When is a bus not a bus?

A post I wrote for the Know your Bristol blog about our vehicle which seems to have a acquired a number of names, not all of which are entirely accurate! 

When we first talked about the Know your Bus strand of this project, all of us had visions of an old double decker bus. Kitted out with our gear and decorated with the Know your Bristol theme, we'd happily trundle around Bristol, setting up wherever our communities are. Unfortunately, reality doesn't always work like that. We soon realised that buying an old bus was a little beyond our budget (the AHRC would undoubtedly agree) and hiring one would be tricky given what we wanted to use it for. Thankfully we remembered that the University has an HGV that was initially bought as a Mobile Teaching Unit for medical students. Whilst it mostly languished out at the Vet School, it still saw occasional use for outreach with schools. But here was a resource already owned by the University that could readily be revamped for our purpose, even if it's not quite as glamorous as we'd imagined.

Our first challenge has been coming up with a design for the outside that reflects the purpose of the lorry and the breadth of use. After all, it's still being used by the School of Physiology and Pharmacology as a mobile classroom for outreach to primary schools. We also wanted something inclusive enough for other groups in the University to consider options for using it in their engagement activities. Dirty Design, who developed the design for our booklet, were up to the task and created a set of concepts. The one we've gone for in the end is a stylised map of Bristol, which we think links nicely to the themes of Know your Bristol.


The next stage was revamping the interior of the lorry, which has been a much easier task. Most of the equipment in the lorry is readily moved, including the model skeleton that currently resides in a corner. The exception is the anatomy table that was originally designed for dissection (whether it's actually seen any action is debatable). Conveniently, it is the perfect size for our digitisation equipment so we will have Jamie happily taking archive quality images where you would normally expect to see someone wielding a scalpel. With some blackout blinds and a number of other props, we should be able to use the space flexibly, from showcasing material and films to collecting stories and co-creating knowledge. It will also allow us to provide tea and cake on the move - the fuel on which our project runs.

Unfortunately the one variable we didn't consider was the narrowness of Bristol's roads and the not-so-narrow turning circle of the lorry. Our first attempt to use it at our event in Bedminster came to nothing when we realised it wouldn't make it round the corner by the park - thankfully in advance of the event and without any damage to surrounding infrastructure. But we have a number of events in the autumn which will feature the lorry and where we still continue to call it a bus, despite all evidence to the contrary. So don't be surprised if you see it meandering around your part of Bristol sometime soon, assuming it can get down the road in the first place.

Revisiting value

Capturing memories in the rain at Orchard Roots

Some brief reflections on the Know your Bristol project that I wrote for the project blog.

My first post on the Know your Bristol project focused on memory and its value.  So it's quite fitting that, nearly two years later, I'm returning to the same thoughts about what we consider to be of value.  We had a big team gathering the other day and my colleague Nate spoke about the idea of ephemeral value and instrumental value.  The digitised objects and photos, and the oral histories that we have gathered during Know your Bristol all have ephemeral value - that is they are valued because they are there and people can see them, share them, enjoy them.  But many of them also have instrumental value as they are being used by people, amongst other things to help inform decisions.  My colleague Pete explained how many planning applications that he sees in his role at Bristol City Council have incorporated elements of Know Your Place - not just the maps but the images and memories as well.  So it's clear that these stories and images have a value, and a life, beyond our project here.

Connected Communities showcase

A post from the Know your Bristol blog on the recent Connected Communities showcase, including an embarrassing video of Pete and I doing our double act.

In March, the Know your Bristol team was invited to take part in the AHRC’s Connected Communities Showcase.  This event featured many of the projects funded by the Connected Communities programme in the last few years and provided an opportunity for us to share our outcomes and impacts with other researchers and community organisations working in similar areas.

There were several talks and panel discussions over the course of the day.  But the most interesting part was wandering round the stands and finding out what other projects had got up to.  From creative research into community gardening to exploring the interwoven (pun intended) social histories and cultural practices of Scottish basket-weaving, the breadth of topics and partnerships was amazing.  It was also interesting to see the different approaches to community mapping projects, with people utilising digital technologies such as QR codes and GPS tracking of walking routes through smartphones.

But the day was also a chance for us to show some of the wonderful material and stories that we have managed to obtain through Know your Bristol and how they are being used.  As such we had a laptop on hand to show people the Know Your Place website and how the oral histories have helped enrich this burgeoning resource.  We even got interviewed as part of the AHRC’s documenting of the day.

David Willetts, in his keynote speech, talked about how much he values research from the arts and humanities and his role as an advocate for them in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.  But you only needed to look around you in the exhibition hall to see the importance of such projects and the effect that they have on both researchers and the communities involved.

Stories from the War - Avonmouth and Shirehampton

A post from the Know your Bristol blog, looking at our event in Shirehampton.  Naturally there's going to be a focus on war in the next year so it was good to get a taster of just some of the stories from here in Bristol.

It’s been nearly a hundred years since the start of the First World War but the history and heritage of it is still with us – something that was clearly shown at our latest Know your Bristol event.  Held at Shirehampton Public Hall, we had a steady stream of visitors coming to look at the resources gathered so far and contribute their stories to this growing archive – with many being so eager they turned up before we’d even got everything set up.

Shirehampton and Avonmouth both contributed to the war effort, with the latter being a strategically important military depot – a place from which many troops and equipment were dispatched to the Western Front.  In addition a remount depot was established at Shirehampton that stabled and supplied over 300,000 horses and mules to the front between 1914 and 1918.  Nowadays there are no visible remains of this site, but one of the first oral histories was from a lady remembering the large post that was one of the last remaining features from the depot before being pulled down sometime in the 70s.

We also heard personal stories of grandfathers and other family members who’d fought in the war, and the photos and mementoes that they’d sent back from the front.  A beautiful example of this was the collection of postcards decorated with detailed French embroidery, with the colours and patterns looking like they’d just been stitched yesterday.  Less attractive, but just as fascinating, was a genuine German bayonet and sheath with a tragic history.  The bayonet had been used to kill a British soldier but its owner had been killed at the same time so the bodies of these soldiers from opposing sides were found right next to each other.  A sad tale and a reminder of the impact that the War had on people, not just locally but from all over the world.

Knowing our Bristol

Another post from the Know your Bristol blog - looking back on the events last year, the value of non-academic knowledge and how it will be used to shape future decisions in Bristol.

How well do you know your neighbourhood?  This has been the question at the heart of Know your Bristol as it aims to celebrate memories of Bristol as seen through the eyes of the community.  In the past year, through seven road shows at locations throughout Bristol, we have managed to collect around 40 oral histories and capture over 750 digitised images – with photographs ranging from family outings to special occasions to snapshots of everyday life.  The stories have been poignant, with tales of loved ones no longer with us.  They have been entertaining – a highlight of mine being the tale of a zookeeper being knocked over by a dead giraffe (it’s surprisingly hard to conduct an interview when you’re trying not to burst into laughter).  But above all, they have been an insight into a part of Bristol that hasn’t been documented before, and in some cases a Bristol that no longer exists.

It’s clear from this project that Bristolians, past and present, have a wealth of information about this city and we have attempted to capture just some of this in a booklet summarising the series of events so far.  Know your Bristol has shown the value of non-academic knowledge in thinking about our lives and our heritage.  And for some of us who are new(ish) to Bristol it’s been a fabulous way to get out of the ivory tower and explore parts of the city we may have never come across otherwise.

But the project also has a longer legacy than that.  The images and oral histories are steadily being uploaded onto the Know Your Place site, run by our partners at Bristol City Council.  This site not only provides a rich and detailed history of Bristol through the ages but the material is also being used to inform decisions about planning at a neighbourhood scale and in schools as part of a locally relevant learning resource.  So people’s memories aren’t trapped in their heads, or even hidden away in a dusty archive – they are readily available for people to use as they wish.  And this is not the end for Know your Bristol.  Thanks to additional support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund we will be working with more community groups to explore areas we didn’t manage to reach last year.  So watch this space for more stories from our events and let’s see what more we can find out about this diverse and fascinating city we live in.

The value of memory

This is the last of my posts (at the moment) for the CPE blog. I wrote this following the pilot event in our Know your Bristol series which I have been the project manager for. The project has given me an insight into Bristol and the lives of its inhabitants, not to mention all the wonderful images and stories that have been captured. These are currently being developed into a booklet which will be launched at the final celebratory event in December.

“But I really don’t know why you’d be interested in my memories” said an elderly gentleman to me at Hillfields library the other week. I was there for the pilot of Know your Bristol – a series of events organised by the University about sharing and capturing the heritage of Bristol, as seen through the eyes of its inhabitants.

In public engagement, the perception used to be that researchers are the experts, keen to impart knowledge and understanding of their work. But in recent years this has evolved into a more nuanced argument: researchers may well be the experts in their field but members of the public have opinions, values, and lay and professional knowledge that can contribute to research. From the plumber who gives the biologist an insight into networks to the family photos that give a greater understanding of a period in history – these examples are all around us now. However, one of the challenges we face is to convince people, from funders and researchers to the public themselves, that these conversations can be of value. Events such as Know your Bristol give us an opportunity to get out of the office (or the laboratory) and experience first-hand what we can learn from the public.

So to return to my elderly gentleman – what was the value of his knowledge? Well, it turns out that the ‘official’ record of how the Hillfields estate was constructed isn’t entirely correct. Apparently there’s a mistake about which houses were constructed first and he should know – he moved in to one of them! It’s not a massive change but now, at least, the historical records of Bristol are a tiny bit more accurate. All this from one conversation at a library; let’s see what we can uncover from the next events.