When Living Memories C.I.C. started running its first pilot Tea & Memories community reminiscence group in 2018 in Colyton, East Devon, little did we know how popular the regular gatherings would become.

When we were out walking our dog in the days between our group meetings we would often bump into one of our 25 “regulars” who would ask to be reminded about what we would discuss at the next session, then once posters had gone up on the telegraph poles around Colyton we would hear “I can’t wait until next Thursday..”.

We never had any problem to stimulate conversation after watching a couple of our 2,500 archive film programmes  and newsreels from the 20th century on Living Memories Online. The memories triggered by watching the videos would just flow over a cup of tea or coffee and carry on for 60-90 minutes until we had to lock up the local church hall.

In fact on one occasion the discussion was so fascinating that it carried on as one member of the group collapsed on the table, then I called an ambulance, which arrived in 10 minutes, and the person was taken for assessment in the ambulance, recovered and driven home. 

When I walked back into the hall 20 minutes later, the group were still chatting about back-to-back houses in the Midlands in the 1950’s. They then asked after the casualty and then discussed what films we would watch at the next Tea & Memories session.

During Covid lockdown we have all missed our Tea & Memories meetings in Colyton and in the other communities in East Devon, Dorset and Somerset where I had been to run Pop-Up Tea and Memories groups in late 2019 and early 2020 with a view to starting regular sessions.

Fortunately, The Abbeyfield Society is using Living Memories DVDs and Reminiscence Guides and/or Living Memories Online in most of its 400+ care and residential homes around the UK and the following 5 minute video from the Tavistock, Devon care home shows the benefits that their reminiscence group derive from Living Memories Online. By the way, the person running the group is aged 84, so the tech is no problem.

See: https://livingmemories.imagencloud.com/record/2550

The ideal time to start one of our Tea and Memories groups is Now, because we have created a Collection of over 50 archive films and newsreels that you can enjoy your local area in preparation for the Queen’s Jubilee in June.

If you would like to look at Living Memories Online visit:
https://livingmemories.imagencloud.com/

For enquiries email brian.norris@livingmemories.io or phone 01297 552358 or 079222 33363