'Our Untold Stories' is a comprehensive insight into the history and settlement of the various minority groups within the county. The exhibition features fascinating stories from a diverse range of cultures including Chinese, African Caribbean, Hindu, Muslim, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Sikh. It highlights people's experiences of arriving in Gloucestershire as first generation immigrants. Old photographs, stories, video and audio recordings offer an insight into the challenges individuals faced as they adapted to a new life and culture. It focuses on the reasons why they came, how they felt about leaving their homeland and how they feel about Britain. The exhibition is the culmination of several years' hard work by the county's senior ethnic services librarian Nasreen Akhtar to archive the history of these groups. She received so many inquiries from people wanting to know more about the origins of the county's different ethnic groups and how they came to settle in Gloucestershire that she ended up setting up a project to record their stories in book form. The online version is now published in full on the BBC website for Gloucestershire. »Our Untold Stories - the full story The result was three volumes of Our Untold Stories - beginning with the county's Chinese community and continuing with the African-Caribbean community.  | The three books in the Untold Stories series |
The latest book in the Our Untold Stories series, published in early 2003, records the roots of Gloucestershire's Asian community which can be traced as far back as the 18th century. Multilingual researchers were trained to interview community members and record their stories in their own words. The Untold Stories project, which gives a fascinating insight into what it is like to move into an alien culture, won a prestigious national award from the UK Library Association. The exhibition grew out of the books, which feature a host of fascinating stories. They include: - Frank Wing Yow Soo, who came to Cheltenham in 1948 when his father opened the county's first Chinese laundry.
- Histon (Stan) Boreland, who joined the RAF at 18 in 1944 after seeing an advertisement in the Jamaican Gleaner saying "The Mother Country Needs You" and ended up at RAF Innsworth.
- Salim Kholwadia, whose father Suleman came to Gloucester from a village in Gujurat, India, in 1956 and opened the city's first Asian grocery shop in 1963.
Both the stories and the exhibition are also a goldmine of information about the history of the different ethnic communities in the county.
The opportunity could not be missed to document, for the first time, the contribution made over the last 50 years by the three main minority ethnic communities in Gloucestershire. | | Nasreen Akhtar |
Nasreen Akhtar said: "We started to plan this project almost two years ago. "With the advent of a new millennium, the opportunity could not be missed to document for the first time the contribution made over the last 50 years by the three main minority ethnic communities in Gloucestershire." Gail Johnson, author of the African-Caribbean Our Untold Stories book, believes it is an important way of recording stories for posterity. She said: "Caribbean people have played a vital role in the history of Britain and the city of Gloucester, and their story must not be lost as each of the elders in the community pass away. "Moreover, their contribution continues to be made, and I will continue to ensure that it is remembered." The three books in the Our Untold Stories series can be bought through the Gloucestershire Library Service. All the stories featured in the books will soon be published on the this website for as part of the BBC Gloucestershire's Voices project. The exhibition can be booked by interested venues across the county. For more information on the books or the exhibition call Nasreen Akhtar at Gloucester Library on 01452 426985. »Our Untold Stories - the full story | 
