1. Basic commentary notes to accompany Merton Memories presentation:
Slide 1( Title ) :
 The Merton Memories Project tells the story of 150 years of Merton’s heritage using
the medium of photography. The project started in September 2012 and involved
the digitisation of a unique collection of historic photographs, which have been
made available via a specially designed website, launched in March 2014.
Project volunteers also created a wealth of educational resources including local
history exhibitions, resource packs and class sessions for Merton schools.
This work was made possible thanks to a £50,000 Heritage Lottery grant awarded
as part of the “Your Heritage” programme.
 This title slide features some examples of images from the collections of Merton
Heritage & Local Studies Centre ( top left: lavender cutters in the Mitcham area
c.1904; Ely’s department store, Wimbledon, c.1906 and an aerial view of Morden
Underground Station, c.1930.
 You can also see the strapline for the project – the branding was a major success
and helped to create a strong project identity from the public’s perspective.
Slide 2: Reasons / need for the project:
 Merton Library and Heritage Service has a large photographic collection dating from
c.1869 to the present date – previously there was limited public awareness of this,
apart from amongst heritage stakeholders ( museums and societies ) and those
able to visit Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre
 We needed to boost public knowledge of the collection but also to increase
accessibility, whilst safeguarding fragile original images.
 The material was used for enquiry work, exhibitions and some school activities, as
well as the “Granny is 80, can we get a photo for her birthday…?” type of requests
but the potential was far greater…
 There were various gaps in the existing photographic collection which we were
keen to address, particularly in order to make the collection more relevant to the
modern diverse Merton community.
 We were also getting a growing number of requests from schools and heritage
organisations wanting access to material in a digital format
Slide 3: Heritage Strategy
 Merton has a wide-ranging strategy which focusses on the need to safeguard and
increase access to the borough’s heritage. Important strategic objectives include
the need to allow more opportunities for working in partnership with heritage and
community groups; the need to widen the audience for local heritage and methods
for boosting tourism ( visits from Merton residents and people from farther afield.)
 The Merton Memories Project contributed to achieving these objectives and also
helped to raise the profile of Merton’s heritage service.

2. Slide 4: Aspects of the Merton Memories project
 The project enabled us to work with a team of volunteers, who were vital to the
success of the initiative, contributing a wide range of knowledge, ideas and
experience. They were also the “friendly local face” of the project.
 We were committed to working with a range of local heritage organisations, notably
the Museum of Wimbledon, Merton Historical Society, Wandle Industrial Museum
and Mitcham Cricket Green Community & Heritage. These organisations submitted
images and metadata to the project website; offered historical knowledge and
advice; contributed to project planning work and feedback, in addition to assisting
with public events ( talks, displays and stalls )
 An important part of the project work was digitisation to prevent the unnecessary
handling of precious originals. The material was also reorganised and catalogued in
a much more user friendly way and stored in conservation standard packaging
( acid free sleeves, archival boxes, etc )
 The digitised photographic collection was then made accessible via a purpose built
website which allows the public to view the material, order prints ( where possible )
and to submit queries and / or additional information.
 A range of exhibitions, school resources and Discovery Days also gave the public
unprecedented access to a unique collection of Merton images.
Slide 5: Volunteers
 The biggest asset of our project and our greatest source of pride was, and
continues to be, our team of volunteers.
 These are drawn from all over the borough and include people of different ages and
ethnic backgrounds, with different skills, interests and existing knowledge.
All are united by an interest in local history and a willingness to contribute to
something worthwhile in their spare time.
Slide 6: Training
 All the volunteers underwent a programme of training. They were taught how to
digitise historic photos; use a content management; how to do local history research
and compose appropriate metadata. They were also given basic preventative
conservation training in the handling and storage of photos and guidance on how to
produce a display.
 In addition to training courses, we provide crib sheets, practice sessions and 1:1
support to ensure that everyone felt comfortable and confident in their work.
 Some volunteers were trained as trainers, cascading information and running
digitisation practice sessions
Slide 7: Progress to date:
 10,000 images were scanned by a specialist digitisation contractor, Townsweb
Archiving Ltd – a company with a strong track record of supporting the heritage
sector. Their client list includes the Royal household, the Ministry of Defence, the
Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, the British Postal Museum and Brunel

3. University. The remaining 5000 images were scanned by project volunteers, who
also completed basic metadata entries for all the material – this means that there
are at least 5 different ways of searching 15,000 historic images
 Volunteers have been highly commended for their contributions to the project and
all have continued to work with Merton Heritage Service.
 The project team has also undertaken a range of outreach to promote their work,
including stalls at Mitcham Fair, visits to Morden Mosque and participation in
community events and activities across the borough.
Slide 8: Progress contd.
 Local heritage stakeholders and members of the public have already submitted a
further 170 images to the Merton Memories website and this is set to increase.
We will also be organising targeted collecting to fill some of the gaps in our existing
subject matter.
 Merton teachers were regularly consulted regarding the development of resource
packs and themed class sessions. These were designed to support the teaching of
local history in Merton schools and to provide increased access to historical source
extracts ( photos, the census, maps, oral history, directories and newspapers. )
We had aimed to work directly with 3 local schools but in practice this number rose
to 12. Project packs were also issued to a further 31 primary schools ( hard copies
and downloadable PDFs )
 The project team organised a very successful communications strategy. In addition
to regular media articles, eye-catching posters and flyers, we also used the web,
Facebook and Twitter to promote the project and request information from the
public. Local museums, societies and community groups also helped to publicise
project events through their own meetings, newsletters and websites. This proved
enormously successful – our 2 hour website launch and heritage event was
attended by over 700 people. A second Discovery Day combining heritage displays,
stalls, talks, web access and children’s events attracted over 2000.
The next few slides illustrate the Merton Memories website and some of its functions:
Slide 9: Homepage
 This features a moving slideshow which has / will be changed in line with local
events and heritage celebrations. ( It currently features World War I images but will
change in September to show images of historic buildings for London Open House.)
 There are tabs at the top of the page to allow users to access information on the
project, browsing functions, information on how to order photos, details of Heritage
provision and news.
 Users can access images from any page on the website using the ( Keyword )
Search or Advanced search options.
 They can also click into a range of photo collections from the homepage and the
baseline includes links to access information and a “contact us” page.

4. Slide 10: Advanced search page
 This gives people the option to search the collection by keyword, title, collection
( subject ), year, area, photographer, format ( e.g. postcard, photo, print ) or image
reference
Slide 11: Browse by collection
 From the “Browse” tab on the homepage the user can choose to search by
collection or location.
 The collections page shows the 16 different collections in our archive. These are:
Aerial views, Archaeology, Buildings, Education, Events and Organisations, Open
Spaces, People, Places of Worship, Public Services, Rivers & Waterways, Sports
and Leisure, Streets, the Tom Francis collection ( Mitcham images 1869 – 1930 ),
Transport, War, Work and Industry.
 If you are not sure what is covered in a collection, you can click on the “Help with
collections…” link to the left of the heading Sub Collections and this will bring up a
guidance information, plus examples of key topics.
Slide 12: Navigating through collections
 To navigate to different parts of a collection, you can either click on the relevant
collection icon, or use the filter options to the right of the screen.
e.g If you click on the War collection, this will bring up the relevant sub collections –
Pre 1914 conflict, First World War, Second World War
 If you choose a particular sub collection e.g Second World War – this will bring up
the relevant topics - Air Raid Shelters, Bombs Damage, British restaurants, etc
( You can access these by continuing to click on the relevant picture icons, or by
using the drop down filters at the side. )
NOTE: The Collections option on the Advanced Search page also features an a-z
drop down list of all the collection topics on the website
Slide 13: Example of an image page
 This has the image title, reference number, area, the date and copyright holder
( where known ), the format and associated historical information. The latter is still
being worked on as an ongoing part of project research.
 The user can also see a larger version of the relevant image by clicking on the link
under the standard image
 The public can submit ( moderated ) comments, suggestions for additional detail,
corrections and / or queries using the comments box to the right of each image
page. This generates an email to the Heritage Service.
 Photos can also be ordered from each image page ( subject to copyright
permissions )
 Each image page generates a number of Related Collections to encourage further
browsing

5. Slide 14: Browse by Location
 This option ( available from the Browse Images tab on the homepage ) allows the
user to bring up this simplified map of the borough, with clickable links. He / she can
then find images of a particular area e.g Mitcham, Morden, Raynes Park
Slide 15: Help with location
 As with the collections search page, there is a drop down window available by
clicking “Help on how to use the search by location map” – this will give information
on which parts of Merton lie within a clickable area on the map, plus guidance on
key sites that fall within a designated area
Slide 16: Ordering a photo
 The photo ordering system and details are standard to most sites but customers
can also choose the format of image required ( portrait, landscape, best fit ).
They can also set their own crop lines, so if they only want part of a photo e.g. a
particular house or person, it is possible to set this up.
Slide 17: Contact Us
 In addition to the Comments box on each image page, customers can also contact
Merton Heritage service using the “Contact” tab from the homepage, or via the
“Contact Us” link at the base of the page.
END – people can access the Merton Memories webpage at:
www.merton.gov.uk/memories
If anyone has any queries, requires further information or would like to submit photos for
the site, they should contact:
Sarah Gould, Service Manager ( Heritage & Local Studies ) Tel. 020 8545 3239
Email: Local.studies@merton.gov.uk