Lottery funds new history project

May 24, 2018

London Gypsies and Travellers has received a grant of £99,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to explore and capture Gypsy and Traveller history and heritage in London.

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the grant will support an 18-month project – named ‘Mapping the pathway to equality: Gypsy and Traveller history and heritage in London’ – to make visible the presence of Gypsies and Travellers, their experiences and contributions to the city over the last century.

It will document memories of place, lived experiences and social, economic and cultural relationships. Over the next month LGT will be recruiting a team of volunteers from the Gypsy and Traveller community who will be involved in a programme of training and research to collect stories, photos, video and audio recordings.

This material will be uploaded onto an interactive online map, which will be co-produced with Mapping for Change, an organisation which works to provide benefit to disadvantaged or marginalised communities and help create sustainable transformations in their environment. LGT is working with Mapping for Change on its Mapping the Pathway to Equality project.

At the end of the 18 months, the online map will continue to be used as a learning resource – a way of sharing family and collective memories and recording Gypsy and Traveller history.

Tracie Giles, Romany Gypsy activist and Community Campaigner at LGT said: “The project gives our communities the opportunity to record orally and visually our life stories and memories of landmarks that are historically important to Gypsies and Travellers and have been handed down for generations.”

Stuart Hobley, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund London, said: “Gypsy and Traveller communities have played an important role in shaping the culture and heritage of London. Thanks to National Lottery players, we can record the memories of travelling communities and understand their historic perspective on this ever-changing city.”

If you are from the Gypsy and Traveller community and would like to be involved in the volunteering programme, please contact Ilinca Diaconescu on policy@londongandt.org.uk or 0208 533 2002.

The Heritage Lottery Fund helps people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect heritage – from archaeology and historic parks to memories and wildlife collections.

tnl_hlfe_rgb

More news

LGT’s year of change

February 17, 2025

London Gypsies and Travellers reflected on a year of change at its Annual General Meeting – in particular the way that community members are growing in confidence and bringing change to lives. “Our community is stepping up in ways we’ve never seen before,” said LGT Chair of Trustees Helena Kiely-Savin (pictured at the AGM). “We’re …

Gypsies and Travellers forced into unsuitable homes

February 11, 2025

Many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families in the UK are left trapped in substandard homeless shelters for years – and urgent investment in adequate and appropriate social housing is required to prevent this. This is the main message of a new report by London Gypsies and Travellers, produced jointly with the Roma Support Group. The …

Will new planning policy bring change?

December 19, 2024

New revisions to government planning policy will make it easier for local and regional authorities to deliver much-needed Gypsy and Traveller specialist housing – but questions remain about how effectively they will be put into practice. Two policy documents, a revised National Planning Policy Framework and a new version of the Planning Policy for Traveller …