A community group’s plan to record the history of Aycliffe Village is going ahead after being awarded a grant of £10,000.
Aycliffe Village Local History Society was delighted to hear recently that its application to the Awards for All Lottery Grants Scheme had been successful. The grant, which is the maximum that can be awarded, has enabled the group to buy the necessary equipment and software in order to make a DVD about the social and economic history of the village. The history society chairman, Harry Moses, explained that the project began properly when members of the society went to a history forum earlier this year at New College in Durham.
Mr. Moses said “the project is going to involve a large number of people in the village – I hope that, as a result of this, it brings people together. We have the scouts and various organisations which use the Village Hall including the local history society but there is still a need for greater integration between the young and the old in the village.
The project is essentially to do with the social and economic history of the village and different individuals’ perceptions of the village. To this end interviews with people around the village have been taking place for some months.
The film will cover such subjects as St. Andrew’s Church and its Saxon origins, the development of education in the village which began with Dame and Ragged schools and led to the existing Aycliffe Village Primary School.
It will also cover the impact of the building of the ordnance factory to the west of the village during WWII and the passing of the Aycliffe railway station, which opened in 1844 and closed in 1953 through lack of use.”
Interviews with older residents have already revealed fascinating snapshots of life in the village in the early part of the last century including those who remember as children leaning over the half door of a former slaughterhouse on the village green and watching the sheep and cattle being killed.
Upon completion the film will be offered as a free DVD to 496 dwellings in the village at a special launch in the Village Hall. There will also be an accompanying booklet which will provide more detailed information about the history of the village.
For more details about Aycliffe Village Local History Society visit their website on www.aycliffehistory.org.uk
