AN exhibition to celebrate the completion of Littleport’s Family Adams Project was “an absolute triumph,” attracting hundreds of visitors to see the result of the seven month history enterprise.

The project was based around the recently closed J H Adams ironmongers store, and the two day event included the premier of a film charting the history of the shop, along with a specially commissioned play, an archive of photographs and interviews, and an intricate scale model of the shop.

Project manager Zoe Davidson from ADeC said: “It was a fantastic weekend, the community came out in force and enjoyed celebrating their archive; it was a wet weekend, but it did not deter people from coming out. It was an absolute triumph ”

Visitors were able to see a living memory book created by the project, including documents, interviews, and information about various archives found in the historic shop, and to view the scale model of the building, created by Trevor Vincent, Also on show was a series of photos taken by Helena g Anderson, documenting both the shop and the community project; and work carried out by schoolchildren in the village.

Saturday night saw the premier of a 45-minute film called End of an Era, created by Adam Giles and Richard Millen; charting the history of the shop, and including footage of the day that owners Susan and David Porter closed the doors for the last time.

Zoe said: “It was quite an emotional weekend; David Porter was featured in the film, talking about his feelings when he closed the shop.”

The play, called The Gypsy Play at Cafe Marguerite was written by Littleport woman Jean Rees, and was performed by 16 young people from the community. The play as based on the life of Doris Elizabeth Adams. Doris’ parents ran the shop at the turn of the last century, and she ran the Sunday School.

Susan and David Porter and their family visited the exhibition on Sunday, when the film and play were given a matinee billing; both days were a sell-out.

The project was funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Funding, awarded to Word Garden, a Littleport based community arts group.

Zoe added: “We are now looking into the possibility of running the exhibition at other venues, and we are looking into the possibility of making the film available for sale.

“This is not the end of the project, it is just the beginning of something that will continue to grow. More information became available over the weekend, people are still sharing their memories. It has been a pleasure to manage the project; I feel very proud to have been involved in this.

“Everyone has been completely thrilled with the way the weekend went; we are incredibly for all the support we received, and there is still some hope that the shop will be saved.

“The website and the Facebook page will continue to be updated.”