Bedfordshire Local History Association launches new local history awards

Our aims are to:

• Encourage greater participation in all aspects of Bedfordshire's local history and heritage.
• Promote and raise awareness of the BLHA.
• To give a platform for member societies to promote themselves and their work and attract new members to the association.

The awards for 2024 will encompass:

Best newsletter, journal, or magazine produced by a group or organisation: The publication should be about an aspect of local history, family history or heritage relating to the historic county of Bedfordshire. It should be produced as part of a run, rather than a one-off book.

Best website or webpage(s) or blogs: Open to organisations and individuals who choose the URLs to submit for judging. This means that you can submit a whole new website or blog, or new pages added to an existing site.

Books: Open to organisations and individuals. The publication should be a one-off type of publication but can be self-published. It may be published in hard copy or electronically however it is important that the publication can be made freely available to the judges.

Projects: This can be anything that was planned and concluded as a discrete project. It could include trails, guided tours, community outreach, memory projects, oral histories, art projects inspired by Bedfordshire’s history/heritage, and collections development.

We propose to increase the categories from 2025 to provide greater opportunities and encourage greater involvement from young people with categories aimed at schools and youth groups.

Eligibility: Anyone can submit an entry for any of the award categories. The awards are open to members and non-members of the BLHA. Entries must have been created/concluded between March 2020 and August 2024 and relate to an aspect of Bedfordshire's local history and heritage.

Entries can be submitted from June 2024 to 30th September 2024 (the closing date).

Awards: Successful entrants will be publicised in History in Bedfordshire, the Journal of the BLHA and on the BLHA’s website, and invited to an awards ceremony which will be held in Autumn 2024. All entrants will be invited to the ceremony to publicise their entries and societies, share learning and celebrate success.

Further information: Further information, including how to apply and application forms, are published on the BLHA website at https://www.bedfordshire-lha.org.uk

If you have any queries, please get in touch with Bob Ricketts at [email protected]