Growing local interest

Story of the Great War now engaging the population

The Public Information Day organized by the Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project in collaboration with North Tyneside Council Customer First Centre in North Shields on Saturday 1st March demonstrated the widespread interest of the local population in the story of the Great War as it affected the local community.

Now as the centenary of the outbreak of the war looms, the work of the Tynemouth Project receives recognition across the region as an example of outstanding community involvement and the excellence of its work, in recording the stories of the hundreds of men of the borough who paid the ultimate price in the war.

So far our work in schools has been limited but those that have been willing to engage with us have found that pupils are fascinated by and very respectful of the work of the project. Teachers who have grasped the opportunity, find that our casualty map and access to the database allows them to engage children by reference to the casualties who lived in the streets in which many of them are living in today.

Our work with schools is funded by our Heritage Lottery Fund grant and allows us to provide the services of a qualified teacher/ creative practitioner to go into schools and  work alongside teachers and pupils to learn about the war through art, music, painting and poetry, Some of the work produced has been commented upon as outstanding and allows the pupils to engage with the subject of the war at a personal level by exploring in depth some of the fascinating stories of the men of the borough, uncovered by our work over the past three years

The breadth of our activity has been recognis

Our entry has been submitted and we will hear more on progress of that in June. If successful it could mean a £2000 boost to our funds as a contribution to the many activities we have planned for the coming months. I will have more to say on this next week.

Just before writing this column I was at Northumbria University discussing our potential participation and contribution to a two day seminar being organized to look at the digitization of historical records with a particular focus on the Great War.

It is gratifying that the hard work of our more than 70 volunteers over the last three years is now recognized widely as an exemplar of good practice in the collation and presentation of materials in an accessible format through the means of modern digital technology.

The seminar will also have a public event in the evening of Thursday 24th April, in Newcastle. Further details on this will be given in the coming weeks.