The Burley Champions get out and about in Leeds!

Although the film launch and public screenings have come and gone, we are delighted to say that the project is still continuing with an exciting range of follow-up activities. Thanks to the support we have had from the Heritage Lottery Fund, 15 of the Burley Champions recently went on a study trip to Leeds's local studies library to see the fantastic range of resources on offer to anyone with an interest in local or family history. We have also been able to organise screenings of the 'All About Burley' film at 4 other primary schools in the area, including Quarry Mount, Blenheim and Brudenell. The film has already been seen by over 300 staff and pupils who have given it a big 'thumb up'!

"All About Burley" Makes Headlines!

With over 300 people seeing the Burley Champions’ film at the launch event and the public screening this June, the Burley Champions have made the news again! 

Both events, captured by the Yorkshire Evening Post, were extremely exciting for the children. “All About Burley” drew over 200 children, parents and volunteers to the launch event and over 100 people for the public screening at the prestigious Hyde Park Picture House. It was an absolute delight for all those involved to see such a diverse range of people from Burley and Leeds enjoying the magical film which the children and volunteers have worked so hard to create. Congratulations again to all the Burley Champions of Rosebank Primary School, the parents and the volunteers!!! 

The film is now going on tour around local primary schools and is going to be used as an education resource to teach more children about Burley's interesting history.

Burley Champions on YouTube

The entire project film is now freely available to everyone with an Internet connection! You can find it on YouTube by following this link: http://youtu.be/fFEuDXsRxcI

The children have had a wonderful time making this film. We hope you enjoy it too!! Do post up your feedback or email your comments to Gill Young, Head Teacher at youngg02@leedslearning.net.

Great turnout for public screening

There was quite a buzz at the Hyde Park Picture House as over 100 people came along for the public screening of 'All About Burley'. There was a very diverse audience including young 'Burley Champions' bringing along their relatives, some of Burley's older residents who came to see themselves being interviewed on the big screen, and a mix of Hyde Park's regular audience of local residents, students and film fans.

Several project volunteers also came along, including Jess Lowe and Joe Lawrenson (front row, centre & right). They can be seen here as the cinema began to fill up, chatting with David Brewster whose daughter Erin made a significant contribution to the project as a volunteer local history researcher and workshop assistant.

The audience gave their verdict with  big round of applause after the screening. Joe confessed to finding the film quite emotional at times - "You can really tell the kids are proud of Burley and its heritage. I had no idea that Burley was such an historic place."

Jess agreed: "The quality of the film is amazing, I am so glad I came to see it. "

'All About Burley' - a FREE public film screening 2pm Sun 9th June

All of the Burley Champions celebrated this week clutching their well earned certificates of achievement after a private screening of the film for children, parents and guests.

After giving the film a firm 'thumbs up', the children now invite the general public to a FREE public film screening:

2pm, Sun 9th June
Hyde Park Picture House, Brudenell Road, Leeds.

The screening will last about 40 minutes.

All are welcome. Why not come and join us - and bring your family and friends!!

Over 200 children, teachers, parents and VIPs filled the seats at the historic Hyde Park Picture House on Wed 5th June for a special launch event and premiere film screening of 'All About Burley', a magical and engaging community history film created by children, parents and volunteers from Rosebank Primary School.

Head Teacher, Gill Young, gave a warm welcome to the excited audience which included 2 classes of children from Brudenell Primary School as well as representatives from our partner organisations Leodis, Older Wiser Seniors (OWLS) and, of course Heritage Lottery Fund, whose generous funding has made the project possible.

The film certainly went down very well - the applause was deafening!!!

All of the young Burley Champions received certificates to celebrate their hard work and achievements.

Putting Burley on the map - Literally!

One of the less well known aspects of the Burley Champions project has been to create a 'channel' on the international local history website, Historypin.

In partnership with Leodis, which is Leeds City Council's photographic archive, our  volunteers have uploaded an extensive selection of old photographs of old Burley. The Historypin site allows users to 'pin' old photograph to a detailed 'Google' map of the area together with a short description.

The site is open to the general public and enables the project to share information with a global community of people interested in sharing their local 'histories'.

You can browse the Burley Champion's Historypinhttp://www.historypin.com/channels/view/id/16490120/
channel here:

Champion film project - It's official!

The project has been successful in attracting news coverage - witness this recent article in the Yorkshire Evening Post. Reporter Alison Bellamy's write up has done the project proud. We love the catchy headline!

Burley - now and then

Many of the oral interviewees have commented on how Burley's shops have changed to reflect the influx of new residents from all over the world, as well as new local businesses and increased numbers of University students. One of the most recent additions to Burley is the Lahore cafe, on the corner with Burley Road - project staff and volunteers confess to eating there quite a lot!!

Obaid and Naveed - two of Lahore's very friendly staff. The busy cafe and takeaway employs  around 30 people!

 Compare the photo above with the one below - taken just a few streets away - around 100 years ago!

Wyatt's hairdressers at no 7 Burley Road, c.1913. (Copyright,  Leeds Library and Information Service)

Film screening - Dates for your diary!

Thanks to our fabulous partners at the historic Hyde Park Picture House, we can now announce that, in addition to a launch event for the school, families and guests, there will also be a free public screening of the project film, All About Burley, at 2pm Sunday 9th June. Do come along and watch!

Hyde Park staff member, Andy Moore, and workshop leader, Meena Jeewa, get together to plan the launch event! 

Old Burley - how times have changed!

One of the resources available to community heritage projects in Leeds is the amazing Leodis web site www.leodis.net which contains thousands of historic photos of houses, shops, factories and people - and much more. The person responsible for this remarkable archive is Rose Gibson and she has been incredibly helpful in pinning down the copyright permission to use the images, many of which will appear in the film.

One of the lovely photos we have found of old Burley is an old postcard which shows what it was like in the early 1900s when its village origins were still clear!

Copyright: John Wray - Courtesy of Leeds Library and Information Services

Excitement mounts!

An enthusiastic group of parents, volunteers and young Burley Champions turned out during the Easter holidays to work on key aspects of the film.  With guidance from project filmmaker, Simon Collins, the children have been doing voice overs for the film!

They have also been drawing their own images to animate in the film. As you can see, it is time consuming and requires huge concentration to get it right! Plans are now in hand for a launch event in June at the historic Hyde Park Picture House - there will also be a free public screening. We will post up full details on the blog as soon as we have them.

All aboard the bus!!

On Saturday 16th March a hardy group of the young Burley Champions and their parents set off  on a tour of historic places of interest in and around Burley. Despite the cold (and at least it didn't snow!) they enthusiastically took photographs of landmark buildings old and new.

One surprise was that the bus company provided a double decker bus - which provided great views all the way.

Meena, the workshop leader, had her map reading skills put to the test.....

The children were able to show off their knowledge of  old Burley, and demonstrate their new found camera skills.  And yes, we loved those hats too!!

Adventures at Armley Mills

The Heritage Lottery grant has enabled the project to take the children, parents and volunteers on two exciting study trips. On Sunday 10th March the group went to Armley Mills Industrial Museum, where Learning and Access Officer, Sarah Barton, gave them a bespoke tour of the collections. 

Formerly the largest woollen mill in the world, Armley Mills was a major place of employment for people living in Burley from its early construction in 1805 to its closure in 1969.  As well as having a general look at the history of the building, the group learned about the the effects of the industrial revolution on the population of Leeds. They also got a chance to have a role play session, dressing up in costumes and trying out different jobs people would have done in a mill during Victorian times. 

Feedback from the trip was really positive:
"A very good day"
"Hope to come back another time"
"It was wonderful".

We agree and we would like to pass on a big THANK YOU to Sarah Barton and the other staff at Armley Mills who made it such a special event. Click here to find out more about this gem of a museum!

Celebrating diversity

Reflecting Burley's rich cultural mix, over 30 languages are spoken by the children at Rosebank Primary School. Around 70% of children do not have English as a first language.

Not surprisingly, the 'Burley Champions' group is very multi-cultural with children of British, Asian, African and Caribbean origin, as well as Indonesian and Iraqi. They are also a multi-faith group including children of Muslim, Hindu and Christian faiths.

The project volunteers and oral history interviewees have equally diverse backgrounds.

We are delighted that grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund is enabling the project to bring together people of such different ages and backgrounds with the common goal of exploring and celebrating the area where they live.

Burley - famous again!

One of the fascinating things we discovered was that other people have found Burley unique character to be of real interest. One of the oral history interviewees brought in a photograph of herself taken many years ago by a well known Swiss photographer, Eric Jaquier. As a young man Eric lived in England for a while and took many lovely photographs of Burley (and other parts of Leeds) in the late 1960s.  Over 20 of his photographs are available on the Leodis website and on his own web site.  Click to see Eric's own photos here: and the Leodis collection here.

Young talent!

A really important part of the project has been training the Burley Champions so that they can take a lead role in recording the oral history interviews. Workshop leader, Meena Jeewa, has worked with the children to introduce them to the idea of oral history. The children have role played the interviews and then devised their own list of key interview questions. Filmmaker Simon Collins has then trained the children in how to set up the interviews, how to position the interviewees and light the shots, and how to use digital camera, microphones and sound recording equipment. Despite their young age, the children have taken to it like professionals, asking questions with confidence and ensuring that they get good film footage. We can't wait to see the end result!!

Twit-twooooo!!

Another of the project partners is Older Wiser Local Seniors (OWLS). With support from Catherine Skyvington, Activities Coordinator at OWLS and Rev. Steve Smith of All Hallows Church, we have been able to contact a number of older residents of Burley through local luncheon clubs. Their members got involved with the project as oral history interviewees. Creating intergenerational links and bringing together people from different communities and cultures to explore and celebrate their shared heritage has been a really important part of the project. Here are two of our older participants, settling down comfortably to share their memories with the Burley Champions.

Project partner - Hyde Park Picture House

The boundaries of the original Burley village been eroded and the area known as Burley is closely linked to the neighbouring communities of Hyde Park, Woodhouse, Kirkstall and Armley, all in easy walking distance.

Not far from Burley Primary School is the historic Hyde Park Picture House, which is still a popular working cinema. The Picture House is one of the project partners and we will be holding a public launch and premiere screening of the final oral history film there in early June. The  Burley Champions are already working with the project filmmaker Simon Collins to develop and 'storyboard' ideas for the film  and to research individual images to accompany the interviews. If you have an interest in historic Burley would like to come to the screening or to receive a free copy of the DVD at the end of the project, just contact the school.

Head teacher, Gill Young (left) has become very actively involved in the project.  She is featured here in discussion with one of the oral history interviewees at one of the after-school sessions. Having worked in the school for many years, she has seen how the area has changed and she has become fascinated by its many historic buildings. So much so that she has begun to create her own collection of photographs of interesting landmarks - like this wonderful section of old cobbled street. Do you recognise where it is?

Fond memories

Mr Harry Lamont is one of the older members of the local community who have kindly come forward to be interviewed by our young Burley Champions.

The stories told by our interviewees confirm that Burley is a fascinating place. Its densely packed terraced housing was built to accommodate workers for the busy mills and factories along the river Aire. At different times in its history, people have come to live in Burley from different parts of the world to set up a new life for themselves and their family and this is reflected in the many cultures and languages found in Burley today.

Concentrate on.... Leodis

The Burley Champions project is being assisted by a number of project partners, including Leodis, which is Leeds City Council's official photographic archive. Leodis has almost 2000 photographs with a connection to Burley which would can browse for free on their web site. (www.leodis.net)

As you can see from this photo of hardworking Burley Champions, the children have been researching some of the most interesting archive photographs from the Leodis archives and will be uploading them to the project's Historypin collection. Some of the images may also be used in the film that the children are helping to make.

We are very grateful to Leodis for making their images available to us for this project.

Big thanks to the volunteers!

12 people have signed up to the project as volunteers so far. Two of the volunteers, Erin and Jessie are recent graduates. Jessie has a marketing background and helped us to set up this blog! Erin is a real history enthusiast and she has become an essential member of the project team, doing huge amounts of research for the project and coming up with great activities for the Burley Champions. As you can see from the photo, Erin has a wonderful way of exciting children about local history - we can honestly say the project would not be the same without her support and help!

Older and younger generations work together

Most of the workshops have been taking place at Rosebank Primary School, itself an attractive, Victorian building constructed with the typical red brick of Burley.  Not surprisingly, many of our oral history interviews remember the school from when they were children.

The Burley Champions have been trained in how to conduct oral history interviews and in how to use film and video cameras to record them. Here a wonderful group of older residents share their experiences, enthralling the young interviewees with stories of their own childhoods in Burley.

A big thank you to all the people coming forward to make the project a success!

Questions! Questions! Questions!

The Burley Champions are all young volunteers from Burley Primary School and they are putting in lots of hard work at lunchtimes, after school and at weekends to learn more about Burley's history. It's an intergenerational project which brings together children with older local residents to share their memories about Burley. The children have an endless curiosity about the area and there are always lots of questions! Our first oral history interviewee, Mr. Mubashar Khwarazmi, has become an active volunteer on the project, helping out at many of the workshops and study trips.

Documenting Burley

Burley still has a rich heritage of buildings in many styles. Children from Rosebank Primary School are are keen to record and preserve evidence of Burley's history. For example, Burley Branch library was built in 1926 and is still in use today!

If you have favourite places and memories of Burley, and would like to share your stories and old photos with the children, do let us know. http://www.rosebank.leeds.sch.uk/

We are making a film!

Although the project only started a couple of weeks ago, what a great experience the Burley Champions are already having! With help from workshop leader, Meena Jeewa, and filmmaker, Simon Collins, the children have already learned a lot about oral history interview techniques and about how to record them using state of the art video cameras and sound recording equipment. Our first interviewee was local resident, Mr. Mubashar Khwarazmi, who inspired the children with stories about his own life and memories of Burley.

If you or members of your family have memories of Burley, do get in touch with the school (0113 243 3497)  - you may end up in our film!

 

Thoughts from our funder!!

In a recent press release, Fiona Spiers, who is Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Yorkshire and the Humber, kindly said this about our project:

“The Burley Champions project will enable young people to explore their local heritage and discover the fascinating stories behind the buildings and communities in the Burley area. This project will give them a host of new skills, boost their confidence and create a sense of place in their community and with their peers.”

We are glad she is excited about the project - we are too!!   In fact no matter where we look, we keep realising how special Burley's heritage is - just look at the lovely detailing on this building next to the school!