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).
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.
(Image and research for Thornton Thomas courtesy of Ilfracombe Museum) Today (1st October) sees the start of Black History Month whose theme this year is Reclaiming Narratives marking a major shift towards recognising and correcting the narratives of Black history and...
Media Release 29th August 2024 Ione Maria Rojas appointed as artist for Honiton multicultural history partnership British-Mexican artist, facilitator and food grower Ione Maria Rojas has been appointed as the artist to work on a multicultural history partnership based...
Media Statement 12th August 2024 All of us working on the Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots multicultural history project in Devon stand in unity against the violence and racism we have been witnessing in the media and on UK streets. For the past year and in...
(Image and research for Thornton Thomas courtesy of Ilfracombe Museum) Today (1st October) sees the start of Black History Month whose theme this year is Reclaiming Narratives marking a major shift towards recognising and correcting the narratives of Black history and...
Media Release 29th August 2024 Ione Maria Rojas appointed as artist for Honiton multicultural history partnership British-Mexican artist, facilitator and food grower Ione Maria Rojas has been appointed as the artist to work on a multicultural history partnership based...
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...
The Next Stage… It’s been several weeks of digging into the local history of everything from shipwrecks to gravesites, shopkeepers to witches, hovels to hotels, steadily uncovering an increasing number of interesting and interweaving accounts. Our forays into...
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...