Sea’s the Day
A project about the Selsey fishing industry called ‘Sea’s the Day’ is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Selsey Town Council successfully bid for the money with support from the Selsey fishery, Chichester District Council and the Manhood Peninsula Partnership.
The project aims to remind people about the fishing heritage of Selsey by creating a permanent record of the fishermen, and publicising it in Selsey, Chichester and further afield. The Selsey Fishery has been advising the project on what would work and who to approach.
This is how we’re going to do it:
- Record stories and memories of fishermen and their families.
- Make a short film using transcriptions from the oral history interviews as a basis.
- Produce a book using transcriptions of the interviews.
- Gather recipes using local catch for use on recipe cards.
- Take photographs of fishermen at work to create pull-up banners for exhibitions.
The result of all this activity will be a nine month long exhibition in Chichester’s Novium Museum starting 10th June 2019. There will also be exhibitions in Selsey Town Hall during May 2019 and March 2020
Status of project
Help needed
What needs to be done?
-
07/11/2018 Progress has been as follows:
- A Facebook page has been completed:
https://www.facebook.com/Seas-the-Day-242070933144999/
- Oral history – Interviews are underway. 21 out of potentially 30 interviews have been completed. The remaining interviews are being progressed by volunteers, and we hope to be finished by the end of December.
- Film – most of the filming is now complete. The young people were responsible for camera and lighting, and are being encouraged to conduct the last two interviews.
- Book – work will commence this month, November 2018.
- Recipe cards – all 8 recipe cards have been completed and distributed to the outlets taking part. They have been publicised on the Seas the Day Facebook page, the Love Where You Live website and the Love British Food website who organise the national event British Food Fortnight – so we have gone national! They will also be available at Selsey events.
- Banners – photography will commence during the latter part of 2018. Design work and production of the 8 pull up banners will follow.
Particular thanks go to:
- All the volunteers who are helping out with the various aspects of the project, and without whom we simply couldn’t do the project!
- Manhood Wildlife & Heritage group for allowing us to participate in their exhibition on fishing and tourism in August, and who circulated a request for volunteers to their members.
- John Periam, maritime journalist, who has allowed us to use his photographs, and also ensured the project was featured in Fishing News alongside some extremely relevant articles on the fishery, and in the September edition of eTc Magazine.
- John Screech, Coastal JJ, who is letting the project use his wonderful photographs.
- As of 24/09/2018 Progress has been as follows:
Selsey fishing industry, oral history project – Interviews with people that are part of the local fishing industry are underway. Recording equipment has been bought and volunteers were trained at a session on 6 September.
12 interviews have been completed. 3 are scheduled for this w/c 24 Sept 2018.
The oral history will form the content of a book, to be created from early November 2018, following the final interviews. – work will commence once the oral history interviews are complete early Nov. The timings were agreed with Janet McMeekin, the editor of the book.
The Novium Museum will also host a ‘Sea’s The Day’ exhibition from 10 June 2019.
A set of eight fish recipe cards, using Selsey caught fish and recipes from local restaurants/cafes, are being printed by Selsey Press.
Local young people are taking part in creating a film about the Selsey fishing industry, co-ordinated by a Selsey youth worker and Millstream productions.
Two of the participants in the film project intend to work towards achieving a Bronze Arts Award from the Arts Award programme.
Particular thanks go to:
- Manhood Wildlife & Heritage group for allowing us to participate in their exhibition on fishing and tourism in August.
- John Periam, maritime journalist, who has allowed us to use his photographs, and also ensured the project was featured in Fishing News alongside some extremely relevant articles on the fishery, and in the September edition of eTc Magazine.
- John Screech, Coastal JJ, who is letting the project use his photographs on the Sea’s the Day Facebook page.
- Meryn Woodland, part of the family with the longest fishing history in Selsey. Meryn provided contact information for a number of people including her father Norman Woodland
What's the name of your group?
Overall name of the projects: East Beach fisheries promotional projects, co-ordinated by Chichester District Council, Selsey Town Council and the Selsey fishing industry.
What help do you need?
Volunteers always welcome. Please contact the email address below.
Also looking for related projects that would benefit from being associated with this Heritage Lottery Funded project, for example wider community activities and arts projects likned to the local coastline and fishing.
Estimated cost
Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Grant awarded for ‘Sea’s The Day’ project.