The Global Centre has announced that its Story-telling event at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum tomorrow night (March 16) has completely sold out. The event is part of the Heritage Lottery-funded project Telling our Stories, Finding our Roots: Exeter's Multi-Coloured History.
Project coordinator Ghee Bowman said: "The 2011 census showed that Exeter's population is changing and evolving – with only around 88% being from White British backgrounds, down from around 97% ten years before that. But what isn't so well known is that the minority population in Exeter and Devon is centuries old. The 22 diverse volunteers on the project have been finding out about many hidden stories, covering many centuries in Exeter."
The stories to be told at the RAMM are going to cover a wide spread of topics, including the history of Exeter's mosque, A Toddler in Topsham, the Jewish population of Exeter, 3 Stories of Ganesh, and a story called "18th August 1875".
Ghee added: "But that's hardly scratching the surface of what the volunteers have found - stories from the Second World War, of segregation and support from around the world. Stories of slavery and anti-slavery. Stories about Choirs and tradesmen, about 'Aliens' and 'Denizens', and the story of the 200 Black soldiers who accompanied William of Orange when he arrived in Exeter in November 1688.
"It's really amazing what we're uncovering. Who would have thought that Exeter had such a long history of multi-culturalism? There were 675 'aliens' living in Devon in 1440, in the time of Henry V. There were Black people here throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Jews settled here in the 11th century, and returned again in the 18th century. And if we go further back, we find that English wasn't spoken here until well over a thousand years ago. The truth is that Exeter has always been a city with a mixed population".
The Global Centre is considering running a second event later in the year.
