Meet the Making our Mark groups cohort 2
Following the success of our first Making our Mark cohort (which are just in the process of finalising their projects) we are delighted to introduce our next set of community groups. Each one will celebrate a different aspect of heritage with local people at the heart of each project.
Arctic Building Communities CIC - Our Streets, Our Stories: Birchills Heritage Through Young Eyes is a heritage project that celebrates the everyday histories of Birchills and North Street in Walsall. Working with young people, families, and long-time residents, the project explores how local places, shared memories, and lived experiences shape identity and belonging.
Supported by community elders, participants will take part in memory walks, storytelling circles, and informal oral history interviews to capture stories connected to familiar landmarks such as corner shops, playgrounds, green spaces, canal paths, schools, community centres, former factories, and social clubs.
The project will also reflect wider changes in housing, migration, and local play spaces, as well as moments of resilience, including how neighbours supported one another during the pandemic and the loss of local facilities.
Through listening, sharing, and recording these stories, the project aimed to place young people at the heart of preserving Birchills’ rich and evolving heritage for future generations.
Caldmore Community Garden - Memories in the Garden explores the story of the Garden, and the wider Caldmore area in Walsall, through the voices of the people who have shaped it since it began in 2012.
Working alongside a video and sound artist, participants will gather at creative workshops to record memories, learn filming and audio techniques, and contribute to a pop-up video and sound booth at community events.
The project will also include hands-on art sessions using collage and photography, encouraging people to experiment with new ways of capturing and presenting local heritage.
Residents will be invited to share their stories and photographs and to help design how these memories are displayed and celebrated.
The project will culminate in a Storytelling Festival at the Garden, where the community can come together to reflect on what has been collected and created; highlighting the people, moments, and relationships that have made Caldmore Community Garden such a vital part of local life.
One Love, Community, Music and Arts CIC - Yow Cor Park ‘Ere… Karnivals and Kickabouts at Kingy’s is a project that explores the rich social history of King George’s Park and Playing Fields in Bloxwich, Walsall - a place that has long been at the heart of local life.
Drawing on the area’s strong links to the showman tradition and Romany community, the project will uncover and celebrate stories connected to carnivals, football matches, family outings, and everyday gatherings in the park.
Participants will be encouraged to explore photographs, archival material, and social media memories, using them as inspiration for group discussions, creative displays, and new digital content for platforms such as YouTube, as well as printed formats like chapbooks and contributions to the Walsall archive.
Wild Earth Movement - Trash to Treasure: The Heritage Walsall Project is a creative environmental heritage project that explores how Walsall’s green spaces have changed over time, while highlighting the lasting impact of plastic pollution and inspiring more sustainable futures.
The project will begin with a community-led clean-up in a local green space chosen through public engagement. Collected litter will be cleaned, catalogued, and dated where possible, using packaging information to trace how long waste has been in the environment. These findings will then spark conversations with residents, who will be invited to share memories of that place during the years the rubbish dates from, whether recent or further in the past.
These stories and reflections will form the basis of a short film documenting a community-informed history of Walsall’s green spaces, seen through an environmental lens. The project will conclude with a striking visual artwork created from the collected materials, spelling out a hopeful message for the future and captured from above using a drone, transforming waste into a powerful symbol of care, responsibility, and change.
Wolverhampton Wrestling Club CIC - Kabaddi Sporting Heritage in Walsall is a project that celebrates the powerful personal and cultural histories behind the growth of Kabaddi across Walsall and the wider Black Country.
Tracing more than three decades of involvement in the region, the project explores how Kabaddi evolved from a small wrestling club in Wolverhampton into a sport that now brings together diverse communities in Walsall.
Through filmed interviews with players, coaches, and community figures, the project will capture stories about generational influence, resilience, and inspiration, highlighting how women are encouraging new players, and how their coach reflects on his father’s role in introducing wrestling in response to racism in the 1980s.
The resulting five-minute film will offer an intimate snapshot of both the physical intensity of the sport and the strong sense of camaraderie between players. It will also spotlight women in sport and show how an ancient South Asian game has become a vibrant and valued part of local heritage in the Midlands today.
Walsall Writers Circle - Stories of Medieval Walsall is a project in partnership with Butts Creative Writers that brings the town’s largely lost medieval past vividly back to life through writing, performance, and publication.
Although St Matthew’s Church remains the only surviving medieval building in Walsall, the project will delve into historical research to reimagine everyday life in the town centuries ago. Writers will explore archives and sources before taking part in specialist workshops (Writing in the First Person with David Calcutt and Creative Writing from Historical Sources with Cath Edwards) alongside additional training opportunities through Creative Black Country.
Participants will transform their research into original creative pieces, which will be gathered into a printed book. The project will culminate in an immersive promenade-style performance, where selected writers perform their work within a single, unified theatrical experience, offering audiences a dynamic and engaging encounter with Walsall’s medieval stories and ensuring this rich chapter of local history is preserved for future generations.
Walsall Leather Heritage collective - A Certain Type is a community-led heritage project by Lauren Broxton and the emerging collective, celebrating the town’s long-standing identity as a centre of leatherworking and saddlery through photography, storytelling, and hands-on craft.
Combining historic tin-type (wet-plate collodion) photographic techniques with traditional leatherworking skills, the project will document the people, processes, and places that have shaped Walsall’s leather industry across generations.
Delivered by a collective of leatherworkers and photographers, the initiative aims not only to preserve these stories and skills, but also to formalise the group into a new Community Interest Company to support future heritage activity.
Participatory workshops at Walsall Leather Museum will introduce local people to both early photographic methods and leatherworking traditions, encouraging creative experimentation and conversations about craft past and present.
The project will culminate in a free public exhibition at the Museum featuring striking tin-type portraits, community-generated material, and a contemporary leathercraft workshop, with all photography and recorded stories digitally archived to ensure long-term access to this important part of Walsall’s heritage.
Making Our Mark celebrates the rich and diverse heritage of Walsall’s communities. Led by Creative Black Country and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, this project gives local groups and organisations the opportunity to uncover and share their untold heritage stories. Whether it’s exploring cultural traditions, historical events, or community memories, we’re here to help you bring your stories to life!
Over three years the project will celebrate Walsall’s diverse communities and uncover their rich heritage, supporting local groups to share unique stories and contribute to Walsall’s cultural history.
