A few words from Greater Creative’s project Facilitator, Jodie Cresswell-Waring (Co founder and Director –of Platform Thirty1)

 Long before we secured funding for our new local Blackwell Parish history project, Home Truths, Greater Creative had been developing work that celebrated and made visible our working-class, ex-industrial roots. As we reflected on those earlier projects, we began to notice a pattern: our focus had predominantly centered on men’s stories.

When we began Home Truths, we spent time with residents looking through old parish photographs — images that were often scarce and carefully saved for special occasions. In the few photographs we found of women, their presence offered only a small window into their lives. They were frequently pictured in the background, talking over garden fences, wearing aprons, while children played in the yards and streets. The other photographs that consistently surfaced came in the handbags and were in frames, they were of their wedding day. Women appeared most visibly in the parish archives dressed in white.

It wasn’t long before members of the Greater Creative working party began to connect these wedding images to the parish church itself. From that point, a new idea began to take shape. We set out with a light but meaningful intention, to gather as many parish wedding photographs as we could, and to explore the possibility of creating a lightbox installation to be housed in the churchyard during the darker months.. .  we also started to gather cooking recipes as that emerged time and time again when we asked women what they felt was important to preserve particularly women’s histories:

It wasn’t long before the project snowballed quickly as the residents got their weddings gowns down from their lofts, and before we knew it, a bigger project was emerging that would be an open showcase event at the church over Valentine’s weekend in February 2026.

 

This project is another example of how concepts co-develop in communities with local residents and gather, collate and celebrate our people and parish. It feels very special to be a part of this generative project that looks back to the past to bring people together in the present as we work towards preserving our local ways for future generations.

 

Here’s the project summary in a nutshell that came to be:

Brides Through The Times

Barbara Sainsbury’s wedding collection.

A few words from Stef Haydon, Community Project Producer:

 

Working as a community co-ordinator  for the Blackwell Brides project has been an amazing  experience. A big part of my role involved visiting people in their homes and exploring the treasures they had saved from their weddings, albums, invitations, cards, and, of course, their dresses sometimes in the original boxes from the early 60s!

These visits were often deeply sensitive. Many people had lost their partners, sometimes very recently, and looking through these mementos meant revisiting memories of first meetings, first love, and the joy of the wedding day itself. Being entrusted with such personal histories was sometimes a bit daunting, though done with care and planning we were able to ensure everything a was safe and sound for the duration of the project.

At the same time, weddings are full of laughter and silliness, tales of creative reuse of dresses were hilarious with  one lady telling me how she  had turned the bottom of her wedding dress into two lampshades, and another’s suit trousers ended up in a local pantomime as part of an Aladdin costume! It made me realise just how much life these garments could have beyond the big day.

Perhaps the most striking thing was the sheer value people placed on these items. Some had been preserved for decade up to 85 years carefully stored in lofts, boxes, and envelopes, holding memories that were often full of  emotion. Witnessing this preservation of personal history underscored the importance of everyday objects in our lives and the stories they carry.

Being able to observe these treasures and hear the stories behind them has been a privilege.

Cakes Through The Decades

What started out as a potential ‘interpretation board’ idea to visualise some of the ‘cakes though the decades’ at the event quickly escalated from having one ‘dummy cake’ to then becoming a live brief to make the cakes though the decades! One things for sure, the residents of Blackwell Parish has never been short on creative talent and we know only too well from their creations of the ‘Re-Create The Streets Models’, if they are given a task, by gum, they don’t do it by halves!’.  Here’s the wonderful ‘cake through the decades display’, of which most of these amazing examples have been created by local bakers and makers to hear tales of this nature recorded in the community

 

Long before the towering white wedding cakes we know today, couples celebrated with bride pies. During the 16th and 17th centuries, these were the stars of the wedding feast. Recipes included ingredients believed to have romantic properties – sweet potatoes and even cock sparrow brains! The most elaborate versions contained everything from oysters to stuffed larks, with live birds or a snake hidden inside to surprise guests when the pie was cut.

Bride cakes started appearing alongside these pies – more like sweet yeasted breads with spices and fruits. Over time, these evolved into fruit cakes. By the 18th century, Elizabeth Raffald included the first recipe for ‘Bride Cake’ in her 1769 cookery book The Experienced English Housekeeper, suggesting icing with almond paste and sugar – the beginning of a tradition that continues today.

The 19th century saw wedding cakes transform into spectacular centrepieces. Queen Victoria’s 1840 wedding cake weighed 300lbs and was over a foot tall. White icing became a symbol of wealth, as refined white sugar was extremely expensive and became known as royal icing.

For most people expensive and elaborate cakes remained out of reach. By the late 19th century, smaller and cheaper versions became available. To bring costs down, bakers would leave out expensive ingredients like candied citron, or swap butter for margarine and whole nuts for almond essence.

During the Second World War, rationing meant couples had to be inventive. Elaborately decorated cardboard cakes were designed to sit over a plain sponge or light fruit cake for the wedding photograph. Today, heavy fruit cakes have become less popular, with many couples choosing lighter sponges, often without icing.

On display are wedding cake designs created by members of our community, representing each decade from the 1930s to today. Each reflects the styles, trends and possibilities of its time.

“I really enjoyed making the dummy cakes on this – took me back to a time when I seemed to be baking constantly for various events!

Had lots of fun with this, found it quite challenging (and frustrating at times) making the calla lilies, something I hadn’t done before, but learning new skills along the way was a bonus for me. The cakes were all beautiful once on display so it was worth all the effort, many people had lovely comments about the whole event. Being part of this team has given me a sense of pride to be in the parish and it was a lovely experience.  To see people in church supporting the event and listening to their thoughts and views was quite breathtaking. “

– Pam Stocks

Oral Histories

Alongside taking in weddings, dresses, tokens, photos etc, we also listened to people telling us about their memories of getting married locally. Through hours of recordings we noticed three patterns that came though time and time again; ‘The Blackwell parish Way’, how the communities did weddings, usually together, pulling together their skills, resources and care (when the shops were closed of course for business!). The ‘Snap’, yup, we’re calling it snap, because so many of you fondly talked about food at weddings in this lovely local vein, and the ‘local spread’, often buffets were memorable to most! Many residents shared in their ‘bottom drawer’ gatherings too, once married couples were often propelled into a house together.

 

With the support of audio technician Andrew Dobb, we shared a glimmer of these oral history themes at the event and these were housed in handmade and constructed props developed with the community and created by Melanie Perkins. You can have a listen to these below:

The Workshops

Based on the traditions and rituals we came across on the project; we commissioned local professionals and local community volunteers to come and develop and deliver workshops that took place at the event too.  Here’s a taste of the activities we had on offer

The Event Group

A very special thank you to: Pam Stocks, Barbara & Robert Sainsbury, Janet & Ian Newham and Jacqueline Smith, all local residents who worked on the event design, development and install with Platform Thirty1 and freelance professionals.

The Event

We got a little bit excited and lost the tally sheet for half a day – Ooops! But we did count

303 visits

over the two days (that made it to the page anyway!).  We were thrilled of how many locals turned out in the frost, wind and rain over valentines to come and share in this event with us. We were astounded by how long you stayed with us too, it was so great to have you spend time with us and thank you to those of you that also recorded your wedding memories with us over the event too!  We hope you enjoyed the themed nosh (Thank You Lisa!) and are still making your way through the sugared almonds without a trip to the dentist for a re-crown!

 

Here’s some of the photographs taken on Sunday with thanks to Dean Leivers Photography