The Word Garden invites the local community to the ‘Origins’ drop in session on Friday 29 March, between 2-4.30pm at Ely City Church. The team welcomes any existing, historical or unseen exhibits and information you may have and encourages you to come along to the open day to share your knowledge and learn about this ‘missing’ period of history. Presentation from Project Coordinator and Consultant Environmentalist to commence at 3pm.
Jean Rees-Lyons, Project Coordinator on the Origins project comments, 'our Heritage Lottery Funding has made it possible to reach the key aims of Origins, to discover hidden heritage stories whilst combining findings from archive materials, new data, maps and memories. With the passage of time, social, cultural, political and environmental changes have transformed traditional ways of life, and reshaped, in many ways, the unique Fen landscape'.
The Word Garden, has received a National Lottery grant of £49,200 for an exciting heritage project in East Cambridgeshire titled: ‘The Scottish Soldiers, the Ouse Washes; the Origins of Landscape Change in the Fens’ known simply as ‘Origins’. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project commencing this autumn focuses on exploring a ‘missing’ history of events, 1650-53; researching the construction of the second parallel drain by Scottish prisoners-of-war, following their capture after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. These events not only transformed the landscape and surrounding environment they changed traditional Fenland occupations and lifestyles into the future.
Supported through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the project will culminate in a two-day celebratory event at Welney Wetlands Centre on 29th and 30th June 2019.
The project, which is supported by Babylon ARTS, aims to involve people locally in a unique heritage project. Claire Somerville, Chief Executive of Babylon ARTS commented: “The Open Day marks one of the key opportunities for local people to get involved in Origins. It's been really great to have heard from people already, who are eager to contribute their stories and artefacts to the project and I hope this event will encourage even more people to do so.”