Bath Record Office has worked with local people in association with the St John’s Foundation to create a selection of poems, stories and essays based on its extensive collection of historic documents relating to the local area.

The results of the project – along with images of the archives that inspired it – can be viewed online at: www.batharchives.co.uk/creative-writing-inspired-archives.

Regular creative writing classes organised by the St John’s Foundation had been taking place since July 2017, eventually building up to two fortnightly classes in Bath and one monthly class in Radstock, with a group of about thirty writers in total.

Workshop leader and author/editor, Michael Loveday, hoped that by teaming up with Bath

Record Office, the writers would be able to engage more deeply with the history of their local community and landscape, by responding to materials from the archive.

A total of ten workshops were designed by Michael and Bath Record Office staff, taking place in February and March 2019 in Radstock and Bath. The workshops covered the following themes: maps, weather, The Bath Chronicle, crime, retail through the ages, and mining at the Combe Down quarries.

Artefacts explored by the group included 17th-century maps of Bath and Somerset, an 18th-century weather diary by the Rector of Bath, photographs of floods from the early 20th century, Victorian crime reports and police files, copies of The Bath Chronicle from over 200 years ago, and a number of other gems from the archive.

The writers produced a wide range of responses to the project, including: a poem about a mythical ‘man of Mendip, a monologue by a policeman trapped in floodwater, stories of 18th and 19th-century shopkeeper, personal memories of living on Camden Crescent, a poem about the Blitz, an acrostic poem about graffiti and a story of refugees in southern Africa.

Michael Loveday said: “This project shows what amazing results can arise from creative engagement with historic materials. Through responses to the writing exercises, the writers’ engagement with social and environmental history was deepened.”

The project was launched last week at an online event by Councillor Lisa O’Brien, Chairman of B&NES Council.