Janis talk

BACKGROUND

I created these projects as I am a local resident, luck enough to live on our Historic High Street. But my interest in the type of ideas I will be showing date back a quarter of a century

OnePlaceManyStories aims to:

• Bringing local history stories to life in new ways

• making them more accessible, 

• reaching new audiences

• ensuring they are available for future generations

• Be scalable and usable throught the UK

The starting point is to talk, sometimes to organised groups like the societies represented here, but it could equally be half a dozen enthusiastic neighbours wishing to find out the history of their street or area. Maybe they already have their research done and just want help making it accessible and resilient. Here are a couple of quick examples 

The Our Fallen project started when we identified that the list of local residents who were casualties of the World Wars was incomplete, contradictory and fragmented. We worked with CWGC, Roll of Honour website, local historians and most importantly the local community. Checking all information against primary sources (inc 33,000 ancestry searches) and then created a 500,000 word, 3,000 page website that links all the information in creative ways. 

This is a typical residents entry, one of 2,060. Often the reaction is "thats a massive amount of work 

BUT Only 1/3 (in green) is researched and written by the team, the area in red is automatically created by the site and the area in blue is community contributions

And it is the act of pooling quality information together, not keeping it in silos, that has some inspiring results Here we see Stephen Martin, a Deckhand with HM Trawler Strathrannock, with a family home of "Cliff Gardens", Pakefield. Now each entry has a map but where is this street? having drawn a blank on google maps we involve local history buffs via social media and the answer comes back - a lost street due to coastal erosion. Which gets us thinking how many other lost streets are there and are their other reasons. Another section is created and linked etc

James Quantrill  we can see on RHS other Lowestoft residents were on the same crew. James lived at 17 High Street so we can jump to our High Street project to learn more...

Sadly little remains of the north end of the high street in part because on 12 May 1943, 2100 hours. Some 25 FW 190s, each carrying a single 500 kg HE bomb, swept across the town at 50 ft causing death and destruction on a dreadful scale. Cr:BC

Travelling South on High street comparing current with the oldest/ most interesting photo of each building we have..

https://lowestoftoldandnow.org/full/strolleast#17 

No 40a ..once  two separate buildings when this was the temperance hotel. Mr Smith (as can be seen on the signage) had a furniture shop and a pawn shop  here. Cr.IB

we then walk past Mariners score Most northerly of the town’s original footway-only scores, with its southern wall carrying a Grade II listing from Historic England because of its architectural and historical worth. It consists of brick and flint masonry dating from the 17th century. Cr:DB

and then 41 High st ,originally "The Swan" inn, which once occupied the site and served as one of Lowestoft's premier hostelries during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was where Oliver Cromwell stayed overnight on 14 March 1643 with a force of cavalry

A glance at Rant Score shows an example of how we can mix old and current photos to great effect

And onto 104-5 High St once an early 1900s Cinema with photos showing its building, its hey day and finally its sad demise in a fire in the 1960s. It also demonstrates how we work closely with others by including Ivan Bunn and Deane Parkins excellent video series High St Histories

and finally on this stroll back to ArnoldHouse..

The Arnold family owned the property for around 250 years. A member of this society has a distant ancestor, Coe Arnold, a brewer, and their 7xgt uncle was baptized in 1676 at Lowestoft, he was the son of Matthew Arnold and Thomasin Coe. In the 20th century their father’s half cousin Jack Cleveland, a well-known local man, owned this impressive House. 

Two of Lowestoft's Our Fallen lived here... Karl Arnold and Spencer Ashenden

And links to memorials and many maps

https://ourfallen.lowestoftoldandnow.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/2045idea4.png 

https://ourfallen.lowestoftoldandnow.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/csvtxt.png 

https://ourfallen.lowestoftoldandnow.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/archiveorg.png