An integral part of the project was to build up an archive of material relating to local corner shops.
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"The training was interesting. It got me thinking about the past all around me. After listening to the interview of the present owner I was intrigued to uncover the past of that shop."
"I came away with a greater interest in local history and skills in retrieving it."
"There are so many histories in a single place. The session stimulated me to look at things around me differently."
An integral part of the project was to build up an archive of material relating to local corner shops, which would be of use to researchers for generations to come.
Preserving a permanent archive gives the project a permanent legacy, and is easily achieved by working in partnership with a local archives service.
The core of the archive is the oral history recordings of people's experiences of running and using corner shops, which were recorded by project volunteers to inform the theatre production.
Other materials created during the project, which have been preserved in the archive are:
In order to add more historical context to the archive, we also recruited a small group of 7 volunteers to carry out further historical research on some of the shops featured in the oral history recordings.
The Archives Service ran a half-day training session with the volunteers with heritage consultant Izzy Mohammed. They covered how to research in an archive and what specific resources might exist that would help them trace the history of a shop. The resulting volunteers' research also forms part of the project archive.
The archive is available for public access at Sandwell Community History & Archives Service www.sandwell.gov.uk/archives
Over 2010 the archive will be catalogued, and will be made available online at www.blackcountryhistory.org