Anstey Community Library
Century of Stories is very keen to support the development of the new volunteer-led Community Libraries in Leicestershire, and began work with Anstey Community Library in 2016. Following initial discussions at the library, a meeting was held in September, where key community members (3 primary schools, Scouts, Guides, Parish Council, Local Historians, British Legion, Women’s Institute) attended to learn more about the project and to discuss the potential for a WW1 project in the village, which could bring the community together.
The community were very keen to understand more about the soldiers who died from Anstey and the library had a wish to involve new residents, make use of the WW1 photography collection by local historians and build on it, using the library as a hub.
Century of Stories kicked off their partnership work with volunteers at the library by holding a community open day on 25th January 2017, with the aim of inspiring interest and gathering momentum for continued community recognition, discovery and preservation around all of our connections to WW1 – young and old, long term residents and new-comers.
The project worked with volunteers from Loughborough Local Studies Team, who spent months researching every one of the 111 names on the Anstey War Memorial so that village residents could identify and share their own connections.
The community day proved a huge success with over 100 attendees on the day and thus sparked a second community day later in the year, an ancestry day which was again, oversubscribed, and connections with community libraries further afield having heard of this successful partnership.
Another follow on from this partnership has been the formation of a new project with Latimer Primary School in the village, and this was launched in May 2017, after the SAT exams and before the end of the academic year.
To see a video showing some of the connections made at Anstey Library, please watch the video below
For more information on Anstey Community Library please visit www.ansteylibrary.com
For information on Latimer School Project, please click here
