Family Adams Project (FAP)

J H Adams, Ironmongers, faithfully served Fenland customers for over 100 years selling everyday objects, such as screws, pots and pans to special skates to be used on frozen Fen! With much of the original shop still intact, including wooden floors and counters, a local group applied for HLF funding to record it.

But the ensuing project involved so much more! It recorded oral histories from local customers to create a ‘living history’ book, created a record of the unchanged shop interiors and found artefacts, and a local craftsman made a scale model of the premises. Previously unseen photographs, letters and ledgers were recorded in a film. A drama written by playwright Jean Rees and performed by local young people was based on the extensive notebooks of Doris Elizabeth Adams and her family life in the village. Finally a community celebration brought together all of these aspects, including the film premiere and a performance of the play.