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A ‘wicki’ house idea |
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A ‘wicki’ house idea |
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In 2004 Martin Ludlow and his wife bought a Victorian semi in Newport, South Wales. Built around 1895, the house was pretty much untouched. The previous owners told them that the RAF had occupied the house during World War Two and an elderly resident remembered the RAF being in the house. It occurred to Martin that there could well be others in Newport or elsewhere who knew about the history of the house and perhaps had photographs. But how to get in touch with them was the question. It then occurred to Martin that a wiki website where anyone could add content would be the ideal solution to this problem. By creating a website anyone could browse and add content to, it should be possible to make far more information available about houses, streets and neighbourhoods than would otherwise be possible. Archive and record offices can only collect a limited amount of historical information. Most older people have memories, documents, photographs and so on relating to houses, streets and neighbourhoods that are just locked away and will never go to a record office. By encouraging people to share these, the resources available to local historians could be vastly increased, at least as far as historical information going back two or three generations is concerned. As Martin says ‘Wikipedia is a great success and shows that people are willing to contribute to websites on topics that interest them, so hopefully they will contribute to The House Archive in a similar way and help create a great resource for local historians as well as being a way for them to work together on projects’. It’s a great aim and a great idea. To find out more contact Martin Ludlow,
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9 August 2007
‘Glanmor’, a painting of the house in Newport by Alison Ludlow, who is a professional artist and muralist. For more information visit www.artspot. org.uk. |
