Peep Into The Past

Kirkham’s Pilot Historic England Project HAZ 2019/ 2020

Commissioned by: Fylde Borough Council (FBC)
Partners: FBC, Kirkham Town Council, Historic England.
Funded by: Historic England, FBC and KTC

This work began with establishing a cultural consortium with representatives from stakeholders and key partners. The pilot project took place during the pandemic and, despite all the challenges, successfully raised awareness of Kirkham’s heritage while animating the high street and delivering an inclusive programme of health and wellbeing opportunities for local people, at a time when they were very much needed.

Kirkham Cultural Consortium was established, with representatives from local businesses, faith organisations, cultural venues and third sector organisations with a co design approach  used to ensure local ownership and foster a greater sense of community.

A successful procurement process involving representatives from local business and the community led to the commissioning of artist Alex Blakey, who worked with KCC to develop a cultural programme that would ensure a cocreate approach while facilitating the sharing of ideas to foster community. This resulted in an inclusive activity programme that included a fantastic programme of events and health and wellbeing opportunities. The resulting work celebrated local heritage, created a better sense of place while also animating the high street.

The cultural programme secured all the original outcomes and more. Developing new networks and partnerships, and new ways of working. The pilot secured the foundations and secured the evidence to succeed in securing further funding for three years, to deliver Kirkham’s Historic England’s Future High Streets, Cultural Programme 

Artist Alex Blakey worked with KCC to develop a cultural programme, that would deliver inclusion. The activity programme included working with local businesses, schools, care homes, foodbanks, churches, individuals and the wider community. Local historian Andrew Walmsley facilitated zoom workshops that demonstrated how to go about researching local history.  

As a result of this project a wide variety of artworks, by both professional artists and the community alike were created.

Established a cultural consortium
Developed new networks and partnerships
Raised awareness of local heritage
Connected a community
Created a better sense of place
Animated the high street

A fantastic engagement project celebrating aspects of local heritage. That resulted in amazing artworks displayed in windows on the high street in Kirkham Town Centre, nursing homes, schools and in private homes throughout Kirkham and Wesham. Celebrating local heritage.

The students loved taking part and I feel it is essential we work with the local community in any way we can, and art is such wonderful expression of this!

Thanks again for the fantastic opportunity!

Alex Haley, Assistant Headteacher, Pear Tree School   

We had a wonderful morning and are thrilled with our hamper from Morrison’s. There are some really good local, top quality shops and facilities in Kirkham, so we hope that this culture and history project helps to reimagine our High Street and draw new people into the community.

We had such fun creating the art installation over Easter as a journey through the industrial heritage of the town. It had a personal touch with Adele’s grandfather being a local cobbler in the first half of the last century. Her served many of the local mills in Kirkham and Wesham. So, our installation is a journey from small hamlet to the coming of the railways, which sparked a journey from windmill to flax mill.

We never imagined we would win a prize, it made a happy and joyful celebration in these difficult times.

Peter & Adele Walsh

A temporary installation – created by the local Beavers group, who said:

Toby and Gabe really enjoyed learning all about Kirkham and making their stained-glass window tonight.

Darragh loved making his stained-glass window.

Georgina loved doing the art piece last night. Thank you.

Sophie really enjoyed making her stained-glass window with Beavers tonight and working with guest artist Alex Blakey. Sophie’s is a Roman fort.

We finished off our stained-glass windows today with fantastic input from Alex Blakey. Can’t wait to see all of the panels installed in the phone box!

Photographs from Kirkham’s past linked to individual memories

This was created by Alex Blakey, working with Kirkham Cultural Consortium and residents and is a living documentation of Kirkham’s past. It tells the town’s story through the voices of those who’ve experienced it. The stories could be accessed by scanning a QR code or through digital files held at Kirkham Library

The photos depicted different aspects of Kirkham’s past from the mills, streets and shops to the Roman excavations and local clubs. The memories linked directly to the photos

Listen to an example memory:

Created through community workshops. Six boxes, each sharing a glimpse into the past.

This historical map of Kirkham was created by students from Kirkham Grammar School. The illustrations reveal the locations of historic buildings, spaces and events that are no longer visible today. It tells a story of Kirkham’s past from Roman times through to present day.

The whole experience of taking part in the ‘Kirkham Through Time’ mapping project was first class. Alex Blakey was so professional and organised and the work she put in enabled my students to easily understand exactly what was expected of them. We have also had many positive messages on our Facebook page and on the ‘Kirkham & Wesham Memories of the Past’ Facebook page. I cannot speak highly enough of Helen & Alex and how hard they have worked to get this project together. I was so proud to see the final version on the wall near Morrison’s. It looks amazing!

The whole concept was aimed at encouraging the students to research the history of a very specific area of Kirkham. They had the freedom to concentrate on one particular period of history or to consider their area as a palimpsest, with layers of history building up over time.

The students gained valuable research skills as well as learning how to use drawings, pictures and text to illustrate their area on the map. The A level Geography specification includes a topic called ‘Changing Places’ where students must study the unique character of their local place. In the process of completing the mapping project, the students have uncovered so many unique aspects of Kirkham’s history that has shaped the character of the town today. The map project should really help them in their final exam as remembering details about the history of the town will be so much easier having done the research for themselves.

The map will be hugely helpful going forward as we are going to have a large version installed in the corridor outside of the geography classrooms. Future students will be able to use it to learn about the history of the town with ease and I have also suggested that the History department may be able to use it when they teach the year 7 students about the history of Kirkham Grammar School. This study could be expanded to teach about the wider history of the town. Since the map was installed, I have had an email from a former student who now teaches Geography in another school saying how impressed she was & how she was considering doing a similar project on their local town.

Feedback from Sue Taylor of Kirkham Grammar School

This work was created by year 9 art students at Carr Hill School in collaboration with artist Alex Blakey, during the pandemic. Each student created their own fused glass work inspired by the history of Kirkham. The piece shows different aspects of Kirkham’s history, from the clog shops and confectioners to the Romans, medieval markets, and mills.

A temporary heritage trail along Kirkham High Street, pupils from local schools worked with artists Alex Blakey, created, the installation “Post Cards from the Past – these were exhibited by local businesses.

I firstly wanted to email to express our thanks to you for our fantastic and engaging Art workshop with you focusing on The Romans in Kirkham and supporting us in creating postcards linked to this. Your delivery was excellent and the feedback from the staff and students has been extremely positive, and they really enjoyed it.

Will Norris Pear Tree School

A pop up heritage trail celebrating Kirkhams rich heritage and all the fantastic installations and artwork that had been created.

The kids loved doing the quest! It was great to learn some local history. Thank you!