Report on the Legacies of the Home Front (1914-18) pilot recording pr

[Guest Emily]

Hello!

I would just like to draw attention to the publication of our final report for a First World War Home Front pilot recording project that was undertaken in Staffordshire and the Lea Valley.

Here is a bit of information about the project and the future plans for this research taken from the press release:

The Home Front (1914-18) and its Legacies pilot project, funded by English Heritage aimed to demonstrate the phenomenal national response to the First World War by recording the full spectrum of military and civilian buildings, places and spaces that were affected or created or modified during the war.

Non-professional volunteers from local communities recorded a range of places, some of which were obvious, such as new buildings for cordite production at the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills, and others more obscure, such as the domestic houses used by middle-class ladies for War Work or buildings from which nightly civil defence patrols were organised.

A total of 111 sites across the two areas were recorded, with findings grouped together for clarity under themes such as ‘Civilian, domestic and agriculture’ and ‘Hospitals and convalescent care.’

In order to comprehend the full Home Front landscape as it was during the 1914-18 conflict, volunteers were encouraged to record and map sites that have been destroyed, as well as those that remain wholly or partially extant today.

Dr Nicholas Saunders from Bristol’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, who co-managed the project, said: “War cuts to the heart of our emotions, it reshapes who we are, and affects our relationships in unpredictable ways. It leaves traces everywhere, in the physical and mental worlds that our ancestors and ourselves have created and inhabit.”

“The First World War dramatically remade Britain and its people, and left a host of material and social remains – many are known, from village memorials to London’s Cenotaph – but others lie undisturbed and undocumented in the countryside and towns that surround us. These are the extraordinary and unacknowledged aspects of our Great War heritage that this project has so convincingly revealed to have survived for a century, waiting to be brought back into history by the communities which created them and to whom they ultimately belong.”

The project was managed by Dr Nicholas Saunders (Bristol) and Dr John Schofield (York), with a project officer, Emily Glass also at Bristol. Running between August 2012 and May 2013, its final report has now been published and can be downloaded at: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/home-front-1914-1918-and-its-legacies/

Finally, the materials developed by the pilot contributed to the creation of the project resource pack for the UK-wide project, known as: ‘The Physical Legacy of the First World War and its Home Front, 1914-18’ which is currently being led by the Council for British Archaeology and English Heritage with other heritage partners.

Please read and share – we hope you will find it useful.

Best Wishes

Emily

[Terry_Reeves]

Emily

Thanks or your post which I found it very interesting. I am sure you will get a lot of support from forum members for a national project.

TR

[Ogilwy]

Emily,

A nice compendium of the information that is out there. The drawing together of existing historical data under one cover is always useful, it is a shame that it is not country wide. Some archaeology would be nice several on going projects could be used to add new information into the data base!

Rod

P.S. Ask nicely and I may let you have some information that is brand new,(from excavation).