Swindon Snapshots

In early 2024, we teamed up with Historic England Archives and Splash, a community youth group providing support to young people facing difficulties, to explore Swindon town and Avebury Henge & Stone circle.

Through photography, this project connected young people with their local area, learning broadly about archives, and more specifically, about the role digital archives play in documenting their home of Swindon and surrounding areas.

The project culminated in an exhibition of the group’s work at Swindon Library, and their photographs being added into the Historic England archive!

In early 2024, we teamed up with Historic England Archives and Splash to explore Swindon town and Avebury Henge & Stone circle (the lesser known henge but just as impressive as Stonehenge!) Did you know Avebury Henge is also a World Heritage Site just like Stonehenge?

Through photography, this project set out to debunk preconceptions of the archives.

We took part in a series of workshops focusing on photography skills to find out more about the Historic England photo archive and Avebury Henge. We got to look at the collection up close, and took part in two active photography sessions at Avebury Henge and Swindon town, to better connect us with the local history. We learnt about the role archives play in documenting the places we live and why that documentation is important. We wrapped up the project by planning and opening our very own photography exhibition, and adding our images of Swindon and Avebury to the Historic England archive.

Workshop 1 – Kicking off the project

To kick off the project, on the 11^th January, we met at the Historic England Archive to find out more about why archives are important and to have a look at the physical photo collection they hold. Historic England holds over 12 million photographs, drawings, reports and publications from the 1850s to the present day.

With the help of the Historic England Archives engagement team, we looked at the materials the archive holds of our own local areas, seeing how the land around where we live and go to school has changed across the years, and how that change has been documented. It was really interesting to see the development of Swindon through aerial maps and how certain areas have grown faster than others.

We also looked at some older versions of cameras and learnt all about Alexander Keiller – an archaeologist who dug up and re-erected Avebury Henge in the 1930s! In contrast to the urban development of Swindon, we looked at the documents *in the archive relating to Avebury Stone Henge. This gave us a good understanding of the scope of materials archives hold.

If you want to know more about the mysteries of Avebury, read here.

Workshop 2 - Avebury Henge visit

On the 13^th January, we travelled to Avebury Henge and Stone circle. Historic England Head Photographer, James, came with us, who told us all about his role as a photographer for the archive and how he takes his images to specific briefs. James set us a challenge to recreate the photos took from the original Keiller excavation in the 1930s. We visited the Alexander Keiller museum to see the original items found during the excavation and learned more about who might have lived at Avebury in the Neolithic period*

*We learnt that Neolithic means New Stone Age. Neo = new, and lithic = stone! The Neolithic period was from 4000-2200BC when people first began to clear the forests and farm the land in Britain.

“James has really made me think I think I want to become a photographer!” – Project participant

Workshop 3 – Swindon Town photography session

On the 10th February, we headed into Swindon town to recreate archival photos taken in Swindon, creating our own ‘Then and Now’ photos. We then went back to Historic England archives to begin planning our exhibition, working with James to decide which photos from the project we should include, and what sort of requirements a digital archive demands for anything added to its collection.

“I think I’ll appreciate more things everyday now… I know almost anything’s worth a photograph” – Project Participant

Workshop 4 – Historic England photo lab and archive tour

On 12^th February, we went back to the archive to have a tour and see how an archive works. We got to go behind the scenes to see where all the archival material is kept and how it is stored (it’s cold down there!). We then got to visit the Digitisation lab where we were able to learn from the pros on how you can colour and edit your photos, and what is involved when creating a photography exhibition.

We discussed what text we wanted to accompany our photos for the exhibition, and what messages we wanted to convey through our photographs. We also selected the images from our Swindon and Avebury photography days that we wanted to submit to the archive.

Exhibition Opening Event

On 7^th March at Swindon Central Library, we opened our photography exhibition! We invited family and friends to celebrate the project and have a look at the photos we took.

Historic England

Historic England Archive holds major collections of national importance, covering archaeology, architecture, social and local history. The collections include photographs, drawings, plans and documents. Historic England holds over 12 million photographs, drawings, reports and publications from the 1850s to the present day, covering the whole country. Over a million of their records can be searched online.

Splash

Splash, run by Community First, provides support for Wiltshire young victims of crime aged under 18 years. The service launched in March 2019 and is designed to provide positive activities and youth worker support for young people who are facing challenges in their lives.