Children of The Croft

People visiting a Children of the Croft pop-up exhibition

Your Heritage

Date awarded
Location
Mapperley
Local Authority
Nottingham
Applicant
Now Heritage Community Interest Company
Award Given
£19700
Volunteers researched the history of The Croft in Nottingham, a non-institutional home for lone mothers during the 1960s and 1970s.

Now Heritage CIC managed this innovative project, which highlighted the revolutionary, non-judgmental support provided by the housing charity, Family First.

Children of the Croft enabled intergenerational story sharing and identified the changing experiences of lone mothers from the 1960s onwards. It ensured that important accounts of freedom and choice for women were recorded and shared before they were lost.

A team of 12 people, including two current lone mothers, conducted oral history interviews with former residents of the home. They also recorded the stories of past employees and other women who remember The Croft. In addition, the participants looked at primary archive material and helped to develop a display for Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery and at other venues.

The Croft itself no longer exists, but the stories live on through this project. Valuable outputs included a film, an educational website and the oral histories stored at the Nottinghamshire Archives and local studies library. Participants also benefited from training activities and establishing working relationships with old and new contacts alike.

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