Discovering First World War Heritage
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Abstract
'Legacies of War 1914-18/2014-18' is a project at the University of Leeds run by a team of academics with research interests in the First World War and its multiple legacies. We aim to stimulate innovative individual and collaborative research projects and create and foster partnerships between the university and museums, galleries, cinemas, theatres, libraries and a broad range of community groups in order to collaborate on centenary events and activities. 'Discovering First World War Heritage' is a follow-on project to 'Legacies of War', and aims to support and enhance six Heritage Lottery Funded All Our Stories projects, which have the First World War as a sole or partial focus. We aim to do this by:
1) Providing training in archival and genealogical research, helping the projects to realise their aims of discovering First World War heritage.
2) Supporting and widening access to local and national archives, libraries and museums
3) Providing forums that provide excellent opportunities for genuine knowledge exchange, allowing groups to share findings and engage in discussion and debate with HEI researchers
4) Offering remote, virtual and face-to-face support that can be tailored according to the needs of individual projects
5) Hosting a website and facebook page in which grantees can capture their learning, communicate with researchers and with each others, and present their findings to a broader public.
1) Providing training in archival and genealogical research, helping the projects to realise their aims of discovering First World War heritage.
2) Supporting and widening access to local and national archives, libraries and museums
3) Providing forums that provide excellent opportunities for genuine knowledge exchange, allowing groups to share findings and engage in discussion and debate with HEI researchers
4) Offering remote, virtual and face-to-face support that can be tailored according to the needs of individual projects
5) Hosting a website and facebook page in which grantees can capture their learning, communicate with researchers and with each others, and present their findings to a broader public.
Planned Impact
The training events, workshops, meetings and visits described in the Case for Support provide real opportunities for knowledge exchange and the sharing of expertise between academics and members of community groups. One of the key aims of the 'Legacies of War' project is to open up the history of the First World War in order to engage a range of community groups as broadly as possible, and this funding will allow us to do this in concrete ways.
Researchers will aim to introduce groups to the rich resources and sources held at the University and in the city, and will help them to access archives holdings in London that they not have otherwise accessed (at the National Archives and Imperial War Museum). Members of the research team who are engaged in their own individual and collaborative research projects on different aspects of the First World War will inspire, enthuse and advise groups engaged in the development of their own heritage projects in this field. Equally, community groups, by sharing their findings and discussing issues raised by the carrying out of their heritage projects, will be benefiting the researchers by the passing on of their own knowledge, expertise and research findings.
The All Our Stories research projects that this project will enhance will each have an impact upon the wider communities:
1. Headingley Litfest, 'The Wartime Hospital at Beckett's Park' - likely impact upon local residents, increasing interest in local history, and on local writers and members of Headingley LitFest, inspiring new literary and dramatic works.
2. Liverpool Museums, 'Black Families and the First World War' - impact upon local residents and other members of the public via the museum exhibition, and on descendents of black First World War veterans who will be encouraged to research their own personal histories.
3. Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery, 'Lawnswood's Great War Stories' - impact upon local residents and other members of the public via cemetery tours, and on local writers who will be asked to produce a performance based on research findings.
4. Snowgoose Writers Community, 'Unheard Voices: The Civilian Experience of the First World War in Yorkshire' - impact upon local writers and members of Snowgoose, who will be inspired by the research findings to produce new literary and dramatic works.
5. Thorner and District Historical Society, 'Thorner Community Archive' - impact upon local residents, who will gain a new understanding of the significance of their village 'Memorial Hall', and others who will be encouraged to trace their families' own personal war stories.
6. Craven Museum and Gallery, 'Talking Treasure' - impact upon local residents, who will gain a new understanding of their heritage and history, on local schools, one of the ways in which the findings will be disseminated, and on the general public visiting the museum.
In addition, this project will help to further disseminate and publicise the fruits of the individual research findings via our website and by university-hosted events, to which the local press will be invited.
Researchers will aim to introduce groups to the rich resources and sources held at the University and in the city, and will help them to access archives holdings in London that they not have otherwise accessed (at the National Archives and Imperial War Museum). Members of the research team who are engaged in their own individual and collaborative research projects on different aspects of the First World War will inspire, enthuse and advise groups engaged in the development of their own heritage projects in this field. Equally, community groups, by sharing their findings and discussing issues raised by the carrying out of their heritage projects, will be benefiting the researchers by the passing on of their own knowledge, expertise and research findings.
The All Our Stories research projects that this project will enhance will each have an impact upon the wider communities:
1. Headingley Litfest, 'The Wartime Hospital at Beckett's Park' - likely impact upon local residents, increasing interest in local history, and on local writers and members of Headingley LitFest, inspiring new literary and dramatic works.
2. Liverpool Museums, 'Black Families and the First World War' - impact upon local residents and other members of the public via the museum exhibition, and on descendents of black First World War veterans who will be encouraged to research their own personal histories.
3. Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery, 'Lawnswood's Great War Stories' - impact upon local residents and other members of the public via cemetery tours, and on local writers who will be asked to produce a performance based on research findings.
4. Snowgoose Writers Community, 'Unheard Voices: The Civilian Experience of the First World War in Yorkshire' - impact upon local writers and members of Snowgoose, who will be inspired by the research findings to produce new literary and dramatic works.
5. Thorner and District Historical Society, 'Thorner Community Archive' - impact upon local residents, who will gain a new understanding of the significance of their village 'Memorial Hall', and others who will be encouraged to trace their families' own personal war stories.
6. Craven Museum and Gallery, 'Talking Treasure' - impact upon local residents, who will gain a new understanding of their heritage and history, on local schools, one of the ways in which the findings will be disseminated, and on the general public visiting the museum.
In addition, this project will help to further disseminate and publicise the fruits of the individual research findings via our website and by university-hosted events, to which the local press will be invited.
Publications
Fell AS
(2015)
Introduction: Untold Legacies of the First World War in Britain.
in War & society
Title | Book on Headingley Hospital |
Description | This was a book created as a result of the Headingley Litfest project supported by the 'Discovering First World War Heritage' project. |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | The participants reported: 'To be able to discuss the background to WWI was huge benefit and it was good to talk to people to supplement what we already knew. Jessica Meyer [the university researcher involved] was able to inform them further regards shell shock and they found it interesting to the read work of someone who was an expert in the field. This relationship led to JM leading a talk on lesser known WWI poets at Headingley Lit Fest.' Alison Fell and Richard Wilcox have also gave a joint talk about the book and about hospitals in WW1at a conference organised by Peter Liddle in 2014. |
URL | http://www.headingleyhospital.org/ |
Title | Lawnswood Cemetery book |
Description | A book outlining the findings of the Lawnswood and the Great War project, supported by the Discovering First World War Heritage project. Alison Fell wrote a preface, and the introduction to the book cites the importance of the collaboration with university researchers in the production of the book. |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | Great knowledge and understanding of the impacts of the First World War on community group and local visitors; forming of relationships between community group and university that has resulted in further collaboration, including undergraduate student volunteering; for main participant and book author, she stated: 'The encouragement given to me personally by every member of the Legacies of War team has been one of the highlights of the last two years. They have given me a great confidence boost in my own research capabilities and have opened up opportunities which would not otherwise have been presented to me.' |
URL | https://www.facebook.com/lawnswoodsgreatwarstories/ |
Title | Liverpool Museums exhibition: Black Families and the First World War |
Description | This was an exhibition showcasing the findings of the project Black Families and the First World War supported by the Discovering First World War heritage project. |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | Change of views/understanding of WW1. The exhibition researcher and curator stated: 'The project has definitely shifted my view of the enlistment process and Government policy regarding enlistment during the period. I had an expectation of how I would interpret the information we collected, and that definitely had to alter once I started to uncover the relevant paperwork.' The exhibition has the potential to change visitors' understandings of the war and its legacies, as well as the relationship of the war to contemporary populations of Liverpool. |
URL | http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/first-world-war-untold-stories/ |
Title | Snowgoose dramatic monologues |
Description | Based on archives at the University of Leeds, and the co-produced research project carried out as part of the Discovering First World War Heritage project, Snowgoose writers produced dramatic monologues which were then filmed and performed. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | The impact on the participants recorded (see URL below) includes increased understanding of WW1 and its legacies, and new skills in terms of consulting archives and understanding complex histories. It also has future potential impact as a teaching aid and support for other WW1 heritage projects. |
URL | http://www.unheardvoices.co.uk/index.php |
Title | Thorner book: After the War Came the Victory |
Description | This was a book created to showcase the findings of the Thorner WW1 project supported for the 'Rediscovering WW1 Heritage' grant |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | The community research team in Thorner reported that: 'Before this project no one at looked at Thorner's WWI past, there were 306 men who went to war, no one had looked at their story before and the previous history book about the village finished in 1910. Since the books publication here has been interest from the Midlands and the USA.' They also reported gaining new knowledge, archival skills and confidence. |
URL | http://www.thornervillage.org.uk/2014/06/book-thorner-after-war-victory/ |
Description | As university researchers we have discovered: - the pros and cons of co-produced research projects with community groups - new aspects of the First World War and its legacy - new resources about the First World War, and new ways in which they can be understood, interpreted - new ways of disseminating research findings through collaboration with creative partners |
Exploitation Route | My findings are already being taken forward by the new colleagues I am collaborating with as part of the AHRC First World War Engagement Centres (I am Co-I of the Gateways to the First World War centre based at the University of Kent) |
Sectors | Creative Economy Education Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | http://arts.leeds.ac.uk/legaciesofwar/themes/yorkshire-and-the-great-war/discovering-first-world-war-heritage/ |
Description | The findings of the 6 co-produced community research projects supported by this award have resulted in a series of outputs - exhibitions, performances, films, books, events - that have shaped understandings of the First World War in the region, and resulted in several social impacts for participants, including health and wellbeing. There has also been further successful applications to the Heritage Lottery Fund as a result of the collaborations. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | First World War Engagement Centres |
Amount | £750,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2014 |
End | 12/2016 |
Description | Collaboration with Leeds City Council (Museums and Galleries) |
Organisation | Leeds City Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We formulated a close working relationship in order to extend our reach to community groups potentially interested in WW1 projects, to open up collections, and to join forces in stimulating research and interest in WW1 centenary projects. We provided expertise, venues, access to University collections. |
Collaborator Contribution | Leeds Museums and Galleries provided expertise, venues, access to their collections. |
Impact | Outcomes of partnership: Joint working documents, for example a joint statement on the City and University's response to the Centenary of WW1 Jointly organised events, such as CPD events for teachers, public workshops, and museum exhibition. |
Start Year | 2010 |
Description | Collaboration with several local community groups and community brokers on WW1 themes |
Organisation | Leeds City Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The project team ran two Open Days, as a result of which the university formed partnerships with several community brokers (such as Leeds City Council) and community organisations and associations. |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | Cartoon drawing workshop with 'Project Ketchup' from Skipton |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | This was a workshop with young people who are part of a cartoon drawing group, 'Project Ketchup' based in North Yorkshire. It was organised a part of the Craven and the First World War HLF project, and involved a discussion of FWW cartoons by Alison Fell, and a cartoon drawing workshop facilitated by Tim Godden, both from gateways team. The resulting cartoons will feature in a future exhibition in Skipton in 2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Discovery Day co-run with HLF Yorkshire and Humber, Leeds, October 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was a Discovery Day in which projects from the Yorkshire and Humber gave short presentations, there were Q & A and networking opportunities to encourage the development of new First World War heritage projects. We had very positive feedback from the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Enhancement of 6 HLF projects through guided collections visits, discussions and workshops |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | -we supported community groups with funded HLF projects by developing their members' research skills, introducing them to collections, and sharing academic expertise -we also participated in knowledge exchange, benefiting from members' different approaches to sources, which in some cases has fed back into our own research -groups reported having transformed understandings of WW1 and its contexts through engagement with university academics -groups reported visiting collections, libraries and archives they would not otherwise have been aware of -HLF reported increased numbers of applications to WW1 schemes, and increased engagement with University collections and research themes -academics reported gaining new insights into their research via the collaboration/engagement with groups |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014 |
Description | Meeting with Leeds City Council and Leeds Museums and Galleries planning Armistice Flag project in 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | This was a meeting to plan an Armistice flag making activity in Leeds to commemorate the end of the First World War. This will be run jointly by Gateways and Leeds City Council, and will end with events in Leeds City Music. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Meeting with Leeds Museums and Galleries re: Jogendra Sen |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Along with a local volunteer, we presented research on an Indian WW1 soldier who fought for the British Army, Jogendra Nath Sen, to a museum professional (Lucy Moore, First World War curator, Leeds Museums and Galleries). We supported her British Council funding application for a trip to India to liaise with a museum there who have his effects. This application was successful. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Meeting with Rob Freeman, Craven and the First World War HLF project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was an initial meeting in Feb 2017 to support the preparation of a large HLF bid (which was subsequently successful). I showed the team developing the bid some of the materials we had on WW1 at the University, advised re activities, and explored potential partnership activities with the Gateways team. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Meeting with staff of West Yorkshire Archive service |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a meeting in June 2017 to discuss further collaborations around planned activities around the Centenary of the First World War, particularly their participation in an event around First World War medicine and nursing which is planned for September 2017. They introduced us to primary sources in their collections, and we agreed to work together to support community projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Workshop with cultural and creative industries from Yorkshire about plans for 2018, September 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a workshop we organised attended by museums, arts organisations, local businesses, local authority personnel, and educators, to discuss plans to mark the end of the war in 2018. We formed new partnerships and made new plans for collaborative activity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |