Audio 'time capsule' brings town's stories to life

Timed walks for the Museum of Stories take place from 11 to 16 September

A new audio walking tour has been created, giving a "time capsule" of "incredible" stories from a diverse town.

Luton's Museum of Stories is an audio walk featuring 12 dramas about real-life experiences and memories from the Bury Park area.

Co-producer Fin Kennedy, from Applied Stories, hoped it would "increase footfall and highlight Dunstable Road's unique independent High Street".

Organised tours will take place from Monday to Saturday during Heritage Open Days week.

Fin Kennedy said he was "super proud" of what the project had achieved

Mr Kennedy, who co-produced the project with Shemiza Rashid, said: "These incredible stories showcase the independent spirit of those overlooked places. It's a citizen empowerment project."

The Museum of Stories: Bury Park tales, that can be downloaded off app stores, range from five minutes to 15 minutes each, and can be listened to individually or in a 90-minute walk.

The stories were recorded by a community cast

They include stories about the 19th Century founder of Bury Park, an optician who moved to the area from Pakistan for her own safety, the thriving Jewish community in the 1950s, and the National Front marches and local resistance movements of the 1980s.

"It's a time capsule of now, but we can add to it. We don't have a Luton FC story, we don't have an Irish story, yet," said Mr Kennedy.

Each story is pinned to the location in Bury Park where it happened

Jacqueline Edelstein's story, A Leap into Faith, explains how her parents from different countries and backgrounds met and "saved" each other.

"The concept really captured my imagination and it brought back so many fond memories of growing up in Luton with my family," she said.

The project is like an "audio art gallery", organisers said

Luton's "Deadpool", who has become famous in the town for dressing as the Marvel character and doing various community work anonymously, said the tour was "truly inspirational".

He said Luton had "been through a lot throughout the years, and now I feel like we are finally standing tall and representing our town for the awesome place it is".

Luton's "Deadpool" said the tour "takes us on a journey throughout Bury Park"

The project has been funded by Arts Council England and backed by Revolution Arts and Luton Borough Council's Curating Luton: place-making project.

The stories can be downloaded via an app and will remain online