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Salthouse History Group Exhibition Project
Location: Norfolk
Why was the exhibition so popular?
The enormous success of this exhibition was partly due to the spacious church itself, already equipped by the Down to Earth team of Artists with fitted display boards which we only had to fill with all our collected stuff. But also due to the uniqueness of the village itself. Displays of facsimiles of precious old records were interposed with beautiful large scale maps showing the changing coast-line and ancient channel to the sea; striking photos showing 1953 flood damage; photos and details of barns and buildings; toys made for local children by Prisoners of War and postcards showing how they kept in contact after the war.
There were professional details of the changing flora and fauna of marsh and heath surrounding the village, and there were some 16th century wills - and one of a Salthouse mariner who had died in Iceland on a fishing trip. But although the documents and the maps, the flood pictures and the aerial views, the video of the locality, and the computer slide show of old views were all of the greatest interest, it was the family trees and family photographs - all reproduced and enlarged and well displayed - that really were the highlight of it all. On the opening night, reserved for village people, the lovely crowd of Salthouse people who returned from far and wide to see forgotten ancestors on display, and meet relations in the flesh (some not seen for 30 years) and to feel proud of their roots, was the crowning glory of the whole thing, and this continued and increased the whole time the exhibition was on show.
The Book
The Grant which our group was allotted from the LHI was mostly for the publication of a history of Salthouse written by a Commander Stagg in the 1930s who had fallen in love with Salthouse and spent many years researching it. His work was unfinished and needed a good deal of editing and brightening up with illustrations where possible and also, it ended at 1840 and needed bringing up to the present day. This was achieved largely by getting contributions from Salthouse people. Some of the contributions were excerpts from already hand-written autobiographies, other pieces were written specially for the book, but most were written up after microdisk recordings (with a table-top microphone which was quite tricky to remember to switch on and not be too ostentatious about). These sort of contributions make for compelling reading, especially when they are accompanied by a photographs of the writer and a thumbnail biography. They are people not just "voices".
The Principal Archivist of the Norfolk Record Office said of the book: " . . it is superbly produced and illustrated, very lively and full of interest wherever one dips into it. I was also impressed by the way in which it pulled the stories of so many people in the community into a coherent whole . . ." What greater praise could there be!
The Website
The beauty of a website is that it can change and be updated. It can expand and it can have a lot of odd pages (that not everyone will want and some need not be bothered with but there they are to be discovered).
Lovely emails are coming in already even though it has barely been going 2 weeks! If it brings ex-Salthouse people far away in distant corners of the world back to their village roots, and into contact with relatives they didn't know they had, that is a very important thing. Salthouse History Website
Group Name |
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Salthouse History Group |
| Project Contact |
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valfiddian@salthousehistory.co.uk
Coast Road
Salthouse
Holt
Norfolk
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| Address |
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Salthouse, Norfolk |
| Project Postcode |
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NR25 7AJ |
| Finishing Date |
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30/08/2003 |
| Local Community Involvement / Partnerships: |
Salthouse is tiny (population less than 200 since records began). Our committee was 8 people, but they put in the work of 20 where planning and hanging of exhibits was concerned. Also, wonderful extra people turned up for the hurried few days of sticking everything up, and later, invigilators came spontaneously and enjoyed the job though the exhibition went on for two weeks longer than the planned month. The Parish Council sent a special letter of thanks to the History Group saying: "The Parish Council understands a lot of time and effort had gone into the project and the resulting book and exhibition are excellent. Both projects have sparked an increased interest in Salthouse and have helped to forge a stronger community spirit"
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| Grants: |
Heritage Lottery Fund: £7,570
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