Pre-Funding · Proposed Project
A proposed inclusive community heritage project at Grange Farm Centre, Chigwell — bringing together photography, art, oral history, drama, and research into a permanent community archive.
Project Status
It cannot go ahead without financial support. If you are a grant-making body, trust, foundation, or local business that shares our commitment to inclusive heritage and community wellbeing, we would very much welcome a conversation.
Get in touchPast, Present & History of Chigwell Village is a proposed inclusive community heritage project that ANVOB (A New Vision of Britain CIC) is planning to deliver at Grange Farm Centre, Chigwell, in collaboration with local charities and organisations supporting adults and young people with special needs and disabilities.
Subject to securing funding, this project will draw together photography, art, oral history, drama, and written research to explore Chigwell's past and present — building a permanent community archive that will benefit residents, visitors, and future generations.
At its heart, the project believes that heritage belongs to everyone. By placing inclusion at the centre of everything we do, we aim to ensure that people who are too often excluded from cultural and creative life have the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to their local history — discovering new skills, building confidence, and leaving a lasting legacy for their community, which will include exhibitions.
A defining feature of this proposed project is its commitment to making heritage activity genuinely accessible. All planned sessions will be designed and delivered with the needs of participants in mind, including those with:
Working closely with partner charities, ANVOB will ensure that activities are adapted to individual abilities, paced appropriately, and delivered in a supportive, welcoming environment at Grange Farm Centre — a venue well-established as a hub for inclusive community activity in Chigwell.
Participation in creative heritage work has well-documented wellbeing benefits: improved confidence and self-esteem, reduced social isolation, a stronger sense of identity and belonging, and the pride of contributing something of lasting value to the wider community.
Guided photography sessions will help participants document Chigwell's buildings, green spaces, and community life. Photography is a particularly accessible creative medium, offering a low-barrier route into active participation regardless of prior experience or ability.
Video will be used to document the project throughout, creating a lasting record of participants, activities, and outcomes. Open art sessions at Grange Farm will invite participants to respond creatively to the village — drama, sketching, painting, and illustrating scenes that capture their personal sense of place, supported by experienced tutors and adapted for a wide range of abilities.
Working with local historians and writers, the project will gather material on Chigwell's long and distinctive history — from the medieval parish church of St Mary the Virgin to the King's Head Inn, immortalised by Charles Dickens in Barnaby Rudge. Participants will contribute their own memories and knowledge alongside formal research.
Accessible guided walks around the village will allow participants to engage with local history in the landscape itself, connecting lived experience with historical context in a way that is social, stimulating, and health-promoting.
If funded, this project will deliver measurable benefit across several recognised community priorities:
Social inclusion
Bringing people with disabilities and special needs into active cultural participation.
Health and wellbeing
Creative and outdoor activities that support mental and physical health.
Community cohesion
Connecting diverse groups through shared local heritage.
Skills development
Photography, art, research, and digital skills accessible to all.
Legacy
A permanent community archive that will outlast the project and benefit future generations.
This project is planned in partnership with Grange Farm Centre, Chigwell, a trusted and accessible community venue, and will be delivered alongside local charities and special needs organisations whose members will be active participants — not simply beneficiaries — in all project activities.
We welcome conversations with grant-making bodies, trusts, foundations, local businesses, partner organisations, and anyone who wants to support inclusive community heritage in Chigwell.