ARE you happy to chat about your memories?

Thanks to a grant from Devon Country Council, Crediton Library has just begun an Oral History Reminiscence Project to chat with local residents about their time in Devon: their memories, life in the county and so on.

These chats will be recorded in audio and archived for the future, painting a picture of our area and how people feel about it - the diversity of Devon life.

This project is valuable on many levels. It captures stories about the people and places in our area which would otherwise be lost. In some cases, it records accent and dialect that might be fading away. For older people, social interaction might be welcome in overcoming isolation or loneliness.

The library has a team of volunteers who are all trained and ready to talk! They can visit people at home, or in a local café or other space, but this project is also part of the Warm Spaces initiative so the library volunteers are happy to host people in the library, with free tea, coffee and biscuits on offer.

The volunteers can even do it via Zoom if people live at a distance.

The volunteers would love to talk with anyone in the Crediton area, or elsewhere in Devon. You don’t have to have been born here.

You don’t have to be of a particular age. Children to grandparents are all welcome.

What the project wants is to capture as many memories as it can before they are lost, and provide a valuable archive for future research and study.

If you could chat with one of the volunteers, please email: [email protected] or telephone 01363 772578.

The project is made possible thanks to a partnership initiative with the Folklore Library and Archive, which is based within the Crediton Library building, these histories will be made available as part of the Devonshire Folklore Collection. This is a new special collection being brought together by the Folklore Library and Archive with many items from Devon’s varied past: from newspaper cuttings and books to physical items and artwork.

You can visit the Folklore Library and Archive during normal library hours and also find more online, where digital collections are currently being uploaded, on the web at www.folklorelibrary.com

The Folklore Library and Archive’s patron is the popular author Michael Rosen.