Friday the 16th November saw the unveiling of the ‘Longbridge Heritage Map’ created by John Baker a former Longbridge worker and passionate archivist & historian of the factory. The map will stay in Longbridge permanently, John's aims were for it to celebrate, to remember and to inform the next generation about the incredible history that has come to pass in Longbridge.
"As an Austin Apprentice from 1958, Longbridge was my home for nearly 40 years. It was a very sad day for the community when the factory closed. I was passionate about reminding people how well the Austin served us both in war and peace time.” - John Baker.
2 other new permanent art works were also launched created by FAMED & Stephen Burke. FAMED have created a light text artwork located in front of The Cambridge pub titled 'We Resemble Our Times More Than We Resemble Our Parents'. Stephen Burke's work titled 'This is The Spot' is a digital site-specific museum, six red heritage plaques designed by the artist physically demarcate different areas of the former car factory. The plaques have QR codes embedded to enable access via smart devices to real time photographic archives of the area that the viewer is stood in.
For a PDF leaflet including a hand drawn map as a guide for the artworks that are dotted around Longbridge and we’re produced as part of LPAP click here.
Thanks again for all the support over the years to help the artists create work in response to the rich heritage of Longbridge.