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Home	A project from

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Home might be a place we have not visited for a long time, or perhaps never at all. For some of us, it's just part of a personal history we create for ourselves, but for others there really is somewhere like that described by Robert Frost:

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."

But even though its meaning is strongly rooted in a physical place which we can visit, in these days of frequent re-location the real power of Home is often defined more in our heads than by buildings, countries or landscapes. Of the several meanings given in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, perhaps the most germane for the global village is a definition from as far back as 1548:

"A place, region or state to which one properly belongs, in which one’s affections centre, or where one finds rest, refuge, or satisfaction."

So, Home can frequently be found more in memory than in geography or more in imagination than in reality, and a song, a flower, a word, or a mouthful of food can be all it takes to bring to life a whole theatre of recollection.

This website invites you to contribute your own memories and imaginings of Home: the sound of it, the scent of it, the feel of it, the taste of it. The place where *you* go for rest, refuge and satisfaction. The site is designed as a series of questions to help focus your thoughts - please answer as few or as many as you wish. Your responses will be added to the collection immediately, and you can also read the contributions of others. Together we are building a Home Page with a difference.

Q. What does the word ‘home’ mean to you? Read entries

Q. Please describe the home of your childhood.
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Q. Please describe the scent, taste or feel of home.
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Q. Which object most evokes home for you?
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Q. Where do you feel you ‘properly belong’ now?
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9th December 2004

This project is now closed to contributions.

The Home Project was sponsored by trAce and East Midlands Arts and was developed from a collaboration with New Perspectives Theatre Company, Notts.