Marshes Community Benefit Fund (MCBF)
F&DHS volunteers at Castle Park
AMP Launch
Research on Church Memorials leads to new publication
Frodsham & District History Society were invited to be part of St Laurence Church's Open Weekend in June 2024, and the Committee agreed to research the many memorials inside the church to discover more about the people who shaped the lives of many Frodsham people over the centuries. This led to months of painstaking research by the Committee, and culminated in information panels on display around the Church, which were greatly enjoyed by the many visitors during the weekend. The Committee attended the event on both days and engaged with many of the visitors.
Following this, an application was successfully made by the Society to funding offered by EETS at Stanlow, as part of their centenary celebrations. This enabled the research to be prepared for publication, and funded the print costs. This was the first publication, apart from the annual Journal, for more than a decade.
There are still copies available for purchase at £9.00 plus postage. If you are interested please contact Mrs Gill Baxter at fdhsarchive@gmail.com
Marshes Community Benefit Fund (MCBF)
Frodsham & District History Society are delighted to announce that they have been awarded £5,000
from the Marshes Community Benefit Fund (MCBF) to enable them to make their archive collection
available online.
The Society, which is approaching its fortieth year, has a significant collection of documents, maps,
posters, books, journals, artefacts, historic images and photographic slides.
Working with Cheshire Archives & Local Studies, and working at Frodsham Youth Association, a team
of ten volunteers will work through the collection. They will create an improved catalogue, that will
be searchable online, enabling researchers to quickly check what is available. The volunteer team will
also move the items, some of which are fragile, into specialist archival document boxes, which have
been funded by MCBF, thus ensuring that the collection will be preserved for future generations.
To prepare for the task ahead, the volunteer team are being trained in community archive skills, in
particular, collections information improvement and conservation, which will be delivered online
because of social distancing requirements. Lisa Greenhalgh, Senior Archivist at Cheshire Archives &
Local Studies, said “This is a ground breaking project for us to work with, as we are delivering
training online for the first time to a community group. This may enable us to review training in the
future, and helps us contribute to reducing our carbon footprint”.
Frank Whitfield, Chairman of Frodsham & District History Society said “This project will raise the
profile of local history and heritage in Frodsham and the surrounding area by allowing those with an
interest to personally view all the materials or access them via an online search. The conservation
work will also allow Frodsham’s historic past to be preserved for future research and display.
We are grateful to our partners, Marshes Community Benefit Fund, Frodsham Youth Association and
Cheshire Record office for their contribution and making this possible”.