At our 3 April Meeting at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, our Honiton team was delighted to welcome four new volunteers to Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots, bringing a broad-reaching set of skills and interests to the project - including languages, archeology,...
Exploring the rich multicultural history of Devon.
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About us
About us
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. We are currently focusing on Honiton and Ilfracombe.
If you have links to these towns, are interested in history, heritage and diverse cultures and/or have a story to share, then please get in touch with the Project Coordinator Hilda Kalap: hildatosfor@gmail.com
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 (2020), Okehampton (2020) and Tiverton (2020).
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, AllHallows Museum Honiton, Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life, The Museum of Dartmoor Life, The Burton at Bideford, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (2012 – 2013).
Our locations
Our locations
Telling Our Stories has engaged with 3 towns and 1 city across Mid and North Devon.
We have worked in Exeter (2012 – 2013); Bideford (2019 – 2020), Okehampton (2019 – 2020) and Tiverton (2019 – 2020).
These towns and cities are each very different. Exeter is the county’s capital; Tiverton is a centre of industry / manufacturing; Bideford is a port town; and Okehampton is an agricultural market town on the edge of Dartmoor.
Latest project news
Latest project news
Volunteers learn how to capture the voices and stories of our diverse communities
Further developing their skills and confidence, our volunteers took part in Oral History Training this week, led by our Honiton Coordinator, JessHuffman. With microphones in hand, they experimented with recording equipment, tried out interviewing techniques and learnt...
‘Gaining new skills’ and ‘trying something new’ are two main reasons for project participation
29th February 2024 The two main reasons for volunteers taking part in Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots, Devon’s multicultural history project, are ‘gaining new skills’ and ‘trying something new’ showing that age is definitely no barrier to wanting to expand...
Honiton Team goes from strength to strength as we welcome new volunteers
At our 3 April Meeting at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, our Honiton team was delighted to welcome four new volunteers to Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots, bringing a broad-reaching set of skills and interests to the project - including languages, archeology,...
Volunteers learn how to capture the voices and stories of our diverse communities
Further developing their skills and confidence, our volunteers took part in Oral History Training this week, led by our Honiton Coordinator, JessHuffman. With microphones in hand, they experimented with recording equipment, tried out interviewing techniques and learnt...
Latest blog posts
Latest blog posts
Tellers of Stories – Jess Huffman considers why storytelling is such a fundamental part of being human
Why Tell stories? As Jean Paul Sartre the 20th Century French Philosopher put it, 'All human beings are tellers of stories. We tell stories to survive; to make sense of the terrifying confusion that is our existence.’ Storytelling is a fundamental part of being human....
Archival Experiences – our volunteers go behind the scenes at the Devon Heritage Centre
As the wheels of recruitment turn and ‘Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots’ – Devon’s multicultural history project – really begins to gain steam, some fantastic opportunities have started to unfold. Read the latest blog from Abi Obene - Project Coordinator in...
Happy New Year and there’s a buzz in the air as our volunteers explore new story leads
Happy New Year! Six months in… look what we've achieved! Now six months into the project we start 2024 having established a strong and experienced team of project partners, leaders, advisors, coordinators and volunteers from across Devon. We’ve had some great press...
Tellers of Stories – Jess Huffman considers why storytelling is such a fundamental part of being human
Why Tell stories? As Jean Paul Sartre the 20th Century French Philosopher put it, 'All human beings are tellers of stories. We tell stories to survive; to make sense of the terrifying confusion that is our existence.’ Storytelling is a fundamental part of being human....
Archival Experiences – our volunteers go behind the scenes at the Devon Heritage Centre
As the wheels of recruitment turn and ‘Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots’ – Devon’s multicultural history project – really begins to gain steam, some fantastic opportunities have started to unfold. Read the latest blog from Abi Obene - Project Coordinator in...