… Wessex Film and Sound Archive needs your help to develop and diversify its collections!
Andover: An Overspill Story is a 12-month community project created with the support of the British Film Institute, awarding funds from the National Lottery to help develop our collections.
The focus of this project is on Andover as its residents have not deposited much audio-visual material in Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA).
To support the project, we would like Andover residents to add a slice of their life and part of their story to WFSA.
Anyone can submit film to the archive for this project. However, we are particularly keen to encourage submissions from those living in the larger newer estates and the originally-called London ‘overspill’ estates (King Arthur’s, Admirals, Cricketers, River Way). This is because, despite being over 50 years old, these estates are so far not represented in screen heritage collections.
We are also lacking audio-visual material which represents individuals from LGBTQ+ communities, BME communities and of those from other socio-economic groups within Andover.
If we can improve the visibility of all these community groups and individuals in our collections, we can, hopefully, trigger an influx of new content from these communities.
Engaging with communities
Throughout the year we will be attending and hosting events in Andover to engage communities with WFSA content, start a dialogue with individuals about their heritage and consider ways to break down the barriers to accession for communities currently under-represented in archives and heritage.
Our ‘What’s On’ page is regularly updated with upcoming events so do keep an eye out for these as they appear!
We will be engaging and working with individuals and communities in ways which work best for them to capture what’s important to them. This will allow us to develop our collections and for WFSA to become more representative of Andover so that the town’s residents and community groups start to see themselves in our collections and view archives as a place for them.
How can you help?
If you are interested in supporting the project, we’d love to hear from you!
There are many ways to contribute to WFSA, and not all involve handing over previous documents. If you have a story to tell (or even a fragment of a story), please get in touch.
Perhaps you’re a Cricketers’ resident with mobile footage of how you create a family meal? Have you joined one of Andover Trees group’s planting sessions and wish to share your work? Do you remember when the Tour de France came to Andover and was broadcast by Town TV?
Anyone can submit film to the archive for this project. You don’t need to be an archive user! We are keen to stress that archives are not only about the great and the good but should represent the diversity of Andover and the lived experiences of all its residents.
We are looking to collect memories of living in Andover, footage that is reflective of living in Andover today, and material that reflects all the different communities and age groups of those in the town.
Your experiences could be contributed as a video, sound recording, photographs, handwritten notes, or something else …
If you’d like to add something to the project but need some inspiration, here’s a few things to think about:
- What is important to you?
- How would you like to see your community reflected in 50 years’ time?
- What is your favourite thing about living in Andover?
- Do you have any fond memories of a particular event?
- What’s you favourite activity to do in the town?
- Do you enjoy cooking? Show us how you prepare your meals.
- What is life like as an Andover resident?
Project legacy
We have some lovely footage of Andover in our archives, but there are gaps. We want to ensure that we have good quality representative footage that reflects the lived experience of everyone in the town.
With your help, we want to address this gap and begin a dialogue, not focus our energies on a finite project. We hope that this work will turn into an ongoing activity beyond the life of the funding and that adding a piece of your story to WFSA becomes a feature of more people’s routine.
With more diverse content, we can improve the visibility of currently under-represented communities in our collections. Then, more individuals will start to see themselves represented in our material and see WFSA, and archives, as a place for them.
With your efforts, researchers wanting to know what life was like in Andover in the 2020s and beyond will also be able to see the town and its people in all their infinite variety!
If you have a story to tell (or even a fragment of a story), please use our contact form or email: archives.enquiries@hants.gov.uk
Andover: An Overspill Story 
I was elected a Test Valley Cllr in 1979 from south of the Borough when I first learned of the Andover housing issues.
We worked very hard to get money out of the GLC to help refurbish the housing which unfortunately had initially been poorly constructed with flat roofs. The refurbishment at the time in the 1980s was largely well done
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