Discover Jesmond 1888 is an NHLF project celebrating Jesmond’s history) & culture through an immersive audio trail and event programme.
St George’s, Jesmond, and Jesmond United Reformed Church came together on realising they were both founded in 1888 and with future plans for conservation work on rare organs from this time.
I was hired as the Project Coordinator in May 2025. This role included project delivery, coordination, administration, stakeholder engagement and monitoring and reporting. My main outputs of this project are the audio heritage trail in partnership with Smartify and an 18-month event programme to begin in July 2026.
The interpretation plan I developed focused on how collage pieces come together, inspired by the mosaic and stained glass art of the two churches. It explores the intersection of art and heritage skills, memory and identity and who controls the narrative: what we create, what survives and what was lost.
Content development involved a lot of research both into these historical stories. It was important to me that the webapp and trail itself were accessible, useful as a guide to Jesmond, and representative of a wide range of experiences and stories.
With the support of the Steering Group, local history organisations, a brilliant designer and the team at Smartify; in April 2026 we launched our map/leaflet and webapp with audio tour and digital guide to Jesmond. Smartify turned our stories into an immersive experience. The audio acts almost like a radio play with sound effects and different voice actors. I’m incredibly proud of the results – especially how much information I was able to get into the web app.
Swipe or use the arrows for images of the webapp and launch event:
Our launch events and guided tours delivered as part of Jesmond Community Festival have been really successful and popular and I’m excited to focus on community engagement and our event programme next.
“Molly Wyatt has been the Project Coordinator for our Discover Jesmond 1888 Project since May 2025, working closely with the two churches of St George’s, Jesmond and Jesmond United Reformed Church. In this time she has developed a creative, engaging Heritage Trail, working closely with local community groups and partners. This has highlighted distinctive contributions from a wide range of former residents, other individuals and organisations, and was enthusiastically received at two launch events on 24 and 25 April 2026. We look forward to Molly’s key input into a series of events over the next 18 months as the second phase of this important project develops.”
– Steering Group of
