Posted on Tuesday 6th October 2020
Victoria Wilson, Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture at Staffordshire County Council
Talks on the history of the shoe industry in Stafford, the Staffordshire Hoard and exclusive access to a screening of the short animated film ‘Tunstall’ are amongst the activities still to come in October as part of this year’s Staffordshire History Festival.
The annual festival running throughout September and October is a celebration of the county’s past and is being organised by Staffordshire County Council’s libraries, arts and museum services.
This year’s festival is taking place online and on social media with a host of activities, videos, photo exhibitions, quizzes, crafts and activities for children.
The Battle of Britain anniversary as well as regular posts to highlight famous people from Staffordshire and little known facts about the county’s past made up the celebrations for September.
Some activities in October include:
- Chris Copp from Staffordshire archives and museums service – History of the Stafford Shoe Industry (Sunday 11 October, 12:30pm)
- Andrew Baker, Staffordshire Libraries Service – Music of Shugborough (Sunday 11 October, 1:30pm)
- The Home Front and the 1940s house in the Second World War – a day of posts on Facebook and Twitter (Thursday 15 October)
- Staffordshire History, Heritage and Legends – A day of posts on Facebook and Twitter (Thursday 29 October)
- A new Staffordshire Creative Explorers activity for children and families every Saturday morning at 10am
As part of Black History month, also in October, people will get the chance to see a screening of the short animated film ‘Tunstall’ by Jason Young. The film tells the story of Samuel Barber, the first Black British Local Preacher in the Primitive Methodist Church in Tunstall, (1809-1828). The film will be On Facebook and Twitter (Wednesday 14 October, 7:00pm)
Further details on festival activities are available on the libraries Facebook and Twitter pages.
Victoria Wilson, Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture at Staffordshire County Council said:
“Staffordshire is an amazing county, with a rich history and our annual festival is a great opportunity to celebrate and share it.
“Historic buildings and landscapes, famous people, unique discoveries like the Staffordshire Hoard and the Battle of Britain were amongst the themes being explored during September but there’s much more to come.
“Coronavirus has changed so many plans and affected so many events this year, but it’s wonderful to see how adaptable our library staff and volunteers have been in pulling together a brilliant programme of engaging online content. We’ve seen some amazing engagement on the libraries social media channels so far and had some great feedback from people.
“There’s more to come, so whether it’s the Staffordshire Hoard and the Mercian kings, or our wonderful buildings like Lichfield Cathedral, I would urge everyone to join in and share the stories throughout October.”
Recommendations for history e-books, e-audio and e-magazines including the Blitz, Black History Month, historical novels and history for children from the libraries service will also be offered.
Free access to the Ancestry Library Edition website will continue throughout October for Library members to access at home along with the online newspaper resource NewsBank, with some newspapers dating back to the 1980s.
People can follow the festival on Staffordshire Libraries Facebook and Twitter pages, by searching for #StaffsHistFest.