before we leave

EVERY PLACE HAS STORIES WORTH KNOWING

GILCRUX village vault

A Dedicated Space for the Cumbrian Parish of Gilcrux

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Create your community archive

Ideas and Inspiration to begin your adventure

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COMING IN march 2026: STORIES FROM STONE, step into st mary's graveyard gilcrux with an atmospheric audio guide. headphones on. history awakens.

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every place
has stories worth knowing

Image: Dykeland Lonning, Gilcrux. July 19, 2025. Michael Davies

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welcome

before we leave gathers the stories of place. It's a community archive, a resource for those wanting to start their own, a quarterly journal of writing rooted in place, and a fledgling network of writers, archivists, curators, and anyone whose work connects people to where they live. How we live, remember and belong.

What began in one ancient Cumbrian parish as a way to leave something meaningful behind has become a wider invitation: to notice, record and share the traces that make every landscape home. I help individuals and communities transform historical fragments and lived experience into lasting narratives, blending research, memory, and craft. At its heart, before we leave is for those who believe that every place has stories worth knowing, and that preserving them is both an act of care and a creative calling.

 
A note for Gilcrux residents. The Gilcrux Village Vault currently lives here at before we leave, and if you've arrived via gilcruxcommunityarchive.org.uk or gilcruxcommunityarchive.co.uk, you're in the right place. In time, the parish will have its own dedicated website. When that happens, the full archive will move to its permanent home.
- Bee Lilyjones

 

 

WHAT I DO

 

before we leave works across three strands of place-based storytelling: community archives, creative practice, and learning. Everything here is for people who care about the stories of place, whether you're a creative practitioner wanting to share your work, a community group or parish council interested in beginning your own archive or curating a meaningful exhibition, or a writer looking for a platform.

 

Community Archives

 

Community archives sit at the heart of before we leave: living collections of memory created by and for local people. What began with one Cumbrian parish (Gilcrux, pronounced Gil-cruise) is growing into a simple framework others can adapt, preserving photographs, oral histories, letters, family records, and everyday stories. Each archive is a vault of belonging: a space where memory, landscape and people remain connected. You don't need special training to begin. Think of everything on here as a resource or inspiration, so any group (village hall, parish council, society or school) can create an archive shaped by its own place and community.


Public records and newspaper archives cost money to access. Research requires travel to distant libraries and archive centres. Subscription services put local history behind paywalls. One of the reasons I got involved in community archive work was because a community archive brings your place's history together in one accessible space, held locally and shaped by the people who live there. 



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Community Support and Visits

The easiest way to begin a community archive is with a conversation. I offer a free 30-minute Zoom chat for any group, parish council or organisation wanting to explore how to get started. If you'd like further support, you can book a longer Zoom session, or a short series of guided online workshops, or an in-person visit or presentation. In-person sessions include a fee plus travel expenses all agreed up-front. All support is practical, friendly, and shaped around your community's needs, from designing a research plan or planning interviews to choosing what to collect. Arrange a call or discuss a visit.   

Contact Bee Lilyjones

Creative Practice and Learning


Through individual and collaborative projects, Before We Leave helps turn lived experience, research and close observation into crafted narrative. From essays and memoir to digital exhibitions and place-based reflection, these works celebrate the voices that make each landscape unique. I also publish selected pieces from writers, photographers, curators and other practitioners working with place. Think of it as a growing journal of contemporary place-writing: a home for thoughtful, grounded storytelling.

 

My workshops and guides share what I've learned about transforming raw materials (a photograph, a map, an interview, a remembered moment) into narrative. I offer practical tools and gentle guidance for writers, researchers, educators and anyone exploring story through memory and place. Whether you're beginning with a single thread or a lifetime of notes, I help you find the shape of the story, blending accuracy, research and creative craft.

 

If you're working on a piece of nonfiction (memoir, local history, essay, place-writing or research) and want personalised guidance, I offer one-to-one mentoring. These sessions are gentle, encouraging and tailored to your project. Whether you're shaping an idea or refining a finished draft, I help you bring clarity, craft and confidence to your work. Mentoring is flexible and affordable. If you'd like to discuss your project, I'd love to hear from you.

 

Community and Substack

 

Before We Leave with Bee Lilyjones & Friends on the newsletter platform Substack is where the wider conversation unfolds: essays, reflections, glimpses behind the scenes, and the ongoing evolution of the work. It's free to follow, with an optional paid tier for those who want to support the project. This is our shared journal: a way to think, write and remember in company.

 

Collaborations and Talks

 

I work throughout the UK with local groups like parish councils, heritage organisations, schools, artists and creative collectives to explore how place-based storytelling can strengthen connection. Through talks, workshops and collaborative projects, I share methods for blending research, ecological observation and narrative craft. The aim is always the same: keeping local history alive through creative practice.

 

Five young adults immersed in their newspapers at a long library table by the window, with shelves full of books standing nearby.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Community archives aren't only about the past. They're about identity, belonging and understanding where we fit in the larger story.

They give voice to those often overlooked in official histories. They preserve culture, tradition and the everyday details at risk of slipping away. They connect generations.

What does it mean to know a place? To truly know somewhere is to understand its rhythms, recognise its landmarks and carry its stories.

before we leave helps capture this knowledge through the voices of those who call each place home. What does it mean to leave a place? Leaving changes how we see where we've been. I honour both the leaving and the staying, acknowledging that every story of place matters. What does it mean to belong? Belonging is connection, contribution and care.

I hope before we leave offers a space where people can see themselves reflected in the community's shared memory, and add their own voices to it.

Coming Soon: The Directory.

A directory of place-based writers, photographers, curators, ecological observers, archivists and other practitioners. A map of people working with story, landscape and memory - all in one place.

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