We are excited to be partnering with a ground-breaking National Heritage Lottery Fund project run by Swindon and Wiltshire Pride to discover Wiltshire’s hidden LGBTQIA+ history.

With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and partnered by Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre and Swindon Local Studies Library, We Were Always Here: Wiltshire’s Hidden LGBTQIA+ Social History aims to uncover the stories of how LGBTQIA+ people lived and loved from the early c19th to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2014.

We Were Always Here asks members of the LGBTQAI+ community, its allies, and just anyone to share stories that will add to the collected history.  Your lives and experiences, good and bad, are important. The LGBTQIA+ community is barely represented in the history books and archives .That’s going to change that!

Stories we’ve already learned include: WWII hero and Chippenham MP, Victor Cazalet; author Richard Hall who’s shared his 1990s coming out experiences (pictured). We’ve also learned than John Wolfenden, whose parliamentary committee and report led to the partial decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967, was born and spent his early childhood in Evelyn Street, Swindon.

Working with a team of volunteer researchers and our project partners, the project will culminate, in 2027, with:

• A concise, illustrated history book that will be given free-of-charge to all senior schools and colleges, libraries and museum in Wiltshire
• An exhibition of portable interpretation panels which will be available for free loan to libraries, museums, educational establishments, community groups and businesses – any interested organization with available space
• Dedicated ‘queer history’ resource pages on Swindon & Wiltshire Pride’s website
• Catalogued, local LGBTQIA+ history collections at our partner archives.

The project is looking for support to publicise the project to engage more contributors – please contact project co-ordinator, Kate Parsons, at history@swindonwiltshirepride.org.uk, if you could help display posters or flyers or add information to your e-newsletter

Find out more and add your voice to history online at www.swindonwiltshirepride.org.uk/pride-history-project(anonymously, if you prefer), or email history@swindonwiltshirepride.org.uk.