Second people’s archive day: Saturday May 12th Birchwood Shopping Centre

Days of the New Town: Birchwood at 50 project will be hosting another people’s archive day on May 12th 2018 at Birchwood Centre. Please come to the stall and have a look at photos from the New Town Development Corporation archive of photos of Birchwood as it was being laid out and built, and opened to its first residents in the mid to late 1970’s. Bring along photos from your own family albums of your early days in Birchwood, particularly those of you who settled in Birchwood from the mid 1970’s to the mid 1980’s. The idea is that your photos will be scanned in at the stall and will eventually be shown as part of the Days of The New Town exhibition at Warrington Museum which opens on June 30th 2018 and runs until September 15th. Help mark Warrington’s New Town anniversary by being part of the exhibition!

People’s archive is underway

Many thanks to the residents of Birchwood who made it to Risley Moss Visitors Centre to donate their photos and other items from their own personal archives to help tell the story of Birchwood. It was great to see so many different types of things coming in. We had a couple of scrapbooks of Warrington Guardian articles featuring a really interesting set of ‘special reports’ on Birchwood from 1980,  which included an interview with the New Town Development Corporation General Manager David Binns. The author of a letter featured in the pages of the Fortean Times on a bit of New Town folk lore, in this case a phantom train making its way across Gorse Covert Mounds, and some excellent photos of some early Oakwood settlers living it up at the Fire Station’s new years do. I am hoping to get a stall in the Birchwood Centre in March or April 2018 to encourage more people to come forward with artefacts and photos that are beginning to tell a rich and varied story of the area since the mid 70’s. More soon.

People’s archive day: Wednesday 29th November, Risley Moss Visitors Centre midday to 3pm

In 2018 it will be 50 years since Warrington Partnership New Town was officially designated. To mark this anniversary, Warrington Museum will be showing images from Warrington New Town Development Corporation archive which describe Birchwood’s story from derelict site to pioneering example of housing design using ecological planning. But we also want pictures from residents own photo albums to help tell the story of Birchwood’s early years – can you help?
Were you an “early settler” in Birchwood – did you move to Birchwood between the mid 1970’s to early 1980’s? Do you have photographs of those early years which you would like to share to form part of the exhibition?
Would you like to share some of your recollections of how you came to live in Birchwood and what life was like in the early days for our oral history archive?
Come along to Risley Moss Visitor Centre foyer on Wednesday 29th November between midday and 3 o’clock with your photos and stories, all material will be scanned in so you can take it all home with you the same day.
Or get in touch via the contact tab here or Days of the New Town Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/daysofthenewtown