‘A Flock of Stories’ unearthed fascinating stories of seasonal celebrations and personal moments centred around the church and chapel in the Cornish community of Four Lanes. With support from the Cornwall Heritage Trust this project enabled local people to celebrate their church and chapel memories creatively. It also provided a resource to encourage schools and other groups to delve deeper into the life of their local chapel or church.
Church and Chapel Memories
Past projects undertaken by Storylines have revealed the hidden importance of churches or chapels to the local community and it’s landscape. Church and Chapel memories reoccur in many of our projects. They were vital community hubs at a time when the majority of people attended church or chapel. Many recall the days of attending 3 times on a Sunday. As a result they became steeped in local traditions, witnessed personal landmarks and hosted time honoured celebrations. In effect they became the vessel that held the community narrative and most storylines lead back there.
Four Lanes Community Engagement
Through this pilot project we uncovered stories from the community of Four Lanes. Here there are both a Church of England and a Methodist Chapel. The village was also once home to two other chapels. We aimed to capture and preserve the memories entwined around these places of worship and provide creative ways for the local community to pass on these to others and build new connections within the area. A series of workshops and Memory days allowed community members to create a long lasting story based artwork which can be shared between the villages and prompt conversation and other often long hidden reminiscences. The project also produced a teaching resource, which will hopefully encourage schools and families to visit these churches and leave their own mark behind.
By learning from this pilot project we hope to expand the project to other localities in the future and provide a blueprint for other communities to capture and share stories of their own churches and chapels. If you’d be interested in exploring how this project might feature in your own community in the future then please do drop us an email on hello@storylines.org.uk.
You can read more about the project through our blog posts here…
With sincere thanks to the Cornwall Heritage Trust for funding this pilot project and supporting our work.
Funders & Links
