Community Archives and Heritage Group seminar

On a cold, wet and very autumnal (dare I say, bordering on wintery) Monday morning, almost forty representatives from a diverse range of organisations concerned with community archives met at the Devon Heritage Centre, formerly the Devon Record Office. The South West Seminar of the Community Archives and Heritage Group (CAHG) was most definitely an event not to be missed with various speakers highlighting 'how they do theirs'.

CAHG is a national group which aims to support community archives in the UK and Ireland. As well as organising conferences and seminars, they distribute an email newsletter and have a vast number of useful resources and articles on their website. You can become a free member and have preferential bookings for the events as well as having a voice in how the group supports and promotes organisations and archives.

The seminar included topics such as 'Generating income through publishing', 'Archiving the Ephemeral' (an extremely difficult task) and 'Celebrating Community Participation in Archives and Heritage' which highlighted the result of fifteen years of excellent research undertaken by the Widecombe History Group. Philippa Davies, Development Officer for the Heritage Lottery Fund gave details about the various grants available for heritage projects, from £3,000 to many millions of pounds. For example, funding has been given to small history groups to compile an index of gravestones as well as research into the effects of the First World War on communities. I would certainly recommend that you complete an 'Expression of Interest' Form to find out if your project is likely to meet the requirements for funding....

Kirsty Gray