Fleetwood Museum project will map and preserve town centre memories

Fleetwood Museum’s new project Mapping Memories is underway - but it needs input from the locals.
Victoria Mitchell who is co-ordinating the Mapping Memories projectVictoria Mitchell who is co-ordinating the Mapping Memories project
Victoria Mitchell who is co-ordinating the Mapping Memories project

The exciting new project to create an amazing collection of community memory will form part of a new archive held at the museum.

The project will collect people’s memories of places in Fleetwood town centre from the 1950’s up to the present day.

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Residents will be able to contribute by posting their memories on the digital map or by visiting pop-up workshops in Fleetwood during September to November.

Local volunteers acting as ‘memory collectors’ will collect memories at different Fleetwood venues.

Victoria Mitchell, who is a local resident, is the Mapping Memory Co-ordinator for the project.

She said: “We are interested in all kinds of memories – from long ago to last week.

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“Some of the themes include childhood, shopping, bingo and cinemas, going out, happy or sad memories, meeting loved ones, or memories of buildings that are no longer here such as the pier or train station.

“Looking back over lockdown too – it will be interesting to see what memories people have, for example in getting out and about in the town centre on walks.

“We will introduce and suggest different themes over the course of the project.

“All this will build up a picture of ‘sites of memory’ in the town centre – what places are special to people and why.”

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The project is the first part of a three-year programme on Fleetwood high street.

A partnership of local arts and community groups, led by Fleetwood Museum, was awarded £100,000 earlier this year to deliver the programme, called From Nothing to Now: Fleetwood’s communities celebrate their people and place on the high street.

The grant is from Historic England as part of the Fleetwood High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) - is one of more than 60 high streets to receive a share of £6m for their cultural programme.

Fleetwood Museum manager Ben Whittaker added: “Fleetwood is such a special place and residents are very passionate about the town – we want to capture some of that through people’s memories.

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“Local people are already involved as volunteer memory collectors – now we want as many people as possible to make a contribution, whether it’s online, through one of our pop up sessions, or both!”.

For more info please see www.fleetwoodmuseum.co.uk. The digital map can be accessed at www.visitfleetwood.info/about/memory-map-project/