Celebrate Sittingbourne's history
Published
Monday 17 February, 2025
Updated
Tuesday 18 February, 2025
People learnt how to make paper at free workshops funded by Swale Borough Council’s Town Centre Action Grant (TAG).
AMTeC Heritage Science CIC is offering skills building workshops out of unit 21 - The Making Space - in The Forum Shopping Centre to celebrate Sittingbourne’s rich history this week.
The town was once home to one of the largest papermaking mills in the world and last year marked the centenary of Kemsley Mill producing paper.
People of all ages were welcome to get involved and everyone had the opportunity to make a piece of paper out of recycled cotton fabric and take it away on the day.
The paper making workshops received £5,000 from Swale Borough Council’s Town Centre Action Grant, funded by the UK Government, to purchase the equipment needed to run the workshops.
The workshops took place on the first day of the “Hands on the Past: Make it Last - Swale Wassail Festival”.
The festival runs from 15 February to 22 February and aims to celebrate Sittingbourne’s heritage and the people who lived and worked there in the past,
and continue the tradition of Wassailing by wishing prosperity to those here now, and the people to come.
Other free drop-in demonstrations and workshops include Roman hair dressing, early medieval weaving and doctoring, singing, poetry writing, hooden horse decorating and blacksmithing.
These will all be taking place in the Forum throughout the week culminating in the Wassail Parade and Swale Wassail Day on 22 February.
AMTeC CIC provide people of all ages the opportunity, tools and guidance to help conserve archaeological sites, finds and historic buildings.
They also give support to people suffering from loneliness, and help and support other organisations put on their own heritage community projects.
Cllr Monique Bonney, chair of the Property and Regeneration Committee, said:
“Our Town Action Grant is working towards improving our Town Centres and funding community events which will draw people to our High Streets and help create a sense of pride in our towns and heritage.
“This event perfectly aligns with these goals; The Forum is very central and the workshops themselves are highlighting an important piece of Sittingbourne’s history.
“There are loads of free family activities throughout the week so please come a long and flex your creative muscles through ancient crafts.”
Dana Goodburn-Brown of AMTeC CIC said:
“We offer a wide variety of creative and skills building workshops and demonstrations relating to heritage, such as this paper making, and other festival events and activities woven into our town’s fabric.
“We pride ourselves on giving opportunities to people who might not otherwise have a chance to encounter these specialist heritage activities.
“We also love to grab moments to chat about how our ancestors lived, used the materials, skills and inventiveness available to them, and what that means to us today.”
For more information on free workshops and activities see: https://www.facebook.com/SwaleWassail/
The project also received £10,000 from the UK Government to deliver the Hands on the Past: Make it Last - Swale Wassail Festival.
