What is the Life Stories Project?

The Life Stories Project has been running for over 10 years, during that time it has been our privilege to record  and transcribe hundreds of stories about the lives of people in the Tavistock community and its surrounding areas.

Our goal is to capture and preserve the life stories of anyone who would like to tell us their story – you may think you have led a ‘normal’ ‘average’ life – but to us, all stories are remarkable – and we would love to help you preserve yours for following generations.

We have volunteers who are trained to listen, record and transcribe the stories you wish to tell us about your life. This story no-one else can tell but you and at the end you will have a written copy of your Life Story to keep.

Hundreds of storytellers have made use of this unique service, the extracts from their lives have been published in our many booklets (available at £3 each from the TASS Charity Shop, Café, The Anchorage Centre and the Tavistock Museum).

How does it work?

We try hard to make the process as simple as possible – the first thing to do is to get in touch with us – by phone, email, letter or drop into the Anchorage Centre which is open between 9am and 4pm Monday to Fridays and leave us your contact details.

Our Project Worker will then get in touch with you to discuss the project and answer any questions you might have. We will then match you with one of our lovely volunteers, who will get in touch to organise a suitable time to come and visit you at your home, or elsewhere if it is more convenient.

When our volunteer comes to see you, they will ask you to fill in a form giving us permission to record the transcribe the stories you tell us. Once that is done, recording can begin and with helpful prompts from our volunteers, you can tell us your life story.

Usually, a recording session will last between 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes, if there is a lot to share, our volunteer may return for a second session.

For Safeguarding purposes, all volunteers are enhanced DBS checked.