Farming Memories is a project led by the Down to the Coast landscape partnership scheme to gather people’s reminiscences of how the Isle of Wight’s agricultural landscape has changed since WW2.

We know the farming sector has changed significantly since the end of WW2 as a result of technological, political and economic change. Farming families in the East Wight have experienced and managed at first hand some of the most dramatic changes including mechanisation and the intensification of farming.

Starting in 2017 Down to the Coast worked with Carisbrooke Castle Museum where Lisa Kerley and her band of volunteers captured the reminiscences of farming families in the East Wight to ensure that they are recorded for the benefit of current and future generations. This website provides a window on the material that was gathered.

Lots of people and Island organisations were involved with creating this project. Isle of Wight photographer Julian Winslow shot the portraits.

Carisbrooke Castle Museum were very generous in sharing some of their fantastic collection of historic photos, as were many of the interviewees who shared their private collections.

The full oral history recordings and portraits were given to consultancy Meeja with the challenge of making the project as engaging and accessible as possible. They suggested cutting the full interviews into short 1-3 min snippets, tying these to themes and publishing them on a Website and smart speaker app. Project lead, Peter Fellows, approved these proposals, nearly 200 audio snippets were produced, photographs were sourced, the Website built and filled with content.