Time and Tides was a large-scale, intergenerational community arts and local history project which began in June 2011 and ran for 18 months.
Supported by Medway Council and the Heritage Lottery Foundation, we worked with participants of all ages in three rurally isolated villages (Upnor, High Halstow and Cuxton) to share, record and celebrate local stories, memories and traditions of rural Medway life.
Key achievements included:
- Over 2000 people participated in free arts and heritage workshops, talks and events.
- Winner of a Recognition Award from Medway Council – a benchmark of excellence for community and outreach projects.
- Over 380 Medway school children participated in workshops to learn about their heritage, creating 3D sculptures and theatrical responses to the stories they learned.
- Over 50 young people, volunteers, community elders and residents worked together to create a documentary film about the history of each village, to be used as a legacy resource by schools and libraries across Medway.
- 45 local residents came together to create artistic responses to the history we uncovered, including poems, songs, and some truly amazing paintings.
- 17 oral histories were collected from older residents on the peninsula, which was used to create an original piece of verbatim theatre by 25 young people.
- 5 young people from All Hallows Youth Club wrote an original new song and recorded a music video based on residents’ oral histories.
We are delighted to report that participants and residents were so enthused by the project that on completion they formed a voluntary group to keep the Time and Tides activities running – a fantastic long-term legacy to the project.
