KM Group, led by the HR Pratt Boorman Family
Foundation, has won the lottery and is going to share it with the
people of Kent.
It has been awarded a grant of £49,700 to
digitise KM newspapers from 1859-1919.
The digital archive project will protect and
preserve historic newspapers and open a hidden jewel of Kentish
history. The 26,000 pages will be free to view on a fully
searchable website.
It will be available as a unique learning
resource for Kent schools offering a fascinating record of the
extraordinary years which shaped the county.
Librarians and archivists, university
professors, historians and school children have been involved in
viewing and testing the pilot project pages, which helped secure
the lottery funding.
The project is actively supported by English
Heritage, National Trust, Chatham Historic Dockyard, the British
Library, the Imperial War Museum, Kent County Council, the
University of Kent and Christ Church University, Canterbury.
Lesley Bellew, the KM Group’s managing editor,
who has led the digital archive project, said: “It has taken two
years to secure the grant. Instead of the fragile papers being
hidden in a basement, the digital archive will give users worldwide
a unique view of Kent history.”
KM Group editorial director Ian Carter said:
“This is a revolutionary step in the KM Group’s 150-year history.
We are the first regional newspaper to undertake such a venture on
behalf of our community.
“We are looking for volunteers across the
county to become involved in the project. They do not have to be
experts but they should have a passion for their Kent heritage.
“Cataloguing and preparing pages before they
are digitalised will be time-consuming but hugely rewarding.
“We hope the volunteers will also become
involved in roadshows and exhibitions linked around the digital
archive.”
A teaching pack to accompany the digital
archive will also be provided for schools.
Pupils at Godinton Primary School in Ashford,
have tested the digital pages as part of their history lessons.
Head teacher Jim Holditch said the children
had found the pilot digital archive a “brilliant learning
tool”.
He said: “It is bringing history to life. The
local history aspect is so important and relevant to the
children.”
Stuart McLeod, head of Heritage Lottery Fund
South East England, said: “This project provides an unrivalled
source of information for the people of Kent, for a period spanning
the mid 19th century until after the First World War. It will
underline the importance of local and regional newspapers as an
indispensable work of public record.”
The grant to digitise historic pages is
particularly fitting at a time when the KM Group is commemorating
the 70th anniversary of Kent’s role in the Second World War, when
HR Pratt Boorman served as a KM reporter.
His granddaughter Libby Lawson, of the HR
Pratt Boorman Foundation, is thrilled to be able to unlock the
early news pages and see the family tradition of journalism taken
into a new era.
She said: “This is an exciting opportunity to
make such a rich source of history available to everyone in the
county – both now and for future generations.”