Village youth project links the generations (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Village youth project links the generations

A GRANT of more than £24,000 will bring young and old together to create a film about the history of a Stour Valley village.

Blackwell Youth Club has been awarded the cash by the Local Heritage Initiative to create a record of life in the village over past century.

Residents are urged to come to the launch of the scheme at the village hall on Saturday, where they will be invited to exchange their memories of village life for a sausage butty.

The scheme, organised by the village youth club with the support of the Countryside Agency, will involve training the youngsters in film-making, interview techniques, sound recording and photographic archiving.

Nikki Coupland, who set up the youth club about three years ago, said the project was designed to bring the whole village together. "It will give the youngsters a sense of ownership of the community they live in and ultimately it will benefit everyone who lives in Blackwell and surrounding areas."

Part of the grant money will be used to buy cinema equipment for the village hall, which would then be available to everyone in the area to use.

In the meantime the youngsters will going to collect as many memories, stories, pictures, photographs and video clips as they can to create a film about village history. "We're planning to interview artists to come in and work with the young people to show them how to use equipment to put all this together into a film, which will be shown on the new cinema system in the village hall next September."

Camille Newton, Local Heritage Initiative advisor at the Countryside Agency, said the scheme would boost community spirit in the village. "As much as anything it is a way of getting young people and older people working together.

"This village has changed radically in the past 50 years and without such enthusiasm and hard work much of the detail would be lost. We're looking forward to September when the film is complete."

She added that she would be keen to hear from more communities interested in launching similar schemes with the Local Heritage Initiative. For information call her on 0121 2339399.

Saturday's launch of the project has been billed as a Sausage Sizzler and is open from 9.30am-12.30pm. Any photographs that are brought along will be scanned and any memories people would like to share will be recorded.