Flora’s War
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Category Archives: Heritage Project
Flora’s War 1914- 1918 Young Roots Project to Commemorate WW1 -Home Front on Sheppey
Flora’s War 1914-1918
We will work with young people to explore and articulate through a range of traditional and social media the impact that the outbreak of the First World War had upon the Isle of Sheppey and young people of the time.
Recognising its strategic position between London and Europe, the 1914 government strengthened & fortified all the services on this
“ Barbed Wire Island”.
We will map the changes which occurred on the Island due to the massive influx of Navy, Army and Airforce personnel onto Sheppey and people’s reactions to this through the eyes of actual young people who were alive at the time such as Flora, a seventeen year old cook in a Sheerness seaside house in Marine Parade.
We will explore their activities and interests, how they work, life at school and how they play as well as what they think of this very different world & the households in which they live. We will involve local historians, use census information and archive articles in local newspapers and museums to research the everyday life of the young people and their families one hundred years ago but employ modern technology and today’s social media to record their impressions.
School Workshops
We bring local history to life through drama, music, film and imagery. We work with young people in or out of school, either on a one-off or regular basis in order to explore and present local issues often with an emphasis upon the fascinating heritage the locality has to offer. In our workshops we not only perform the stories but we encourage the children to interpret the stories themselves becoming the heroes and villains of their own local history and learning how for 1000 years the Isle of Sheppey has played a vital part in the history of the Nation.
Fees are negotiable
Subsidised by the Heritage Lottery Fund
Contact 07775712306 or chrisonsheppey@aol.com
http://www.bigfish.org.uk
Current CRB checks in place
Old Man River
The Old Man River project, will uncover stories linking the Thames, the Medway and the Swale from 1660 to 1960.
Yarns involving hulk dwellers, barges, old salts, heroes and villains will be woven together to create a series of dramatic performances. The history of the seaside row of houses known as Shrimp Terrace in Sheerness will be presented as house drama spanning the years from 1880 to the present focusing on individuals whose lives were linked into both local and national history. Historic images and photographs will be gathered from the various coastal areas. Local communities are being encouraged to get involved with all aspects of the project, as researchers, scriptwriters, actors and directors. Historic costumes will be created for a series of site-specific street theatre performances & school drama workshops.
Unifying the dramas will be Old Man River himself in the form of an old sailor recounting historic events, salty yarns and sea-shanties. An exhibition featuring the imagery and information discovered is planned for summer 2012.
A new Touring production “Britania Rules the Waves” has been performed in various venues. It gives a taste of historical events crucial to Sheppey such as the Nore Mutiny and the return of Nelson’s body after the Battle of Trafalgar with familiar songs.
bigfisharts 