Newsletter

September 2015

Story of Parks

Hello Again!

A big welcome as always to new readers this month! As we enter September, we see two new mini projects gearing up to launch, with new flexible volunteer roles up for grabs. We also launch our programme of public talks which will be just one of our regular monthly events. We are also excited to announce our event with this years Heritage Open Days! But firstly, we take a peak back to what’s been happening in August!

Story of Parks

What’s been happening?

We have been working on our podcast project over the summer, with 6 student interns from the University of Leicester. The interns benefitted from a meeting with a BBC Radio Leicester producer, who advised them on various techniques to put their finished podcast together and to keep them interesting! The project should be completed by the end of September ready for the interns to get back to their coursework. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us create the podcasts – from volunteers, to those who have helped us locate people to record and of course, those who gave up their time to be recorded.

Oral History training session The 3rd of August saw our first oral history training session for Story of Parks volunteers. Colin Hyde from the East Midlands Oral History Archive led the session, informing our volunteers on how memory works, what questions to ask and how to act in an interview situation. Wonderful feedback was received and some were inspired to register as volunteers if they weren't one already!

Podcasts in the Park

Monday 3rd August 1-4pm University of Leicester

Story of Parks

What’s on!

September sees the start of of our monthly park history talks.

On September 17th Adam Berry, author of “And Suddenly They Were Gone. An oral and pictorial history of the 82nd Airborne Division in England”, will be giving a talk about Operation Market Garden, the ill-fated WW2 operation that was planned at Braunstone Park by the Americans.

All talks will be advertised within this newsletter, or event details will be posted on the City Council twitter page. @Leicester_News

17th September 2015 5.30-6.30pm Braunstone Park Stable Block.

To book your free place, please contact us: storyofparks@leicester.gov.uk or 0116 4544935.

Please be aware there is limited availability.

Story of Parks

Heritage Open Days!

There are a number of parks related events being held as part of this event, you can check these out, plus many others across the city, county and country by visiting the official website: http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/

To book, please call Visit Leicester: 0116 299 4444 Places are limited.

September 10th-13th sees the return of the annual Heritage Open Day weekend, promoting heritage events all over the UK.

The tour will take place twice during the Heritage Open Days event Thursday 10th at 12.45pm Saturday 12th at 12.45pm

Story of Parks has arranged two guided walks exploring ‘Leicester’s Historic Victoria Park’.

Story of Parks

Volunteer Opportunities

Story of Parks wants to uncover the hidden histories of our local parks, and will be creating a team of volunteer researchers to help achieve this. Free training will be delivered at Leicestershire Records Office, and information found will be collected and used to create new heritage panels across the parks, website content, leaflets and educational activities.

Talk Parks Story of Parks looks to tell the history of our local parks through the stories and memories of the local people who use them. To do this, we need a team of interviewers who will be fully trained in how to record memories of our parks. If you would like you get involved as a volunteer, or you or someone you know could provide memories – please get in touch.

Discover Parks

Our current volunteer opportunities can be found on www.do-it.org by searching for ‘heritage’ in Leicester or by downloading our volunteer programme from www.storyofleicester.info/parks

For more information about any of these projects or if you would like to volunteer, please contact us. storyofparks@leicester.gov.uk 0116 4544935

Monday 3rd August 1-4pm University of Leicester

Story of Parks

Until next time…

Thank you once again for your support. It is fantastic to get our events up and running so that you can now get involved!

We hope to see some of you at the Braunstone talk or the Heritage Open day walks on Victoria Park.

We are always looking for people to tell

us our memories, so If you or someone you know would like to share some, please get in touch!

Please share this newsletter amongst your friends and family. The more we can spread the news about what we are offering, the better!

Feel free to contact us if you have any

questions or an interest in becoming a volunteer.

storyofparks@leicester.gov.uk