Needing ideas for exhibition next year

[RoninReepham]

Hi next year we are holding a week long exhibition in St Michael's Reepham about the Men listed and not listed on the WW1 Memorials in the 2 churches in Reepham Norfolk.

I'm thinking of highlighting events services etc each day that would be in some way interactive and educational

eg trench war fare, Nursing in WW1 home life etc

Just wondered if any one had any ideas on themes what to show or how to make it interesting for children young adults and people in general?

[Bernard_Lewis]

You have a broad, blank canvas, then! How about:

Comments on the men who served and had attended the village school(s)?

Casualties (KIA/DOW) and where they had lived in the village; I dare say most of the houses are still extant?

Soldiers stories - where you can piece them together from e.g. census, electoral rolls, press reports, service records (where they survive), letters home/photos, unit histories, war diaries etc.

Bernard

[RoninReepham]

Thank you Bernard some good ideas's

any more?

[Ice Tiger]

visualisation on an above suggestion - Get a map of the village & place pins/stickers on the address of each of the men. Most likely you will find many who lived almost next door to each other.

Andy

[RoninReepham]

That sounds a brilliant idea Ice Tiger! Thanks

[Phil Wood]

You could go a step further and mark the houses themselves in some way (where they have survived) - a big poppy on the door, or a poster serving the dual purpose of advertising your exhibition and marking the house as the home of a casualty.

One problem is that many of the men I have researched are linked to two or more addresses - parents in one, wife in another. Or 1901 in one, 1911 in another, 1914 in another, etc. No harm in marking them all though - it would certainly turn some of my local streets red to have a big poppy on every related address.

I am also planning an exhibition next year - but am also planning to hold one each November through the centenary years - so I am thinking of theming them by the year. What was happening on the home front, what was happening at the various war fronts - and. of course, stories of the lads that died that year. I'd like to do something like marking their homes, but there are a lot of them (around 400 casualties) making it a huge exercise to get the householders on board.

I often find myself wondering why I didn't decide to 'do' my village memorial rather that the adjacent town's!

[John_Hartley]

I've been asked to help advise a village group on a commemoration "event".

They plan a walking tour of the village, taking in the houses where the men commemorated on the war memorial lived (most of the properties are thought to still exist). I think I see a booklet which will give the men's biographies and the "what happened the day they died" stuff, as well as provide the route map.

There's also a plan for some form of static exhibition - presumably temporary and probably starting in August. I'd be interested in suggestions as to how we can make the content of the exhibition somehow a bit different from the booklet content. I already have in mind something along the lines of the "village at war", taking in the home front, difficulties for the (semi) rural population, etc. I've got it in mind that a forum member organised something along these lines a couple of years or so back - but can't recall the who or the what.

John

[CGM]

I wonder if it was this one ?

first link

second and continuing link

[delta]

You probably know this but......

one of the first men to fight in a tank came from Reepham. His name was Reginald Fisher and you can learn a little more about his commander and comrades in tankSC24 at

http://www.firsttankcrews.com/tankcrewsc19c24.htm

He lived in the Market Place before and after the war

[John_Hartley]

Thanks for that, CGM, but I don't think that's the one I'm remembering.

[RoninReepham]

I am thinking themes. I've had a display the last 2 years on Remembrance Sunday. and have got information and given information (Showed one woman a picture of the Cemetery in Thailand where her Uncle is buried) i do like the idea of a map of the area!

[OpsMajor]

I too am preparing for a 'special event' in my village, especially aimed at younger people to be incorporated into the weekend of Remembrance Sunday (09Nov2014). I appreciate that Centurion is giving us an excellent monthly summary in the thread "What happened 100 years ago.." but I would like to pick specifics out of what happened 100 years ago on 09Nov1914.

Can any pals give me some ideas please?

[DaveBrigg]

We are planning a project very similar to what John Hartley has outlined above. Google maps is a good place to start; if you log in you can place markers on all the addresses as you go along and see how a route develops. We are working with the council and plan to have an A4 information board at each address with relevant information. For some it is where they lived in 1911, for some it is where they worked and for some it is where they grew up. I don't think it matters that the reasons are different as long as they are clearly stated.

The council have agreed to open all available spaces that weekend (e.g. Town Hall, council offices, library) to allow different groups to contribute. There will be a meeting later this month for all interested parties, and we are hoping for contributions from the Royal British Legion (70th anniversary of D Day too), the Red Cross, Army Cadets, Rowing Club etc. Our school is planning to make a musical contribution, possibly a concert of WW1 songs, and maybe a short drama production. We are also looking at how our pupils can share their own family experiences of war, from conflicts after 1918. it may take the shape of a wall where the Great War casualties and those who survived are commemorated at one end and then there is a roughly chronological progression through to the modern day. Last Remembrance Day there were few pupils who knew of someone in their family who had been in the first world war, but several who spoke of grandparents who had fought, nursed or been evacuated in WW2, and a number who had a relative in Afghanistan.

A nearby village are planning a 'living history' day where residents are being encouraged to dress in clothes of the period and learn more about the village and its people in 1914.

[asanewt]

I'm not telling anyone about this in case it doesn't happen for any of many reasons.
The idea is to use a prominent surface area easily visible but difficult to modify!! building/wall/roof slope.
Then produce a sort of time line adding some kind of effective/obvious commemorative of the fallen on the anniversary of each. Too ambitious to expect photos of each

but start with blank spaces on the dates then add a tribute on the date.
The poppy on doors has been mentioned before as has the map which nicely covers buildings no longer standing and could be enhanced by commemorative "lorry poppies"on lamp posts of the streets where casualties lived. These had many very favourable comments locally at Remembrancetide so could easily list names etc.

So "hush , must 'ave hush"

[RoninReepham]

I like the idea of somewhere prominent and adding info that way But Town centre a Conservation area! So i'm sure someone would complain (Free Advertising thou!.....)

[armypal]

Hi,

Yes hope I can be of some help. I am involved with research for Diss, Norfolk. We are hoping to add missing names to the Memorial there. Diss Museum, The Shambles, Diss, Market Place, will be staging 'Over the Top', a Commemorative Exhibition from March, which might give you some ideas. Good luck with your project.

Armypal

[RoninReepham]

I'll have to pop in and have a look and good luck with it!