About the project and the archive

The Herefordshire Life Through a Lens project received £350,000 from National Heritage Lottery Funding. From 2017 to 2020 it delivered the following:

• Generated £53,466 in non-cash contributions and £55,350 in volunteer input.
• 3 paid internships roles & 20 core project volunteers roles.
• 283 volunteers (aged 17–82) with 11 digitising, 14 film and oral history roles, 258 hosting screening events.
• Employed local freelancers and companies, and worked with many regional agencies.
• 136 video oral history interviews (many with full transcripts).
• 2 feature-length documentaries.
• 4,966 people at 62 film screenings with Q&As incl. Three Counties Show and Nozstock.
• 12 short films + 2 extra full-length heritage films added.
• 6,104 Derek Evans images digitised.
• 39,776 exhibition visitors to 17 photographic exhibitions.
• 10,786 people attended the finale exhibitions and events.
• 37 school groups visited the archive and made films.
• 906 pupils at school screenings.
• Oral history, heritage and media resources created for schools and care centres.
• 1,500 DVDs distributed with 230 DVDs, 120 postcard packs and 15 workshop packs distributed free to dementia groups.
• 2.2K Facebook followers with posts frequently reaching 2–4k likes. 677 Twitter and 673 followers.
• Project website had 42K page views with 78 subscribers.
• 3 oral history-themed podcasts.
• 3 presentations: Derek Evans Memorial Symposium, Romani Cultural & Arts Symposium and the Oral History Conference.
• National and regional press coverage: BBC Midlands Today, BBC1’s Bargain Hunt, Hereford Times x 12, BBC Country File magazine, BBC Hereford and Worcester x 7.

The project itself set out to explore and make accessible the huge collection of photographs and negatives of Herefordshire photographer Derek Evans, and at the core of all the activities was the work to digitise as much of the archive as possible, AND to create a brand new set of oral history videos from Herefordshire people about the memories the images in the archive evoke. The collection consists of 200,000+ negatives, 790 exhibition images, hundreds of prints, scrapbooks full of newspaper cuttings, photo journals, and daily log books of the studio’s activities.

See what some of our interviewees said about the project.

Focusing on the 1950s-1970s, the project uncovered photographs (some never-before-exhibited, and many others unseen for over fifty years) and recorded oral histories, which recounted nostalgic tales of hop-picking; revelled in Hereford United Football Club’s moments of glory; took a spin around the May Fair’s risqué past; strolled down memory lane with Fownhope’s Heart of Oak annual walk; and explored the Derek Evans Studio itself, a place that nurtured many talents, and which, by covering fascinating local stories, became a treasure trove of the county’s social history.

The project  resulted in a number of touring films, exhibitions, an accompanying suite of films made by children, education packs (for schools and dementia groups) and this media-rich website, among other things.

Working with Herefordshire Archives and Records Centre who hold the collection and Herefordshire Libraries Derek’s images were scanned and made accessible via the Herefordshire Histories website.

Many of these Derek Evans images have not been seen outside of the studio dark room, and some were not intended for exhibition. In the interest of presenting the archive to the public the photographs and negatives have been digitised without any digital manipulation to ‘clean’ up or alter the images. Derek’s exhibition prints however are a different matter entirely and should be regarded as his work, seen at it’s best, as Derek intended. Made for public viewing and printed on high-quality paper they display both his technical prowess with the camera and his capabilities in the darkroom.