Chance Encounters
The Taking Chances project is a celebration of the Chance Brothers Glassworks in Smethwick. Supported by Heritage Lottery Fund’s Your Heritage scheme, a team of artists from Multistory worked with former employees of Chance Brothers to capture stories and memories about their working lives. A website and two Chance Encounters magazines were put together to share these stories and memories.
Your Heritage provides grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 to support community-focused heritage projects. To qualify for a grant, projects should conserve and enhance our diverse heritage or encourage communities to identify, look after and celebrate their heritage or both. Projects should also ensure that everyone can learn about, have access to, and enjoy their heritage.
Commenting on the Taking Chances project, HLF’s regional manager Anne Jenkins said, “The Chance Brothers Glassworks was a large employer in the 1800s and had a huge impact on the social history of Smethwick. This project aims to capture, preserve and share this history to ensure local people can learn about the history on their doorstep.”
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) enables communities to celebrate, look after and learn more about our diverse heritage. From museums and historic buildings to parks and nature reserves to celebrating traditions, customs and history, the HLF has awarded over £3 billion to projects that open up our nation’s heritage for everyone to enjoy.
This project would not have been possible without the kind contributions of Arthur East, Ray Drury, Dennis Arnold, Ted and Cyril Caine, Edna Carr, Anne Hardy, Gary Watton, Mac Prinn, Marion Sutton, Mary Taylor, Robert Cooper, John Caroll, Alan and Joyce Taylor and members of Chance Pensioners Club.
Visit the Chance Encounters website at www.chancesglass.co.uk
Click on the links below to download the Chance Encounters magazines:
Click here to download a pdf of the Chance Encounters Magazine 1.
Click here to download a pdf of the Chance Encounters Magazine 2.
Click here to download a pdf of visual documentation from the Chances project.
