Community Group of the Month January 2026 - Bideford and District Community Archive

Happy New Year from everyone at CAHG.  With the arrival of 2026, we’re relaunching our Community Group of the Month award and our group for January is the Bideford and District Community Archive. We spoke to Kathryn Harrison, who is the chair of the group, and we asked her to tell us a bit about the group. She shared that “the project started in 1983 using a collection of local newspapers – The Bideford & North Devon Gazette – which were given to Bideford Town Council by the publisher”. “Over the years a team totalling over 100 volunteers have been compiling a unique index and filing system. We are fortunate in that volunteers seek us out or are recommended by word of mouth or approach us after hearing a talk. We are always welcoming and set them to work on our index system which identifies stories, topics and people from the mid-1850s to 1919”. “Volunteers are trained to use the original newspapers, and digital and microfilm readers. Our aims are to conserve the materials and to make our communities as aware as possible of their availability in order to enhance local knowledge of local history”. We asked Kathryn about the communities that they work with and how they engage with them. She shared that “we collect stories, photographs, oral and written biographies and other documents relating to ordinary lives within the Torridge District Council area, the area covered by the Gazette from its inception. The Archive is the only resource of this type in the Torridge area. Volunteers provide the public with the opportunity to research family, community and property history using the Archive’s resources and online access to a research tool”. “We use social media and a custom-made website to increase our online presence – there are over 3,000 articles on it – and this increases weekly. https://www.bidefordarchive.org.uk/ In the last calendar year, there have been almost 50,000 active users and just over 104,000 views of our website. The majority of our users are based in the UK and analytics detail that over 2,500 are based in Bideford. The website is updated to commemorate key dates and anniversaries in history highlighting the Bideford contribution and stories of that time – the 100th anniversaries of Bideford Rotary, and the opening of Bideford Hospital in 1925. Plus, commemoration of Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk evacuation) in 1940; VE Day; VJ Day. Picking up on a comment from one of our Councilors, at an Archive meeting about Bideford Town Council commemorating the death of a Belgian refugee - Elizabeth Deneys, in 1917 - volunteers undertook some research using the relevant newspapers and put together a small project to tie up with the unveiling of a memorial plaque. This was added to our website and shared to the Bideford History Facebook Page. We are passionate about promoting the heritage of Bideford both to local people and the "diaspora". We asked how the group’s work has contributed to preserving community heritage and/or broadened the appeal of community archives to a wider group of people.  Kathryn told us that “our collection includes the newspapers and thousands of photographs and documents which all detail elements of local, family, property or community history. We don't wait for people to come to us but go out to meet them or communicate with them via our website or local media. We provide articles for the North Devon Journal via our town's Heritage Harbour Project. Our volunteers are regularly invited to give talks or guided walks on events in the history of the Torridge area and the Archive and the resources we hold. As well as the newspapers, the Archive offers access to other local information such as artefacts, maps, books, documents, registers, life histories and photographs. We publish two booklets highlighting the Bideford Black mining industry and exploring the local stories of Saxon Battles in the area. These are sold at the the local museum, bookshop and tourist centre”. We asked Kathryn about running activities that have beneficial impacts on the physical, mental and social wellbeing of individuals and communities. She told us, “given that we believe that an historical understanding of place enhances a person’s sense of self and wellbeing as well as social cohesion; we are confident that we help to provide this by our activities. We engage with our communities at fairs and other commemorative events by way of providing high quality displays that feature local involvement in national events or detailed local events. We find that people stop to read them and talk with the volunteers on the topics highlighted. We have contributed to "memory cafes" run by other organisations who support people with dementia. As previously mentioned, we also provide talks and walks. We ran a three-day course for six local teenagers set up by "Coasts in Mind" as part of their feasibility study for a larger project. We were delighted with the reaction of these young people to the stories they discovered about their hometown. We asked Kathryn what makes this group special, and she told us it was because of the volunteers who work in it. “Every person has a high level of commitment whether they be locals who enjoy sharing their knowledge or newcomers who enjoy researching aspects of the community. We all share a love of history and are often heard to say that "you learn something new every day" Each volunteer has a role in the conservation and indexing of our resources and there are many who show a particular interest in research or building the website or recording and organising. Led by a supportive and cooperative committee we are on the lookout for people's skills and encourage all our volunteers to extend themselves by creating articles or researching, using all the technology at our disposal. We regularly take up research projects suggested by our volunteers. Not only do we promote history to enquirers and casual participants at outside events, but we are an enthusiastic and welcoming History Club. As a result of our enthusiasm, users of our resources feel welcomed and encouraged”. You can find out more about the group and its work at https://www.bidefordarchive.org.uk and also at the Bideford Community Archive Facebook page. Congratulations to the group for being our first visitors of 2026 and please keep up your wonderful work.