As we mark this important anniversary we are undertaking an ambitious heritage project Archiving Remembrance. Supported using funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Archiving Remembrance will culminate in the creation of our first formal archive.
The National Memorial Arboretum is one of the most significant millennium heritage projects to have been successfully delivered and sustained. Established so we never forget, our landscape holds the collective memory of our nation. We are a place defined by people - the powerful human stories we share, passionate storytellers who help bring our stories to life, and visitors who continue to find meaning, inspiration and value in the stories shared here.
Working with team members past and present, memorial holders, donors and communities connected to our story the Archiving Remembrance heritage team are currently cataloguing and digitising materials already in our collection and are looking to collect new materials and oral histories to ensure the stories of those who shaped this special place are shared.
You can learn more about the project and maybe meet some of the team in the Heritage Hub in Gallery Two in the Remembrance Centre.
Archiving Remembrance will culminate in a special exhibition launching in Gallery Two in the Autumn, and later a publication, giving new opportunities for people to explore the Arboretum's unique heritage.
Do you have something you would like to donate that links to our history and story? Or perhaps you were involved in the past and would be happy to share your memories with us?
Our team of trained volunteers are able to record oral history interviews, capturing your story for the future, both here at the Arboretum and at your home. We are also accepting archival donations. We kindly request that visitors contact us ahead of their visit to site so the Project Archivist can confirm if its something we are looking to collect and can store safely. If you have a lot of material to share, our Project Archivist is happy to travel to your home to look at it with you.
Visit our Heritage Hub team in Gallery Two on your next visit to find out more, or email us and someone from the project team will be in touch.
Archives are collections of records. They can include:
Our archive will store oral histories, and analogue and digital documents, ledgers, plans, journals, photographs, films and other ephemera directly relating to the Arboretum’s development as a visitor attraction, the conception and construction of its memorials, and the planting of trees.
Together the items wll show how our year-round national centre of Remembrance was created. It will also help us to organise, care and share items connected to our story long into the future.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK’s heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players they support projects that connect people and communities to heritage.
Their vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations.
They believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
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