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.