Bantock wins £1,000 award to investigate deaf history
Released: 11 February 2008
Staff at Bantock House are celebrating after scooping £1,000 for a unique project working with deaf people.
The grant, from History Today magazine, will help continue work to record the reminiscences of deaf people living and working in Wolverhampton as part of the Unheard Stories project.
Linda Ellis, the ICT Development Officer at Bantock House, an attraction run by Wolverhampton City Council's Arts and Museums Service, collected a cheque during a presentation ceremony at the Cabinet War Rooms in London last month.
She said: “We are extremely happy to receive the award, not only because the money will allow us to do more filming but also because of the national recognition it gives to this project.
“Unheard Stories explores the history of deaf people in Wolverhampton and we were particularly keen to research and record the experiences of people who use sign language to communicate.”
The Arts and Museums Service has agreed to match fund the grant which is enabling the project team to work with Deansfield High School and Zebra Uno, whose two directors are deaf, to produce a British Sign Language video exploring deaf history.
The video will form part of an exhibition on the same theme which is being set up with help from Gordon Hay, a local member of the British Deaf History Society. It will be held at Bantock House in May and June.
Linda added: “Wolverhampton is a town with a long history of attracting deaf people to live and work, and the university is one of only four in the UK to have a department of deaf studies.
“It is therefore appropriate that we are able to record the thoughts and memories of people who have made such a contribution to the development of the city.”
A spokesman for History Today, which organised the competition in conjunction with Oval Books and Victoria County History, said: “We had a wide range of entries reflecting the great interest in local history and offering an equally wide range of approaches, among them oral histories, house histories, exploration of cemeteries and others.”
For more information on the project, please contact Linda Ellis on 01902 556326 e-mail linda.ellis@wolverhampton.gov.uk.
Issued by the press office.