Keystone Heritage

A two part project on behalf of the Canal and River Trust linked to the redevelopment of part of the Montgomery Canal. We developed and delivered workshops about the history of the canal to 3 schools around Llanymynch in Powys. For the second stage of the project we worked with the schools to create a walking tour about the canal which could be downloaded from the Canal and River Trust website. The pupils researched different elements of the canal (history, environment and leisure), learnt how to ask questions and record oral histories from local people and write the walking tour. The pupils all took part in recording the snippets for the tour using professional recording equipment. The snippets from the pupils and oral histories were turned into a digital walking tour for the canal.

Over the last few years we have project managed, on behalf of Cadw, the development of a number of bilingual teaching resources. A key element to the projects was to work with the North East Wales Cadw volunteers to research, write and create the resources as well as provide training opportunities. These resources have covered Basingwerk Abbey, Greenfield Valley Industrial Heritage, The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way and most recently a resource to support Cynefin in schools. Alongside each of these resources we created a series of fun, educational films with the volunteers. The Basingwerk Abbey resource won the British Museum Marsh Trust award and The Pilgrim’s Way project was shortlisted for the Museums+Heritage Awards Volunteer Award 2024.

Throughout the summer holidays we run a series of workshops in schools as part of the SHEP programme. The programme provides food and nutrition education, physical activity, and healthy meals to children during the school summer holidays. Alongside this funding helps support enrichment sessions. Our sessions are all inspired by Cadw Welsh history and have spanned thousands of years from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, Castles, Celts and Romans Tudors and the Victorians. Activities include a mixture of hands on object handling, crafts and role-play as well as working together in groups supporting wellbeing and creativity.

With the introduction of a new curriculum in Wales, we rain a series of online training sessions for museums, libraries and archives across Wales and the borders for GEM Cymru, explaining the changes and differences from the old curriculum. We ran multiple sessions that included some great discussions in break out sessions.

We work closely with Ysgol Treffynnon in Holywell and their Humanities teacher to develop bespoke workshops linked to the local area. Workshops have included Medicine Through Time, WW1 memorial soldier investigation, creating WW2 themed ‘museum displays and developing an ‘escape room’ style activity to investigate Basingwerk Abbey.

This was a collaboration with the year 6 teacher to research the world wars in St Asaph using the Curriculum for Wales goals. We had online discussions with the class and planned a visit to St Asaph Cathedral and the local cemetery. We created bespoke booklets for pupils to record data from the war graves and we studied census data and maps to find out where the fallen soldiers had lived. The project enabled the pupils to ask questions and follow their own research pathways.

This was a major re-enactment event and oral history project around Talacre as a WW2 training ground for Spitfire’s and later as a holiday destination. We ran a series of workshops in schools as well as project managed the large scale re-enactment.

This was a collaboration with not-for-profit organisation Can̂Sing, bringing together three schools across Rhyl to learn about local history and create a performance from what they had learnt.

Lorna has been working within museums and learning for over fourteen years. She has a history degree and a Masters in Museum Studies with a focus on learning and community engagement. Lorna has worked with school groups of all ages and has seen first-hand the impact handling real objects and becoming history detectives has had on learning about the past. She has dedicated large amounts of her time to look for ways to reach harder to reach audiences including local families who do not think museums are for them. Lorna champions heritage and its uses and has worked with a number of well-being groups including Flintshire Mind, young carers, Arthritis Care and those with anxiety and depression. She is passionate about engaging everyone with their local heritage through real objects, and believes bringing history to life is the best way of learning and inspiring people whislt having a positive impact on improving well-being.

Sarah has always had a passion for history and archaeology even as a child and was always trying to dig up the garden in search of ancient treasures. With teacher parents who encouraged her to pursue a career in archaeology, she gained a degree in archaeology from Liverpool University in 2002 and promptly began digging up the North West of England. Over the next six years Sarah excavated and surveyed varying historic sites including prehistoric and Roman settlements as well as an 18th century dock underneath the Liverpool Echo Arena. Drawn by the wealth of history to North Wales, she began a two year post as Community Archaeologist of North East Wales, delivering and developing history workshops for schools and historic sites. With a breadth of experience in various periods of history and archaeology, Sarah took up the role of Assistant Curator at Greenfield Valley Museum where she helped redevelop the education offer in cooperation with the Volunteer Co-ordinator Lorna Kernahan, where they struck up a winning team of heritage educators.