What’s Splott famous for, and what does it mean to you? Open top bus tours of Splott were offered on Saturday September 21st to celebrate one of Cardiff’s most cherished and famous communities, inviting the local community to come on board and help create its own museum telling ‘The story of Splott in 50 objects’.
Organised by local community groups for anyone to share their ideas to contribute to a ‘pocket museum’- a pack of 50 cards with each card celebrating a different facet of the Splott story – there will be a host of creative events over the next few months including historic bus tours of the area, drop-in events and online activities, all building a greater sense of community pride, togetherness, and future well-being.
Amazing facts about Splott include how it once boasted an aerodrome that served as an RAF base in World War 2, was home to the first black captain for Great Britain in any sport (Clive Sullivan MBE) and current Wales Head Coach Craig Bellamy (both grew up in Splott), former Prime Minister James Callaghan was its local MP, and the Imperial Café on Splott Road, affectionately known as The Imps is reckoned to be one of the oldest ‘greasy spoon’ cafes in Britain.
The pocket museum works to promotes a sense of belonging for all within the community, celebrating its rich diversity, inclusivity, and shared values, while encouraging strong, positive relationships between those from different backgrounds.
The ‘Story of Splott in 50 objects’ will be developed for teaching resources, local history, oral history projects, and to promote tourism with walking tours, as well encouraging other local communities within Cardiff to cocreate their own versions of telling their story in 50 objects.
Splott Community Volunteers, with local community news site Inksplott, and social enterprise Grow Social Capital, are running the project with the support of the Doc Media Centre and the More in Common campaign run by the Jo Cox Foundation. The venture is supported through Cardiff Council’s community cohesion programme funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, along with a crowdfunder launched later this year, enabling anyone to buy copies of ‘The Story of Splott in 50 objects’ pocket museum.
“For anyone who is proud of Splott, please get involved with this fantastic project. Our community is rich in resilience and resourcefulness and has an irreverent wit that deserves to be celebrated,” said Lynne Thomas of Splott Community Volunteers. “Our new virtual museum celebrates the area’s fascinating history, its diversity, inclusivity and shared values, while promoting strong, positive relationships between those from different backgrounds, to tell our story and build a greater sense of togetherness.”
The open top bus tours were held on Saturday September 21 from the back of the STAR Leisure Centre and took locals and visitors on a sightseeing tour around Splott and Tremorfa.
Splott Community Volunteers is a non-profit organization helping to make Splott a better, happier place, running a range of support activities including Breakfast Clubs, community events, and providing volunteering opportunities.
Cardiff-based Grow Social Capital is a social enterprise working to promote greater use of the power within communities, through their shared identities, stories, and relationships to overcome adversity, build togetherness, and create positive narratives of their future.
More in Common was founded in the aftermath of the tragic murder of Jo Cox MP in 2016, taking its name from Jo’s maiden speech in Parliament where she said: “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.” Its network consists of community groups and partnerships of larger organisations that work to bridge divides and positively contribute to strengthen social cohesion.