Their Finest Hour Project

Published: 29 September 2023

The West Berkshire Culture Team has teamed up with Oxford University to be a part of a project called Their Finest Hour. The project launched in July 2022, and is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Their Finest Hour is a digital history project coordinated by the University of Oxford and is delivered by local communities. The mission is to document the human story of the Second World War by recording personal histories and objects. Although most eyewitnesses of the conflict have sadly departed, we can still gather their stories and personal effects from their descendants to preserve them for future generations.

To accomplish this, West Berkshire Council are holding three digital collection days across in Theale, Hungerford, and Newbury.  At a digital collection day original documents and artefacts and any keepsakes with a personal story or simply memories and stories passed down, will be photographed, and recorded. They will then be uploaded online to an archive which will be free to access from June 2024.

For more information about the project please click on the link https://theirfinesthour.english.ox.ac.uk/home or watch this short video which gives a brief summary of the project https://youtu.be/KIl83sUQktQ

The digital collection day details are:

West Berkshire Museum Wednesday 17th January 2024 10-2pm The Wharf Newbury RG14 5AS

Hungerford Library Thursday 30th November 2023 10-2pm Church Street Hungerford RG17 0JG

Theale Library Tuesday 14th November 2023 10-2pm Church Street Theale RG7 5BZ