A public event to launch the new Capturing the Past website is being held on Tuesday 4 April at the Museum of North Craven Life in The Folly in Settle.

The launch will be a drop-in event between 10.30am and 3pm. At 1pm there will be a brief formal presentation that will explain the aims and work of the project and demonstrate the new website. Entry is free and light refreshments will be available throughout the day. 

The Capturing the Past project, managed by the Yorkshire Dales Society, aims to make collections of historical material held by local history groups and individuals freely accessible to the public.

The project is part of Stories in Stone, a four-year programme of conservation and community projects in the Ingleborough area. The programme is mainly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund thanks to National Lottery players, while specialist digitising equipment for the Capturing the Past project has been funded by a grant from the Mercers’ Company.

The new website will contain a wide range of material including documents, photographs, audio files, wills and articles of local historical interest. All material will be available to search and view, and visitors to the website will be able to post comments on items in the collections and upload their own material. Examples of original material will be on display at the launch for visitors to browse through, and project team members will be on hand to answer questions. The website, www.dalescommunityarchives.org.uk, will go live on 1 April.

Ian Fleming, the project team leader, said: “Now that groups and individuals have a better understanding of the importance of their archival material and how to present it they can begin work on cataloguing and digitising their collections ready for inclusion in the new website.

"The aim is to create a forum for sharing historical information and to develop a sense of place for those who live and work here, have their roots in the area or are just interested in the history of the Dales.”

Over the past few months the project team, together with archivists from the North Yorkshire County Records Office, has been providing training and guidance to collection holders, including how to evaluate the local and national importance of the material that they hold and how best to catalogue it so that items can be easily found on the website and their importance better understood.

Although initially focussing on the parishes surrounding Ingleborough, the intention is that the website will eventually cover the whole of the National Park area.

For further information email dalescommunityarchives@gmail.com or contact Hannah Rose, Stories in Stone Administrator at Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, on hannah.rose@ydmt.org or 015242 51002.