Our faces and places

Paganel Primary School has received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), to develop its own repository archive, based in the primary school over the next 18 months.  Led by children and  parents, supported by volunteers from the community and project partners Birmingham Archives and Heritage, Weoley Castle Library and Weoley Castle ruins, the project focuses on the history of the school and local area using oral history recordings and a range of other media .

Weoley Castle ruins are next door to Paganel Primary School.  It is part of a unique interwar housing estate built next to a medieval castle, in what was then rural surroundings, to enable slum clearance in Birmingham.   Archive and museum collections are a great source of information about different aspects of the past.  The lives of people in our school and community, represents the social and cultural changes of our times.  Paganel Archives, based in the school itself, is in a unique position to both document social life and engage children, parents and local community in our rich heritage, across all generations.

Local historian Dr. Chris Upton comments , ‘The comparatively settled nature of this community – exceptional in Birmingham – makes it a potentially very rich area for oral history.’

The launch of the project on Tuesday 20^th March will involve the whole school in a series of workshops exploring a range of different archival resources using photography, drama, art and sound.

At 2:30 the project will be formally launched with an exhibition of work from the day, including artefacts contributed by every child and a giant self-portrait of the whole school drawn on the main hall wall.  Marcus Belben, responsible for coordinating the project launch, commented: ‘This project is a unique opportunity not only to engage children and parents in their own history, but also to take a more active role in conserving our heritage for future generations – it will be our history, through our eyes.’