Telling stories by the sea: Digital heritage and the Kent resorts

‘Lets do the time walk again! Exploring the East Kent Coast Through Digital Heritage’ is an interdisciplinary project inspired by the success of Kent Maps Online (https://www.kent-maps.online/), led by Canterbury Christ Church University in partnership with JSTOR Labs.

The new project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It aims to address the existing Heritage skills gap in East Kent seaside towns, traditionally areas of low cultural engagement.

Working in partnership with Sandwich Guildhall Museum, Deal Maritime Museum, Ramsgate Clock House and the Broadstairs Dickens Museum, the project team will provide a series of training workshops for volunteers to explore and record at-risk archives and develop a story-telling digital space using the JSTOR Labs Juncture platform. Upskilling volunteers will build confidence, boost employability, and at the same time protect local heritage.

The project will enable local people to tell the stories of their towns in a contemporary and accessible way, sharing heritage with visitors to Kent, both remotely and in person. Volunteers will create a suite of trails that will remain available via mobile app. Additional web content including a 360 tour and artists' interpretations of historic events will provide focused explorations of aspects of 19th and 20th century life in Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Deal and Sandwich. A 15-minute light show will be projected onto the Ramsgate Clock House in June 2025 as part of the Dunkirk commemoration.

In June 2026 a research trip to Greenwich Maritime Museum, will help volunteers contextualise the project in relation to London and the Medway.