Storytelling

Storytelling is a part of our Here in the Past local history project, run by volunteers and staff at The Regency Town House and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The aim of Storytelling is to turn just a small part of the mass of historic population data we've gathered about Brighton & Hove into stories about those who lived here in the past and then to use mobile technology to deliver these stories to people as they explore the same neighbourhoods today.

To do this we have assembled a team of volunteers. They first trawl through old newspaper archives to find interesting articles. Then they find out who is involved, where they lived and use other sources to fill in the background details.

These sources can be records at our local history archive The Keep, published diaries and books, searches on genealogy websites, court records, school registers, maps and plans, all sorts of things.

As the story takes shape it is published to this website. Often there will be pieces of information missing and questions remaining to be answered and these are included in the narrative.

We would be delighted if you can fill in some of these blanks for us, or send us your views on the issues raised.

Once a story is complete we will use it as a basis for writing script parts for all the different people identified in the story. These scripts will then be used to make audio recordings. Our intention is to deliver a story, seemingly as told by the voices of all those who were there at the time.

These audio recordings will be available for download through our website and may be distributed as podcasts.

The final step will be to take the various character parts, comprising audio files, images and so on, and incorporate these into a mobile website or app. This will enable a user to explore the neighbourhood where a story took place, locate the various protagonists involved and hear their version of what happened in the place where it happened.

Here are links to the stories currently under development.

Chocolate Cream Killer

Celia's Story

Chartism

Death in Sussex Square