The Living History

The Living History project has been a very successful collaboration between the Verbal Arts Centre and Dark Horse Venture. Older people hold an important key to unlocking our communities’ past and this information must be recorded as it could be lost forever. The purpose of this project is to bring the older people of the area together in a social setting to record their individual experiences through the medium of storytelling. The reminiscence of the group touched on topics including: the war years and everyday life memories of games played, clothes worn and food available to them. The groups talked of family life, hardship and living in a supportive and interdependent community. Research shows that reminiscence has value for the participants and can be further used for educational and recreational purposes. The stories and memories on this site are accompanied with teachers’ worksheets and activities for children, which are suitable for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils.

This resource can be used to bring history to life, to develop understanding of the past and to encourage pupils to think about the changes in society over the lifespan of one generation.

The stories in the audio files can be used as an educational tool in a variety of ways, to find out more click on Education.