Dr Liz Jones of the Awen Institute, Centre for Innovative Ageing and Professor Alan Dix, Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University, have been working with a community in the village of Troedrhiwfuwch, in the Upper Rhymney Valley in South Wales, to explore and organise their historical archive, and develop digital technologies through co-production methods. The aim is to preserve the historic legacy of the village for future generations.
Most of the village structure was demolished by 1985, in the wake of a survey indicating that there was a danger of a landslide. Today, only two houses, and the war memorial and garden, remain as a sign of the place that once was.
The project team are working with the community to gather and organise information, and to digitise it. The youngest members of the community who have a living memory of the village are in their fifties and many of the remaining community are now in their eighties and nineties, so these accounts are fragile and need to be gathered before they are lost forever.
What has co-production meant to the project?
The heritage, culture and history of communities can nurture a sense of belonging, but this is precarious. The village is of great historic significance, as it sent such a large number of men to World War 1 for a village of its size. 110 of the 600 inhabitants volunteered to serve, with the memorial honouring the 16 men of the village who died.
Co-production between the village and Swansea University has helped the village in its endeavours to:
- restore and renovate the village war memorial and memorial garden, which has been left in a neglected state since 1986
- be guided by the community in how to organise their vast archive
- design digital methods to showcase and share the archive information, so that it can be accessed by the community and beyond.
What has helped in implementing a co-production approach?
Since the beginning of the project, the academic researchers and community members have met, largely informally, around a dozen times. This has mostly been using video conferencing, but there have also been several site visits, though the scope for these has been limited due to COVID.
As with any co-production exercise, it was important to embed the principles of equality, diversity, accessibility and reciprocity in putting co-production into action there was a period of mutual enculturation. On one side, academics without prior links to the village built an understanding of what it means to be part of the community. This was accomplished principally through story-telling, often focused around digital artefacts, or walking the ground itself.
On the other side, the community members built an understanding of the potential of digital technology to help them preserve, organise and distribute heritage materials. This was facilitated by the production of early visualisations using PowerPoint scenarios and paper and card low-fidelity prototypes.
What difficulties were there in implementing co-production?
COVID-19, with its associated lockdowns and the need to protect the most vulnerable members of the community (many of whom are in their 80s and with underlying health conditions), has been a challenge.
The old community of Troedrhiwfuwch is dispersed across much of the South Wales valleys and beyond, with some community members being located as far afield as London, Yorkshire, Blackpool and Ireland. Limitations in travel due to COVID restrictions impacted on the amount of face-to-face meetings that could be held, and there was a stop/start feeling as restrictions were brought in, slightly relaxed then reintroduced.
What are the main strengths in the approach that has been taken?
This community project highlights the determination to engage with communities that are passionate about their heritage, and coproduce and collaborate in the most challenging of circumstances (due to geographic distance and the coronavirus pandemic).
One way to view engagement between university researchers and community members would be as an expert–amateur or expert–end-user conversation; based on mutual respect but with different roles. There is truth in this: however, it misses the rich and diverse expertise of the community members themselves.
The Troedrhiwfuwch archivists have a knowledge of historic sources such as military records, genealogical resources and census reports. This facility with primary resources is complemented by a knowledge of the historic relations between people and events, similar to that which the (non-historian) academic members of the team have observed in their academic colleagues’ historical knowledge. This is not to equate academic and community historical expertise and approaches, but renders problematic words such as ‘amateur’ and ‘expert’. The strengths of the approach have been to recognise, draw on, nurture and utilise skill and expertise from all participants equally.
What have been the main outcomes of the project?
- The village memorial garden has recently had new benches installed, and some essential repairs have been carried out to the memorial garden wall and gates.
- Swansea University and the community are working together to apply for funding to restore and develop the memorial garden, integrating digital technology to showcase the history of the fallen.
- Discussions with a film maker to conduct a drone flight over the village and make a documentary about the history, the current project and restoration of the memorial garden.
- Applying for funding for research projects (with the community) to help to further develop the archive and digital capture methods, which links with the policy context of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, 2015.
How has the project worked to engage all sections of the community?
The project is intergenerational (with age ranges from 6 to 94 years). It encompasses: old Troedrhiwfuwch residents; people who had family members living in the village and who visited as children; people with family connections to the village but were born after the bulk of the village was demolished.
What advice would the project give to others?
Based on co-production practice, the project embodies ways in which scholarly skill and expertise might be embodied in tools and sustainable practices that enable communities to create and manage their own digital archives. There is a need for both to gain a level of understanding about each other, what each brings to the relationship, and language/terminology. Helping the community utilise the strengths of what the relationship with the University brings to them, the university has been able to bring the community co-production strength in order to recruit further support and input from colleagues and students who have been inspired to become involved.
What advice would the project give to others?
Based on co-production practice, the project embodies ways in which scholarly skill and expertise might be embodied in tools and sustainable practices that enable communities to create and manage their own digital archives. There is a need for both to gain a level of understanding about each other, what each brings to the relationship, and language/terminology. Helping the community utilise the strengths of what the relationship with the University brings to them, the university has been able to bring the community co-production strength in order to recruit further support and input from colleagues and students who have been inspired to become involved.