Reminiscene Sessions Held At New Larchwood Centre

By Lu Pearson

The Friends signatures on the tablecloth

Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive

The Friends during a making session.

Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive

The Friends during an activity

Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive

The Friends of Coldean is a group who endeavor to meet weekly.  They have existed for a number of years.

Alongside the 'Friends', WRVS Portslade delivered a set of activities for ten weeks. The group met at the New Larchwood Centre in Coldean, a sheltered housing project.  Many of the participants who took part are not residents.

During these summer sessions a tablecloth and tea service was produced alongside a series of Oral histories for the project.  Prior to the tea service being fired, the photographs transferred onto the china were provided in these sessions.

To view the tablecloth in more detail and to find out how the project was undertaken.

This is a pertinent excerpt from a session:

Peggy.G

'Do you remember seersucker tablecloths?'

Peggy.C

'Oh, I used to love them!  They are the ones with all the lumpy, bumpy bits where all the threads gather.  We've got a green seersucker tablecloth.  I went round it with my sewing machine and gave it scalloped edges.  Seersucker's a wonderful fabric.'

During the reminiscence session's members of the group recalled a variety of memories. 

Acknowledgements

These sessions were facilitated by volunteer Lyn Strong and Same Sky artists.  It was additionally supported by Steve Andrews at the Trust for Developing Communities (TDC).