The 'Huddersfield Rugby League: A Lasting Legacy' heritage project launched before 140 guests at The Galpharm stadium last month [May]. It is offering free training in the use of digital equipment to record and edit interviews and in interviewing techniques.
Project manager Brian Heywood said: "We aim to compile the most comprehensive oral record of a sport in one town, covering both the Giants and its supporters, and amateur rugby league in Huddersfield. We have been fortunate to employ the Vox Pops Oral History Training Company, which has previously been involved in highly regarded oral histories of the Kop at Anfield and of Swinton Lions, among others"
"Training is for 20 volunteers at The Zone, off St Andrews Road, from 10am till 5pm on Friday 6th July and Thursday 12th July. We currently have five places left, two on the 6th and three on the 12th. Anyone interested in benefiting from this training and helping the project can email me on Brian.heywood@thezone.uk.com [copy & paste].
"Among other initiatives, the project's website is currently under construction. Accessed via a tab on the Giants website, it is expected to go live in September."
"We have also begun to collect some exceptional memorabilia, including sheet music and song-sheet titled ';Up the Claret and Gold' from 1890, and a remarkable scrapbook covering 1910 to 1950. The Imperial War Museum has provided the 1917 diary of Huddersfield's international forward, Douglas Clark, written on the front line. Reading this extraordinary journal transports you straight to the Western Front. The diary has been transcribed by Giants' historian David Gronow, whose grandfather, Ben, played alongside Clark for Huddersfield and the Lions."
"Our main appeal for memorabilia will go out after we have received archive training from the West Yorkshire Archive Service. We are grateful to the University of Huddersfield which will house project memorabilia as part of the Rugby League Archive when it is not on display."
"If anyone wants to know more about the project we will be presenting as part of the ';Sound, Craft, Vision, Place' event at the University of Huddersfield this Saturday, 30th June."
