Basic commentary notes to accompany Merton Memories presentation:

Slide 1( Title ) :

The Merton Memories Project tells the story of 150 years of Merton’s heritage using the medium of photography. The project started in September 2012 and involved the digitisation of a unique collection of historic photographs, which have been made available via a specially designed website, launched in March 2014. Project volunteers also created a wealth of educational resources including local history exhibitions, resource packs and class sessions for Merton schools. This work was made possible thanks to a £50,000 Heritage Lottery grant awarded as part of the “Your Heritage” programme.

This title slide features some examples of images from the collections of Merton Heritage & Local Studies Centre ( top left: lavender cutters in the Mitcham area c.1904; Ely’s department store, Wimbledon, c.1906 and an aerial view of Morden Underground Station, c.1930.

You can also see the strapline for the project – the branding was a major success and helped to create a strong project identity from the public’s perspective.

Slide 2: Reasons / need for the project:

Merton Library and Heritage Service has a large photographic collection dating from c.1869 to the present date – previously there was limited public awareness of this, apart from amongst heritage stakeholders ( museums and societies ) and those able to visit Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre

We needed to boost public knowledge of the collection but also to increase accessibility, whilst safeguarding fragile original images.

The material was used for enquiry work, exhibitions and some school activities, as well as the “Granny is 80, can we get a photo for her birthday…?” type of requests but the potential was far greater…

There were various gaps in the existing photographic collection which we were keen to address, particularly in order to make the collection more relevant to the modern diverse Merton community.

We were also getting a growing number of requests from schools and heritage organisations wanting access to material in a digital format

Slide 3: Heritage Strategy

Merton has a wide-ranging strategy which focusses on the need to safeguard and increase access to the borough’s heritage. Important strategic objectives include the need to allow more opportunities for working in partnership with heritage and community groups; the need to widen the audience for local heritage and methods for boosting tourism ( visits from Merton residents and people from farther afield.)

The Merton Memories Project contributed to achieving these objectives and also helped to raise the profile of Merton’s heritage service.

Slide 4: Aspects of the Merton Memories project

The project enabled us to work with a team of volunteers, who were vital to the success of the initiative, contributing a wide range of knowledge, ideas and experience. They were also the “friendly local face” of the project.

We were committed to working with a range of local heritage organisations, notably the Museum of Wimbledon, Merton Historical Society, Wandle Industrial Museum and Mitcham Cricket Green Community & Heritage. These organisations submitted images and metadata to the project website; offered historical knowledge and advice; contributed to project planning work and feedback, in addition to assisting with public events ( talks, displays and stalls )

An important part of the project work was digitisation to prevent the unnecessary handling of precious originals. The material was also reorganised and catalogued in a much more user friendly way and stored in conservation standard packaging ( acid free sleeves, archival boxes, etc )

The digitised photographic collection was then made accessible via a purpose built website which allows the public to view the material, order prints ( where possible ) and to submit queries and / or additional information.

A range of exhibitions, school resources and Discovery Days also gave the public unprecedented access to a unique collection of Merton images.

Slide 5: Volunteers

The biggest asset of our project and our greatest source of pride was, and continues to be, our team of volunteers.

These are drawn from all over the borough and include people of different ages and ethnic backgrounds, with different skills, interests and existing knowledge. All are united by an interest in local history and a willingness to contribute to something worthwhile in their spare time.

Slide 6: Training

All the volunteers underwent a programme of training. They were taught how to digitise historic photos; use a content management; how to do local history research and compose appropriate metadata. They were also given basic preventative conservation training in the handling and storage of photos and guidance on how to produce a display.

In addition to training courses, we provide crib sheets, practice sessions and 1:1 support to ensure that everyone felt comfortable and confident in their work.

Some volunteers were trained as trainers, cascading information and running digitisation practice sessions

Slide 7: Progress to date:

10,000 images were scanned by a specialist digitisation contractor, Townsweb Archiving Ltd – a company with a strong track record of supporting the heritage sector. Their client list includes the Royal household, the Ministry of Defence, the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, the British Postal Museum and Brunel

University. The remaining 5000 images were scanned by project volunteers, who also completed basic metadata entries for all the material – this means that there are at least 5 different ways of searching 15,000 historic images

Volunteers have been highly commended for their contributions to the project and all have continued to work with Merton Heritage Service.

The project team has also undertaken a range of outreach to promote their work, including stalls at Mitcham Fair, visits to Morden Mosque and participation in community events and activities across the borough.

Slide 8: Progress contd.

Local heritage stakeholders and members of the public have already submitted a further 170 images to the Merton Memories website and this is set to increase. We will also be organising targeted collecting to fill some of the gaps in our existing subject matter.

Merton teachers were regularly consulted regarding the development of resource packs and themed class sessions. These were designed to support the teaching of local history in Merton schools and to provide increased access to historical source extracts ( photos, the census, maps, oral history, directories and newspapers. ) We had aimed to work directly with 3 local schools but in practice this number rose to 12. Project packs were also issued to a further 31 primary schools ( hard copies and downloadable PDFs )

The project team organised a very successful communications strategy. In addition to regular media articles, eye-catching posters and flyers, we also used the web, Facebook and Twitter to promote the project and request information from the public. Local museums, societies and community groups also helped to publicise project events through their own meetings, newsletters and websites. This proved enormously successful – our 2 hour website launch and heritage event was attended by over 700 people. A second Discovery Day combining heritage displays, stalls, talks, web access and children’s events attracted over 2000.

The next few slides illustrate the Merton Memories website and some of its functions:

Slide 9: Homepage

This features a moving slideshow which has / will be changed in line with local events and heritage celebrations. ( It currently features World War I images but will change in September to show images of historic buildings for London Open House.)

There are tabs at the top of the page to allow users to access information on the project, browsing functions, information on how to order photos, details of Heritage provision and news.

Users can access images from any page on the website using the ( Keyword ) Search or Advanced search options.

They can also click into a range of photo collections from the homepage and the baseline includes links to access information and a “contact us” page.

Slide 10: Advanced search page

This gives people the option to search the collection by keyword, title, collection ( subject ), year, area, photographer, format ( e.g. postcard, photo, print ) or image reference

Slide 11: Browse by collection

From the “Browse” tab on the homepage the user can choose to search by collection or location.

The collections page shows the 16 different collections in our archive. These are:Aerial views, Archaeology, Buildings, Education, Events and Organisations, Open Spaces, People, Places of Worship, Public Services, Rivers & Waterways, Sports and Leisure, Streets, the Tom Francis collection ( Mitcham images 1869 – 1930 ), Transport, War, Work and Industry.

If you are not sure what is covered in a collection, you can click on the “Help with collections…” link to the left of the heading Sub Collections and this will bring up a guidance information, plus examples of key topics.

Slide 12: Navigating through collections

To navigate to different parts of a collection, you can either click on the relevant collection icon, or use the filter options to the right of the screen.e.g If you click on the War collection, this will bring up the relevant sub collections – Pre 1914 conflict, First World War, Second World War

If you choose a particular sub collection e.g Second World War – this will bring up the relevant topics - Air Raid Shelters, Bombs Damage, British restaurants, etc( You can access these by continuing to click on the relevant picture icons, or by using the drop down filters at the side. )NOTE: The Collections option on the Advanced Search page also features an a-z drop down list of all the collection topics on the website

Slide 13: Example of an image page

This has the image title, reference number, area, the date and copyright holder ( where known ), the format and associated historical information. The latter is still being worked on as an ongoing part of project research.

The user can also see a larger version of the relevant image by clicking on the link under the standard image

The public can submit ( moderated ) comments, suggestions for additional detail, corrections and / or queries using the comments box to the right of each image page. This generates an email to the Heritage Service.

Photos can also be ordered from each image page ( subject to copyright permissions )

Each image page generates a number of Related Collections to encourage further browsing

Slide 14: Browse by Location

This option ( available from the Browse Images tab on the homepage ) allows the user to bring up this simplified map of the borough, with clickable links. He / she can then find images of a particular area e.g Mitcham, Morden, Raynes Park

Slide 15: Help with location

As with the collections search page, there is a drop down window available by clicking “Help on how to use the search by location map” – this will give information on which parts of Merton lie within a clickable area on the map, plus guidance on key sites that fall within a designated area

Slide 16: Ordering a photo

The photo ordering system and details are standard to most sites but customers can also choose the format of image required ( portrait, landscape, best fit ). They can also set their own crop lines, so if they only want part of a photo e.g. a particular house or person, it is possible to set this up.

Slide 17: Contact Us

In addition to the Comments box on each image page, customers can also contact Merton Heritage service using the “Contact” tab from the homepage, or via the “Contact Us” link at the base of the page.

END – people can access the Merton Memories webpage at:

www.merton.gov.uk/memories

If anyone has any queries, requires further information or would like to submit photos for the site, they should contact:

Sarah Gould, Service Manager ( Heritage & Local Studies ) Tel. 020 8545 3239

Email: Local.studies@merton.gov.uk