27th July 2019

Legacy Makers Launch at St Matthews Church, Darley Abbey

The Slave Trade Legacies family were reunited for the launch of the Legacy Makers phase of the project. We gathered at St Matthew’s Church in Darley Abbey and had the opportunity to explore the church and its grounds.

We were joined by our guests from the Hadhari Project and the Mandela Centre and introduced them to our project so far, showcasing everything we have achieved. Lisa Robinson presented the Slave Trade Legacies quilt (made by Evadney Jalloh and inspired by the Slave Trade Legacies family) and took us through a presentation showing the impact that our five year project has had so far.

Dr Helen Bates then went on to educate us on what is known about Darley Abbey so far. We learnt about the history of the church and how it was built by the Evans family for the mill workers who lived and worked in Darley Abbey. We learnt about the wealth of the Evans family and how it was generated by the trade of cotton, just like Cromford Mills.

Dr Susanne Seymour then spoke to us about past studies of important raw cotton suppliers and how our research can enable us to find our ancestors connections with Darley Abbey. Dr Susanne Seymour discussed the known suppliers of this cotton to the Evans family, James Bolton and the Earle brothers Thomas and William. This will allow us to see which countries and plantations are connected to the wealth of the Evans family. We also know that Walter, William and Elizabeth Evans were all abolitionist sympathisers.

After learning about the known histories of Darley Abbey we went on to begin plans for the project and what it should look like. Ideas for the project were lead by our volunteers and we stressed the importance of working with children on this phase of the project.

One of our volunteers stated that ‘children are the future’ and that they need to know about hidden histories just as much as older generations. This inspired us to get thinking of ideas for how we can take the project into schools and get more younger people involved on the project.

Today we are meeting with the Hadhari Project. The Hadhari project enables elders, mainly from the African and Caribbean community, to get out and socialise with each others. The projects provides elders with educational, social and recreational opportunities.

We will be having a short visit in Derby to meet with them and discuss our project. We will aslo be inviting them to the launch of Legacy Makers. In August we will be returning to the Hadhari Project to give a presentation to the elders that use the centre.

12th July 2019

Meetings in Derby

We met in Derby with Berimma Sancofa from Derby West Indian Community Association (DWICA). Since the Legacy Makers family has been doing a lot of work within Derby, we thought it would be nice for volunteers from Derby to join the project. With Berimma we discussed the achievements of the past phases of the project and introduced the new Legacy Makers phase.

We invited Berimma and the DWICA to join us at the launch event and also explored possible ways that they could create a partnership with our project.

We then traveled to the Mandela centre in Derby. We met with Sonya Robotham who kindly gave us a tour of the Mandela Centre and we introduced Sonya to our project.

We are excited for our new guests to join us for the launch of the Legacy Makers project on the 27th July!