Community oral history research
Worked as a Storyfinder on Let’s Go Fly a Kite, a National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported community heritage project exploring the history of Cambridge’s Kite neighbourhood. Conducted oral-history interviews with people connected to the area, helping to document and preserve their memories and experiences as part of a publicly accessible collection of local stories.
Client: Together Culture
Location: Cambridge
Duration: September 2024 – February 2025
Services
Research
Overview
Together Culture, working in collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University, developed Let’s Go Fly a Kite to document and preserve the history and heritage of Cambridge’s Kite neighbourhood. The project sought to capture the oral histories and personal stories of people with connections to the area, including memories of the social and physical changes surrounding the redevelopment of the Kite, and to make these histories accessible to the wider community.
My Role
As one of ten locally recruited Storyfinders, I carried out community-based oral-history research for the project. My role included:
undertaking specialist training in oral-history story finding and interviewing;
identifying and engaging people with experiences and memories of the Kite;
conducting and recording oral-history interviews with local residents and others connected to the area;
using open questioning and active listening to capture participants’ experiences in their own words;
following agreed consent, safeguarding, data protection and confidentiality procedures for collecting and recording personal stories;
contributing the interviews to the wider collection of stories used to document and share the heritage of the Kite; and
supporting project activities and community engagement.
