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Memories shared to celebrate 50 years of innovative mental health support at Middle Street Resource Centre

The heritage of Middle Street Resource Centre (MSRC) in Beeston is to be celebrated and preserved thanks to a National Lottery Heritage Fund research project by Nottingham Trent University (NTU), which collected stories, memories and experiences from people involved in the Centre throughout its 50-year history.

    Illustrations of people's thoughts about the centre
    Middle Street community members worked with Nottingham CAN and professional illustrator, Raphael Achache, to record their memories of the Centre

    MSRC is a mental health-focused community centre which offers a variety of support groups, therapeutic one-to-one support, and volunteering opportunities to promote mental health wellbeing.

    NTU researchers worked alongside volunteers to collect 30 oral histories from members of the Middle Street community, including Centre users, staff and volunteers, other stakeholders and supporters in the wider community.

    Many of the people who took part in the study - Fifty Years of the Middle Street Resource Centre: The Hidden Heritage of Wellbeing - have long associations with the Centre, from staff members who have worked there since the 1980s to members of the community who first came to the Centre as patients in the 1970s and are now group leaders and volunteers.

    Their experiences revealed key themes around the importance of the Centre, including its role in the history of mental health care; its unique values and ethos; the significance of having a place of belonging and a place of safety at Middle Street and the role of peer support at the Centre; and its focus on activity and creativity for wellbeing. The project also uncovered memories of the campaign to save the Centre in 2010.

    The project put communities and individuals with lived experience of mental illness at its heart to promote inclusivity by removing barriers to participation for people with mental ill health, who are under-represented in heritage.

    As well as collecting the oral histories, the team worked with Thortify: The Art of Self Care on a six-week project with Beeston Women’s Group; a peer-to-peer support group for women with mental health challenges who meet at Middle Street. The women undertook a range of creative activities including making memory boxes and concertina books.

    Memory box with words and images
    A memory box created in a participatory art session

    They also ran a series of drop-in craft sessions at the Centre where 50 participants worked on a range of creative projects based around memory gathering and story sharing. This included decorating a series of wooden boxes to represent different aspects of the centre including the cafe, the garden and the various groups, and a ‘people make the place’ activity sharing memories of individuals by creating postcards and canvasses.

    Nottingham CAN also held illustration workshops where professional Illustrator, Raphael Achache, brought people’s memories to life. Writing workshops also saw members of the Centre community join poet and writer, Bridie Squires, to write poems inspired by their experiences of Middle Street.

    Dr Verusca Calabria, the project lead, who is an oral historian, trustee of the Oral History Society and senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work, Care and Community at NTU’s School of Social Sciences, said: “This has been a unique opportunity to document and share the stories of people connected with this innovative Centre, thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players. The oral histories of Middle Street are an invaluable resource to better understand the social history of mental healthcare and the current concerns of people who rely on the mental health system in the present.”

    Robert Ashford, MSRC manager, said: “This project has been very important as without it there would have been an imminent risk of losing our heritage as many of the people involved in its long history are reaching the end of their life and their stories were at risk of being lost. Now our heritage of supporting people with mental health difficulties has been unearthed and made available to a wide range of people.”

    The project will culminate in an exhibition and a series of free events to share the uncovered stories and research findings:

    • The History of Mental Health Care talk, Wednesday 13 December, 2pm, Nottingham Central Library
    • Mental Health & the Nottinghamshire Archives talk, Tuesday 9 January, 2pm, Nottingham Central Library
    • Writing Mental Health writing workshop, Monday 15 January, 5.30pm - 7.30pm, Nottingham Central Library, places must be booked via dale.copley@ntu.ac.uk
    • The Art of Self Care craft workshop, Saturday 20 January, 10.30am - 2.30pm, Nottingham Central Library
    • Fifty Years of Middle Street film showing, Wednesday 28 February, 3.30pm, Beeston Library

    The exhibition Fifty Years of Middle Street Resource Centre will run 6 December 2023 to 20 January 2024 at Nottingham Central Library. A launch event will be held at the library from 2pm on 6 December.

    For further information on the events, the project and to read and listen to stories from the MSRC community, visit the project website.

    • Notes for editors

      Press enquiries please contact Helen Breese, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8751, or via email.

      About Nottingham Trent University

      Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

      The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

      NTU was awarded The Times and The Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2023 and ranked University of the Year in the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023. It was awarded Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards), University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

      NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with approximately 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

      Since 2000, NTU has invested £570 million in tools, technology, buildings and facilities.

      NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2021 UCAS UG acceptance data). It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge.

      NTU is ranked the second most sustainable university in the world in the 2022 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

      About The National Lottery Heritage Fund

      As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future as set out in the strategic plan, Heritage 2033.

      Over the next ten years, the Heritage Fund aims to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to bring about benefits for people, places and the natural environment.

      The Heritage Fund helps protect, transform and share the things from the past that people care about, from popular museums and historic places, our natural environment and fragile species, to the languages and cultural traditions that celebrate who we are.

      The Heritage Fund is passionate about heritage and committed to driving innovation and collaboration to make a positive difference to people’s lives today, while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy.

      Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund  www.heritagefund.org.uk

    Published on 28 November 2023
    • Category: Press office; Research; School of Social Sciences