planned “Digital postcard open evenings”.

With a running slide show featuring the homes, views, animals and interesting locations of Moorsholm it stimulated interest and conversation with the local residents.  It also encouraged some written comments to go with some of the images.

Amongst some of the visitors were two Lockwood Parish councillors Mike Jefferson and Vic Davison together with local resident and Redcar & Cleveland Borough Councillor Steve Kay. They were very impressed with the photography and this resulted in an invitation to do a similar project in Lingdale/Stanghow.

Overall it is fair to say that the evening was a success.

Enjoying a pint after viewing the "Digital Postcards" of Moorsholm ( Left to right Mike Jefferson, Steve Kay and Vic Davison)

A pilot run of the DVN digital postcard will take place in Moorsholm over two days, 14th & 15th June.

There will be posters placed and every household will receive a leaflet inviting them to come along to view and comment on Moorsholm and the images. The images will projected onto a large screen and will run through a journey of views, households, and interesting areas of the village. Info sheets and comment forms as well as a audio recorder will be there to record interesting stories and quotes on Moorsholm.

Of course the event is not just for the residents and will be open to all, so please come along and support the project.

The community researchers from Carlin How (Amanda, Marion and Roger) and Margrove Park (Marian with Margaret), along with Steve and Carrie, met again today to take part in the return leg of the photographic walkabout in Carlin How.

We rendezvoused at the primary school and started the walkabout at the pond and the railway line which leads to the steelworks.

After gaining some photos there we then went back via Amanda’s house where she showed us some photos of her house and the street when it was flooded. We then walked up to the row of village shops before crossing the road and going down to the bottom part of Carlin How to photograph the churches, Mount Pleasant, the steelworks and the beautiful coastline from the top of the cliffs.

Here you can see the jetty at Skinningrove and a little further on, the village of Skinningrove in the valley below.

The weather was mostly kind, with the exception of some strong gusts of wind. The walkabouts to date have been so interesting in terms of learning about local history and the researchers’ own experiences of their local communities. It has also been a good opportunity for cross-village networking and getting to know each other more. We hope that the resulting postcards will facilitate some great community stories.

Steve and I went to Margrove Park today to meet Marian and make plans for our first community photography day. The photographs will, with village members’ permission, be used on our digital postcards. We hope that the photos will inspire some interesting stories about local communities.

The community photography day, to be held next Wednesday (13th) – weather permitting – is open to all to take part. After discussion we decided that we should work in groups to photograph specific parts of the area. We will focus on taking photos that will faciliate community storytelling. Here’s hoping for a warm and sunny afternoon.