Welcome to our Projects pages.
This is where you’ll find out about all the work we do with partners to collect memories on a large scale. Click on the projects below to read more.
Our projects
Pearey House provides a social hub for visually impaired adults in North Tyneside. While the charity has been based at Pearey House since 1950, it began life as the Northumberland and Durham Home Teaching Society in 1873. To celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2023, Remembering the past was commissioned to collect memories people who have been connected to Pearey House over the past 50 years. These memories were used to produce a commemorative booklet for the anniversary and the full memories are now available to read or listen to on our website.
Click on the image to learn more.
In order to recognise the role and contribution that women have played over the years in the local fishing industry, the North Shields Fishermen’s Heritage Project commissioned a life-size sculpture of a herring girl to be located on the Fish Quay. ‘The Herring Girl’ was unveiled in September 2023 by actress Brenda Blethyn.
As part of the project, Remembering the Past recorded a set of memories of the herring girls and working life in the fishing industry. It is clear from these memories that the work was hard and the women had to be tough to do it. But they also tell the story of the camaraderie that existed between them and how they still knew how to enjoy life.
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The North Shields High Street Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) project has delivered a four-year programme of physical improvements, community and cultural activities focussing on Howard Street and Northumberland Square. This is an area with a rich history that contains some of North Shields’ most elegant buildings and public spaces.
Whilst the builders and gardeners worked on the physical changes to the area, Remembering The Past’s team of volunteers collected stories from North Shields residents past and present about what it means to local people.
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When we meet people out in the community, particularly in men’s groups, the conversation almost always comes round to working life and there is a widely held view that the history of shipbuilding on the river has never been collected properly. In 2019 we were given an opportunity to fill in a couple of gaps in local knowledge by interviewing some people with experience of working in the yards. If you follow this link you’ll be able to read and listen to some of the stories we collected thanks to the support of the Port of Tyne Authority.
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Romance in the Dome was such a wonderful project to be involved with. The volunteers met some wonderful people and heard wonderful stories. The highlight for the team was undoubtedly the day we interviewed contributors in the Dome itself, which was at that time a building site. It was a case of hard hats and high visibility jackets all the way – not the usual kit for recording memories. We still laugh about it now.
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Recollections of shops and shopping in North Shields in the 20th Century. Part of a series of booklets creating a 20th century history of life in North Tyneside from local people’s memories. Gannin Shoppin in Shields was one of our first big memory collection projects and we heard some amazing stories, if you follow the link you’ll find some of them and some more background to how the project came about.
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Toys, Games and Sweets was one of our very early projects. Moira, George, Les and Alick, residents of Clifton Court in West Monkseaton did the research and Alan and Kath of Remembering the Past collected the memories. Along the way we went to Beamish and the Toy Museum in Tynemouth to find out more about how the games were played and see original toys. One memorable conversation we had at beamish concerned ‘boudy’ or pieces of broken pottery ware. People told us that, when they were children, they used it as pretend money when they were playing shops. There is a boudy collection in Beamish which was really interesting to see.
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Taking the Plunge was a super project to work on and some of the stories we heard were amazing. We were able to hear beautiful stories about swimming in the local outdoor pools that used to exist along our coastline. The main thing we heard about was how cold the water was and how nice hot Bovril was when you came out.
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Boots, Blades, Pucks and Patches was a project that took us into unknown territory, literally. The idea was a simple one; to collect memories of ice skating. What none of the team had factored in was that it is cold in an ice rink. The team need to be congratulated for their level of endurance during this project. You just never know where the next memory is coming from.
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This was the second in the ‘Traditions’ series to be produced. In partnership with GIFTT (now Bridging the Gap) we ran a series of memory collecting workshops in Emerson Court, Shiremoor. We especially remember an afternoon spent making Christmas decorations. Here you can find out more about the project, meet the people who took part and enjoy reading their stories. It is a great read and a tribute to all those who served our country at that time.
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