A new community project run by Cardiff University is encouraging people from in and around Abergavenny to help research the long forgotten history of the town.
The much loved swimming pool in Bailey Park
By recruiting local people as volunteers, the team behind the project hope to uncover previously undiscovered or partly forgotten places and moments in the town’s long history and will donate all the information gathered at the end of the project to Abergavenny Museum.
Run by Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences, Forgotten Abergavenny is an ambitious history project that will include many different community events including treasure hunts around the town and oral interpretations of local history.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project will take place over the next six months and some of the historical topics the team want to research include life in old Tudor Street, the Abergavenny workhouse, prison camps and how the town used to be policed.
Cardiff University has been working with different community groups in north and south Abergavenny for over a year and has explored how community consultation using a bottom up approach can help shape the town’s future. But by now exploring its lost past, the team hope to involve even more local people and to record all findings for future generations.
“We want to get the whole town involved so they can discover their history and help to make history happen now,” said Dr David Studdert from Cardiff University. “We have some fun events planned over the coming months that will uncover local history and will also help create community cohesion. The people of Abergavenny really value their local history and the towns significant past, so we hope to discover some really interesting facts that everyone will find useful.”
Local people who want to volunteer as part of the project can contribute in different ways by either attending fortnightly meetings or by sending information to the team by email or contributing to the projects social media.
“We had a staggering six hundred plus likes on the Forgotten Abergavenny Facebook page within less than twenty four hours of launching it,” said Sassy Hicks, project media coordinator. “This just proves how much the people of Abergavenny value their local history and we really hope residents will continue to support this project. It’s a great way of learning more about where you live and sharing that information with others.”
For more information on Forgotten Abergavenny please call: 07938938119
www.facebook.com/pages/Forgotten-Abergavenny/401704133264837
This is great! I was born in llanfoist in the early 50s have lovely child hood memories of the canal and town ,with stone hams grocers ,with it’s sawdust floors ,and co op with cash Tubes above you on wires ,and Woolworth with 6d counter at Christmas it was magical
To whoever might know
I would like to find an old photograph of Tudor St in Abergavenny before it was demolished plus any information about it just post W WII.
My grandfather was Alfred Jackson who was, I think, the first president of Abergavenny Museum
Lived at Boathouse Llanfoist for 30years ,now live overlooking the river bridge both have apeared in your old photos
I was born in the Victoria cottage hospital by Bailey park in 1951, I lived in Govilion .and I have many childhood memories, walks along the old railway line, picking flowers and nuts, paddling in the River Usk, boating on the canal at Govilion, walking around the Keepers pond on top of the Blorenge, walking to the top of the Sugar Loaf and picking wimberries, market day on a Tuesday. Time for another visit home from Johannesburg I think!