The 'Archive Weekend' is a fundamental part of the 'Other People's Children' project. These offer the chance for people from the same communities to come together, share their experiences, and work on material relating to their experience.

Located in beautiful surroundings, the archive and study centre also provides accommodation and a relaxed atmosphere where people can come to enjoy  and engage with their heritage. During a 'Weekend' (incidentally, these are generally not held at the weekend at all but that's what we call them and we're sticking with it!) communities are encouraged to take the lead directing the team towards their own interests be it archives, oral history, web design, all or none of the above!

 Every one is different! Which makes for an interesting and exciting event every time!

Some groups prefer to take part in formal trainings in website design, oral history practice or digital story making. Other prefer to work more informally, dipping in and out of different activities whilst making the most of the chance to 'catch up' or share stories with other people, be it those who they haven't seen for forty years or those who were at the same place forty years before them!

The PETT archive already holds a wealth of material of different communities and the 'Archive Weekends' are a chance to add to and engage with this. People can get involved in a variety of activities, scanning, cataloguing and preserving records, learning more about how an archive works and how to make the most of the information.

Oral history also forms an important part of the weekend with many recordings being made by volunteers and project staff giving those who would like to the opportunity to add their story to the record or gain the skills necessary for them to conduct interviews themselves for the project.

Our constantly evolving website also gets attention with discussion of how each different community might like to use their site, what they would like to see on there or how they can contribute to. People interested in the technical aspect of this can be tutored in this whilst those who want to provide content but not engage with the logistics are encouraged to get creative!

See more images from our 'Archive Weekends' in our Gallery