People and Parliament: Connecting with Communities
This outreach project is a partnership between the Parliamentary Archives and Parliamentary Outreach. Over the course of four years a series of regional activities explore the connections between people, communities and Parliament using the unique archival resources held by the Parliamentary Archives and five other archive services.
How have people influenced Parliament?
How has Parliament affected communities?
The archive services we are working with are:
- Norfolk Record Office
- Birmingham Archives and Heritage
- Kent History and Library Centre
- Glamorgan Archives
- Tyne & Wear Archives
The results of these activities are published as case studies within the People and Parliament transforming society section of Living Heritage on the Parliamentary website.
Norfolk
The first regional activity took place at Norfolk Record Office in July 2009. Further events took place in Norfolk between January and March 2010. Find out more about what we found out by visiting our case studies:
- History Detectives 1: the Land Tax Commissioners
- History Detectives 2: Norwich debtors, prisons and Parliament
During 2012, as part of the Arts in Parliament programme, Nicola Naismith revisited the History Detectives group in Norwich as Artist in Residence, looking at the Land Tax Commissioners. She created a video artwork that was inspired by the reaction of the group to the unique material documenting the five of the Land Tax Commissioners held at Norfolk Record Office and Parliamentary Archives.
- View Nicola's video artwork, Administrative Processes Events = Documents
- Read Nicola's blog about the project
- Read Nicola's Artist's Statement
- Find out more about the project
Birmingham
Our next regional partner was Birmingham Archives and Heritage. Here a group of adults investigated Birmingham's links with the nineteenth century Parliamentary reform movement, and a group of school children and young adults found out about the area's associations with the suffragette movement. See what they found out by visiting our case studies:
Kent
Our next regional partner was Kent History and Library Centre. We worked with Marden History Group to look at the impact of the South Eastern Railway on the community of Marden in Kent.
Glamorgan
We then worked with Glamorgan Archives to look into the history of Cardiff Bay. You can see the case study webpages and watch our Time and Tide YouTube videos.
- Time and Tide case study
- Mount Stuart Primary School explore the history of Cardiff Bay
- Grangetown Local History Society investigates the history of Cardiff Docks
During 2012, as part of the Arts in Parliament programme, Trevor Woolery revisited the Time and Tide group in Glamorgan as Artist in Residence. He created an artwork that was inspired by the reaction of the group to the unique material documenting the development of Cardiff Docks held at Glamorgan Archives and Parliamentary Archives.
- View Trevor’s animated film, Sea of Words
- Read Trevor's blog about the project
- Read Trevor’s Artist’s Statement
- Find out more about the project
Tyne & Wear
Finally we worked with Tyne & Wear Archives to investigate public health in Sunderland in the 19th century. Here is our YouTube video about the project, and the case study webpages.
- Death, Dirt and Disease: Sunderland, People and Parliament
- Public Health in Sunderland in the 19th century: Tyne & Wear case study
We look forward to working with all our regional partners more in future.
