Spinning Yarns celebrates local lives with new exhibition.

On July 16th 2007, at 1pm the new Spinning Yarns Project gallery opened to the public at Bridport Museum. The aim of the refitted Keech gallery is to celebrate the memories and recollections of local people that have been shared with the project team during the last year and a half. Memories of fishing, farming, net making, home life, transport, the changing face of Bridport and its surrounding villages and the effects of WWII on the area are all topics which have surfaced through the range of interviews undertaken by project staff and volunteers.

On show in the new Keech Gallery is a selection of photographic portraits by Brian Neesam; Stephen Rowley’s Jurassic FM radio show which was written and recorded by pupils from St Mary’s, Marshwood and Bridport Primary schools; and a selection of photographs by Elina Jokipii, the project’s community artist, who helped local people to restage scenes for the camera based on recollections from the project archive. There will also be the chance to listen via handsets to a selection of the new recordings as well as sit down and enjoy a specially commissioned archive film edited by John Holman of Trilith, which features more local voices and memories from the Spinning Yarns archive.

The occasion of the gallery opening will also mark the launch of the project’s publication: Spinning Yarns, Voices from the Heritage Coast, edited by Bridget Wilkins and designed by Gina Dessalines from Pilgrim Design, Devon. This publication compliments the gallery exhibition and celebrates memories of the people, landscapes and trades which make the Bridport area so distinctive.


September 2007: The Spinning Yarns Project draws to a close. The Spinning Yarns oral history archive including the recordings made during the project will be available for research purposes through the Museum staff at:

The Local History Centre,
The Coach House,
Gundry Lane,
Bridport. DT6 3RJ
01308 458703

Archived News