Plymouth's The Box secures funds for Windrush study

HMT Empire Windrush became a symbol of a wider mass-migration movement

The Box museum and archive in Plymouth has been awarded a grant of £9,500 to research local links to the Windrush generation.

The National Lottery funding will research the stories of passengers on ships who arrived in Plymouth's Millbay Docks from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, as well as looking at their legacy in Devon and Cornwall.

The project will take place over the next year and will lead-up to Black History Month 2024, with a screening of a new film due at The Box's Media Lab gallery, bosses said.

“We’re really pleased to have been successful with this grant application,” said Box Engagement Officer Tony Davey.

• What is Windrush and who are the Windrush generation?

The new film and oral histories are to be created to help share the stories, with hopes that a new specialist researcher will be able to help trace some of the people identified and their lives in south-west England, project leaders say.

A group of people from the local community had already undertaken some research by uncovering images and identifying names of ships and passenger lists, they added.