The Local Heritage Initiative (LHI) is a partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society and the Countryside Agency.
Welcome to the project pages of the
Southwick History And Preservation Society
Founded in October 2002
Southwick is now a district within the boundary of the City of Sunderland in the North East of England.
Prior to 1928, Southwick was a township in its own right, with its own Urban District Council. It has a rich history and, prior to around the year 1800, comprised mainly of agricultural lands. The southern area of the Township bordered on the banks of the River Wear, which played a great part in its growth.
Our Local Heritage Group was formed in October 2002 and we are endeavouring to build up an archive of images and other information relating to the Southwick of the past. Our intention is that the rich Local Heritage, which Southwick has played a major role in for hundreds of years, can be highlighted and made more widely known. Our project enabled a great many people, who have lived and worked in Southwick and been part of its great industrial past, the opportunity to record their experiences for the benefit of future generations. In future years, the project will enable schools, and others, to look back at the Social, Cultural and Industrial evolution of Southwick during the 20th Century.
We regularly get requests from people researching Family History, for photographs of streets where there ancestors were living. Photography, in bygone days, was not a hobby for the Working Class, due to the expense of the equipment and developing costs for films. Family photographs consist mainly of formal portraits, often taken by professional photographers, in studios. Consequently, many of the older photographs, particularly of local views, are those which were distributed on Postcards. We are fortunate to have been given access to the Postcard collections of Mr Tom Marshall and Mr Tony Cook, both of which contain some interesting old photographs of Southwick. We are also indebted to Sunderland Museum, which has made available a number of Southwick photographs from it's archives. Many of the Museum photographs were taken in the 1960's just before, or during, the demolition of many properties in Southwick.
An impending fact was that the landscape in Southwick was set to change markedly. Sunderland Housing Group, which owns many former Council Houses across Sunderland, aimed to demolish a large proportion of its housing stock in High Southwick, to be replaced by new dwelling houses. Also, the fact that four of the infant schools which serve Southwick were to close, whilst a new school will be built to replace three of the primary schools. This will, most likely, result in the demolition of the present school buildings.
Because of the impending housing demolition, school closures and rebuilding programme, it was considered an urgent need to make a photographic record of the Southwick of today, so that the people of the Southwick of tomorrow can appreciate the changes that have occurred to their heritage. Consequently, our Society became aware, through press announcements, of the availability of funding for Local Heritage projects, through the Local Heritage Initiative (LHI) which is a partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society and the Countryside Agency.
In 2003, the LHI website was visited and the necessary information and an application forms were downloaded.
Our initial submission to LHI, in March 2004, was for a grant to cover the cost of photographing every street within the old Southwick Urban District boundary of 1928, after which time Southwick became a district in the Sunderland Borough Council area. However, after consultation with LHI, a revised submission was made to include the photographs - which would be taken with a better specification Digital Camera, but also to include the conversion of some old Cine Film of Southwick, and oral interviews with Southwick folk, using Video and Audio equipment.
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A sample of the recent photographs taken in Southwick, Abbay Street on left and Yewtree Avenue on right.
The Project included interviewing Southwick folk, to build up an archive of Oral History about Southwick. To enable us to complete this work, expert training was provided by Living History North East, which has great expertise in this particular subject. Volunteers from the group were trained as interviewers, before being let loose, in and around Southwick. Recordings have now been deposited with National, Regional and Local Archives. Local schools have also been provided with copies.
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Pauline Carney (left) and David Bryce (right) receive expert advice from Janette Hilton of Living History North East |
James Bryce and Ann Blakelock collate information for the project. |
Another phase of the project was to transfer some cine film, taken in Southwick, and transfer it onto DVD. The Scrafton family made some interesting 8mm film of life in Southwick in the 1960's and we captured the footage using a Video camera and saved it digitally.
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Cine film in the process of being captured using facilities and equipment at Living History North East |
Street scenes at Nelson Street, Southwick, are transferred from cine to digital video tape. |
One of the outputs from our Project was to produce a booklet which gives a contemporary look at Southwick, An online version of the booklet can be viewed by clicking on the cover photo of the booklet below:
OUR BOOKLET
Click on this image to read our project booklet online
We are pleased to report that the Project was completed in May 2006.
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