History Project Exhibition Opening

Memories of Gravesham buildings, seen through the eyes of local people, will be shared at an exhibition this month.

The display, at Christ Church in Gravesend, is the culmination of two-year heritage arts project Making Places, Changing People by Design South East (formerly Kent Architecture Centre) and award-winning Gravesend practice Clay Architecture Ltd.

The project, which received £45,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, invited members of the public to share stories, photographs, documents or drawings demonstrating the visual and social changes that have taken place in the area in the last 100 years in relation to architecture.

Eight audiovisual animations will be shown at the exhibition, bringing together pictures and information collected throughout the project as well as recordings of interviews with experts and residents. Display boards, produced by Clay Architecture, will accompany the films.

In The First House Built, Northfleet residents Jean and Oliver Madgewick recall moving into a newly built home in Coldharbour Road in the 1960s when the estate was surrounded by potato and cabbage fields.

The Church That Moved features a series of photographs and the voice of local author Peter Shearan describing how Christ Church was dismantled and moved from Parrock Street to its current spot in Old Road East over three years by the George Clay Partnership, a forerunner of Clay Architecture.

Kasan Goh took over Clay Architecture with his wife and fellow director Camilla Prizeman in 2000. He said: “The aim of the project was to explore 100 years of Gravesend history 'through the eyes' of the Clay practice, using archive photographs, documents, drawings, projects and oral accounts stretching back as far as records, archive material and memory could reach.

“Since launching the project, volunteers from Christ Church and civic group Urban Gravesham have been trained in oral history and archival research. They have worked really hard gathering information for the project, digitising the drawings and photographs and cataloguing the collection.”

The material gathered during the project has been donated to Gravesend Library and copies are being loaded onto a new Making Places, Changing People website.

A second exhibition will be held at The Blake Gallery, Gravesend, from October 20 to November 2.

Making Places, Changing People: The Exhibition will be at Christ Church, Old Road East, Gravesend, from 10.30am to 3.30pm, Friday to Monday, March 28th to 31st.

See www.claymakingplaces.co.uk for more on Making Places, Changing People and for a web version of the exhibition in April.