Powys Libraries and Archive Digital History project
Powys Libraries and Archive Digital History project
Life in Victorian Powys, a county in mid-Wales, will be in the spotlight thanks to a new digital history project from Powys County Council's Libraries and Archives service.
The project called "Powys: a day in the life" will focus on life in the county in 1891. Details, along with images of documents and artefacts from the County's Museums and archives office, will be displayed on a Web site which is due to be launched late in 2002.
The Web site will provide Powys residents with the opportunity to make history themselves by writing a diary of what they did on 24 September 2002. This will then become a resource for future generations on what daily life in Powys was like in the early part of the twenty-first century.
"There may be a few surprises", commented Anthony Sawyer, records manager with Powys County Council. "Comparisons will be drawn between how life is now and how it was over 100 years ago. We may find that in some ways life was better in 1891 than it is now!"
Local history societies, including the Brecknock Society, the Radnorshire Society, the Powysland Club and the Powys Family History Society, are also being asked to contribute material. The project has been supported by a £64,000 grant from the New Opportunities Fund, a National Lottery good cause distributor, through the Fund's nof-digitise programme. This programme is helping to put information that supports lifelong learning into digitised form. The nof-digitise grant awardees are developing learning materials covering a wide range of topics including arts, science, history, geography, citizenship and community information for Internet access. Further details are available at www.nof.org.uk/index.cfm
For further information please contact Robert Davies, Project Manager, Powys Digital History Project, Powys County Council, Llandrindod Wells, LD1 5LG,Powys, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1597 827024; Fax: +44 (0) 1597 826872; E-mail: aditl@powys.gov.uk; URL: history.powys.gov.uk
