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09:20 - 21-July-2008
Character And Creation aims to raise awareness and appreciation of the historical character of Fegg Hayes, Stoke-on-Trent.
Children from Whitfield Valley Primary School teamed up with photographer Andrew Fox to document the people and places that make up the village.
And the results are on display at the Whitfield Valley Centre, Fegg Hayes Road, until Wednesday.
The project was supported by Urban Vision North Staffordshire and the architecture and design centre's Janette McSkimming said it had been a success.
She added: “This has been a wonderful example of inter-generational working, with young children talking to older residents about village life in times gone by.”
School pupils went out into the village to meet and interview residents, make films, and produce creative writing and poems celebrating their community.
The results were combined with archive photographs borrowed from local people to show the Victorian origins of the village through to its current inhabitants.
The Ridgway family, from Bretherton Place, Chell, visited the exhibition on Saturday so that dad Lee could look at the archive pictures of the area his father grew up in.
The 36-year-old said: “I was talking to my dad about it and he was telling me about how it was when he was a kid.”
Daughter Britani-Lei is a pupil at Whitfield Valley and had several of her pictures on display.
The eight-year-old said a total of 17 youngsters had been involved in the project.
She added: “I liked going to different places and finding out things about when other people were little and how it is now.”
The exhibition also contains a study mapping the area's heritage assets, which was completed by Urban Vision and local historians Fred Hughes, Jim Worgan and Peter Kent-Baguley.
Mr Hughes said: “I have quite a soft spot for Fegg Hayes. People have the opinion that Fegg Hayes is a mining village and I think this is one of the concepts this project is trying to break down. Long before mining, it was a farming community.”
Character And Creation is open from 7.30am to 9pm until Wednesday.
CLOSE UP: Ryan Pankhurst above. Below, Britani-Lei Ridgway. Right, two pictures from the exhibition. Main picture: Mark Scott
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