Welcome! An Introduction; Project Info; Heritage Groups!
Hello!
My name is Niall Ptolomey and I’m the new Heritage Co-ordinator for Inverclyde Community Development Trust. I’m delighted to say that I’ll be involved with two fantastic National Lottery Heritage Fund Projects: Legacies of Slavery and Digital Heritage: Telling Inverclyde’s Stories on Wikipedia.
Over the next few months, we’ll be establishing Heritage Research groups across Inverclyde (Greenock, Port Glasgow and Gourock). The purpose of these groups (locations TBD, and they may be accessed/ran digitally via Zoom) is to uncover heritage gaps relating to Inverclyde’s history on Wikipedia and/or improve what is already there. In short, this is a project about telling and sharing Inverclyde’s stories. The project provides Wikipedia training for volunteers from Wikimedia professionals.
If you join one of our Research Groups, you will have the opportunity to be involved in: Wikiwalks (taking photographs of key sites for upload), Zoom training sessions with Wikimedia trainer (creating and editing Wikipedia entries) and research at the Watt Institution/Archives. Research is determined by group interests – with each group focusing on a particular town. Participants will greatly enhance their digital and researching skills — and the groups are open to beginners and all skill levels. Get involved with what interests you!
Times/days and locations for the 3 groups are yet to be confirmed, but if this sounds like it might be of interest to you or anyone you know, please get in touch and I can keep you in the loop and provide more information.
As for our Legacies of Slavery project, we will be holding lots of interesting events throughout 2023, so sign up to our newsletter or keep checking back here or on the trust’s social media channels (links at the bottom and top of this website).
Across both heritage projects, there will be ample opportunity for volunteers to develop their heritage interpretation skills and help shape the way we tell and share stories from Inverclyde’s past.
Lastly, this blog will act as a sort of informal heritage…overspill? That is to say, it will feature lots of interesting and stray pieces of research we uncover from the archives during our research. Think of it as leftover curiosities!
We will also be sharing updates from the projects and providing information on upcoming Heritage Events. The blog will be updated weekly, and we’d love to have some contributors down the line.
Please visit Inverclyde Community Development Trust (the-trust.org.uk) if you require further information on The Trust’s community work and services.
I hope to see you at one of our groups, or at the Watt Institution! Alternatively, I’m always happy to have a chat about Inverclyde’s Heritage and you can get in touch with me using the contact details on this site. We are always looking for keen contributors!
I am grateful to National Lottery’s Heritage Fund for funding this post.
Furthermore, a special thank you to everyone who has been involved with the Legacies of Slavery project so far - I look forward to catching up and working with all involved. The project will be a success because of all the hard, and careful, work that has went into sharing this untold aspect to Inverclyde’s history. This is a project that addresses Inverclyde’s links to the transatlantic trade of enslaved people and colonial commerce. It is important to our community that we research our town’s historical links to slavery. Legacies of Slavery features contributions from volunteers, artists, researchers and academics of all ages and backgrounds.
N.B. The photographs, excerpts, illustrations, maps and images used across this website and blog come from various sources; every effort has been made to provide the relevant licensing and copyright information. You will find permissions and image details in the captions. Some of our images have been donated from various organisations/volunteers and have been uploaded with their permission.
