Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots is a community heritage and oral history project focused on diverse and multicultural histories. It explores the stories, memories and hidden histories of Devon’s towns and cities – past and present.
Through building an archive of oral history interviews, Telling Our Stories aims to preserve, share and celebrate the voices, stories and heritage of the wide range of people who live in Devon today, ensuring that the voices we listen to today and in the future are more diverse and more inclusive than the ones we’ve heard before.
To date the project has gathered histories and contemporary stories from three towns and one city: Exeter (2012-13), Bideford (2019-20), Okehampton (2019-20), Tiverton (2019-20), Honiton (2023-25), Ilfracombe (2023-25)
The project is community-led and community-powered, supported by teams of local volunteers, and featuring the voices and contributions of many community participants.
Telling Our Stories is a Devon Development Education project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Public-facing activity has been made possible thanks to heritage partners Ilfracombe Museum, All Hallows Museum, Honiton, Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life, The Museum of Dartmoor Life, Okehampton, The Burton at Bideford, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.
Telling Our Stories has engaged with 5 towns and 1 city across Devon.
We have worked in Exeter (2012 – 2013); Bideford (2019 – 2020), Okehampton (2019 – 2020), Tiverton (2019 – 2020), Ilfracombe (2023-2025) and Honiton (2023-25)
These towns and city are each very different. Exeter is the county’s capital; Tiverton is a centre of industry/manufacturing; Bideford is a port town; Okehampton is an agricultural market town on the edge of Dartmoor; Ilfracombe is also a port and major tourist town; and Honiton a market town with a direct link to London.
Shajeev speaks about his childhood, particularly schooling and how his school was an example of a colonial legacy. He had a fantastic time and considers it a very important part of his identity. University and his studies were dipped into next, along with discussions...
Mark speaks about his family many of whom hail from Burma (now Myanmar) as well as recent explorations of heritage that have revealed a connection to France. His father was Anglo-Indian and with Portuguese heritage too. He believes his paternal grandmother was...
Rachael describes her childhood growing up in Hemel Hempstead, playing in the fields, the daughter of a Romany father and a White British middle class mother whose marriage crossed the social divide. She spoke of her father’s and her own psychic abilities and how her...
Shajeev speaks about his childhood, particularly schooling and how his school was an example of a colonial legacy. He had a fantastic time and considers it a very important part of his identity. University and his studies were dipped into next, along with discussions...
Mark speaks about his family many of whom hail from Burma (now Myanmar) as well as recent explorations of heritage that have revealed a connection to France. His father was Anglo-Indian and with Portuguese heritage too. He believes his paternal grandmother was...
As this round of the multicultural history project comes to an end later this month all of the resources created over the past 18 months will come live onto our website. You can see the diverse stories of the two focus towns of Ilfracombe...
Calling All Creatives! **** STILL TIME TO GET INVOLVED ****** Devon’s multicultural heritage project Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots is calling all creatives for its two latest initiatives. With the help of a team of enthusiastic volunteers led by project...
Celebrating Cultural Diversity It was great to discover that May now has a whole day dedicated to celebrating cultural diversity, and to honour it we have been working with Honiton Library to create a display of inspiring books that tell the story of England's...
As this round of the multicultural history project comes to an end later this month all of the resources created over the past 18 months will come live onto our website. You can see the diverse stories of the two focus towns of Ilfracombe...
Calling All Creatives! **** STILL TIME TO GET INVOLVED ****** Devon’s multicultural heritage project Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots is calling all creatives for its two latest initiatives. With the help of a team of enthusiastic volunteers led by project...