PEMBROKE TOWN HALL was packed last Saturday morning (Oct 4) as AM Angela Burns gave her enthusiastic endorsement to the Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society’s latest initiative: ‘Through My Eyes: a community history of Pembroke and Monkton. ‘Through My Eyes’, which has been published as a book and accompanying DVD, contains a wealth of local memories which should prove of inestimable value to future historians as well as those interested in the history of one of the most historically fascinating areas of the UK. Speaking on behalf of the project team Linda Asman said: “Pembroke has a prestigious history, and although its distant past is well documented there has been no book written about the history of Pembroke and Monkton in more recent times. It has long been my aim to rectify this”. Ms Asman added: “After many years of recording oral histories, I came up with the idea of telling the history of Pembroke through the individual stories of members of the community.

These stories, like pieces of a jigsaw, would combine to paint a portrait of Pembroke, and illustrate how it has changed through time as well as record them for posterity” “It was the formation of the P&M Local History Society in 2010 which provided the platform to develop the project, the aim of which was to make a DVD of digital stories (short fi lms) of local people and to print the scripts in an accompanying book. Although we were prepared to carry out the work on a voluntary basis, we needed money to provide us with training and ultimately to publish the project.

We applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund which fortunately approved the project and awarded us almost £10,000 in July 2012” “Putting all of this together has been no mean task. We needed to capture personal stories which conveyed social change in Pembroke from differing aspects of community life so it was important to the success of the project that we selected the right people. Fortunately all participants when approached, willingly embraced the project, which is greatly to their credit as making a story is very demanding time wise.

It turned out to be considerably bigger than originally planned: 45 people contributed their stories and so many have offered support. Then there are the professionals without whom we could not have brought the project to a successful conclusion: Matt White guided us through the digital storytelling training, tweaked our fi lms and produced the DVD while Keith Johnson (editor of Pembrokeshire Life) produced the book”. Refl ecting on the large number who turned out for the launch she continued: “I was really overwhelmed.

In just two hours we sold 170 copies! I am very grateful to our Assembly Member, Angela Burns for opening proceedings at the Launch, along with Pembroke’s Mayor Clr Aaron Carey and Mayoress Natalie and to Pembroke Town Council for sponsoring the event. “The previous evening the Pembroke & Monkton Local History Society held a pre-launch get together for the people who had participated in the project, and this proved very popular with around 90 people attending. The Society Committee had worked hard to produce a lovely buffet and everyone who had written a story was presented with a complementary copy of the book. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening”

“I do think that this response illustrates the extent of community involvement in the project and the huge interest in our great past, a past which has been somewhat overlooked. I hope in this project we have at least done something to capture that sense of place which is Pembroke, to preserve the memory for posterity”. ‘Through My Eyes’ is a voluntary community project – no member of the Society received any money for their work and all proceeds from sales will be invested in future projects of the Society and in the Pembroke Museum.

The Museum is the result of a partnership between Town Council and various heritage groups including West Wales Maritime Heritage Society and Pembroke Civic Trust. “It is a much needed facility in Pembroke” Linda Asman explained. “So much has been lost because we have not had a museum, hard to believe for a town with such a great heritage. However, we are working to develop it and for this we rely on community support, for donations of artefacts, photographs and memorabilia as well as for volunteers.

There is much to be done” A clearly enthused Angela Burns AM added “Through our eyes is a story told through 45 sets of eyes and yet it is a story of a community from the turn of the First World War and in some instances even earlier. It is so good to be able to record this because our communities are changing so quickly and we need to have these tales for our children and their children too – to look back on and say this is who we were, this is where we came from and this is where we are going. It’s about the past and the present but above all it’s about saving things for the future” It is a wonderful, wonderful project and a real labour of love” For more information on how to obtain copies of the book (Including the DVD can be obtained from the local history by calling in at the town hall.