Wild Rose Heritage and Arts-oral history and visual archive

Wild Rose Heritage and Arts is a community arts group which takes its name from the area in which we are located – the valley (“den”) of the wild rose (“Heb”) – Hebden Bridge.

We began as an oral history project, recording the memories of elderly people who told us about their lives growing up in the local valleys. Since then we’ve expanded our activities and our focus, working with a variety of age groups to understand the ways in which people both change, and are changed by, the places in which they live and work. We believe that oral history can play a valuable role in the fostering of communal identity, by giving participants both a sense of belonging and the confidence to participate in the life and work of the community.

At present, we have completed nearly 50 video and audio interviews, all fully transcribed with 30 full audio, 15 video clips and 250 associated images available on our website. Our oldest interviewee is 101 and youngest 17, which reflects our philosophy of engaging the people and environment of our area as a place of change.

From our archive we produce presentations, exhibitions, educational resources and storytelling events, which are directed towards promoting our aims of understanding, inclusion and participation.