WHEN Gill Williams was growing up in Oxford, her mum tidied up her clothes with this iron while she went scrumping for apples with the neighbours' boys.

Say 'apple' to these teenagers and most of them would think of an iPhone.

In fact, when Mrs Williams told them she used to go scrumping in the vicar's garden in St Ebbe's, the teenagers said they had never even heard the word.

But now they are helping to bridge that 70-year gap with their modern technology.

These 14 students were interviewing Mrs Williams and fellow former St Ebbe's resident David Brown last week as part of a documentary about the famous, rambling Oxford neighbourhood which once thrived where the Westgate Centre now stands.

Next month, they will show their film as part of Oxford's Christmas Lights Festival at Modern Art Oxford which, appropriately, is on one of the few surviving streets of the old neighbourhood – St Ebbe's itself – and right next door to the new Westgate Centre, which is opening today.

Mrs Williams, 73, who now lives in Blackbird Leys, said: "I think it is a really good idea.

"They were asking different questions about what it was like to grow up there and what we did as children, and I was saying obviously there were none of these games they have now: we had hopscotch and skipping and scrumping for apples.

"My son has always been interested in how I grew up, and I think eventually that story will be passed onto his son, which I think is nice."

The film project is being co-ordinated by Film Oxford as part of its iCreative scheme with East Oxford arts charity Fusion Arts.

It has been designed to be a continuation of a history project launched by Oxford artist Rachel Barbaresi last year to uncover the hidden history of what was once 'the beating heart of the city'.

She presented the fruit of her labours – a giant, glossy, scrapbook of photos and memories – as a gift to the city at Oxford Town Hall in November, and said she fully supported the iCreative film project.

Following on from her art project, these students will screen their documentary as part of an artistic installation about St Ebbe's at MAO.

Geron Swann, of Film Oxford, said he hoped the young film students would take a 'creative journey through the recent history of St Ebbe's'.

Speaking of the MAO exhibition he said: "It would be wonderful to raise the profile of the installation particularly among the people who lived in or remember St Ebbe's.

"I also think, with the £440m Westgate opening over a large area of old St Ebbe's footprint, it's actually quite poignant."

The exhibition, Pigeons over Paradise Square, will run at MAO on Friday, November 17, 5.30pm – 9pm; November 18, 10am – 5pm, and November 19, 12pm – 5pm.