The published column!

The column about our project was published on Wednesday 17th July in the DT1 supplement of the Dorset Echo.

Hopefully it is readable!

If not here is the transcription:

We are a group of young volunteers aged between 15 and 25 who have raised our own money to carry out a project called ‘Walking in Their Shoes’ supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. We meet weekly at Routes Youth Cafe in Dorchester supported by the Dorset Youth Association. We are exploring Dorset’s ancient pathways by walking in the shoes of the Saxon pilgrim, St Aldhelm and a soldier from the First World War who journeyed along the same route. The First World War touched the lives of every family in Dorchester. We will be utilising our oral history training to record passed on family memories of the war at Dorchester care homes and we will run listening posts at events such as the Dorset County Show and the Dorchester Anonymous Festival. These memories will be incorporated into an interactive GPS treasure trail. We work closely with local heritage organisations including The Tank Museum in Bovington; one of the stops along our route. The museum staff visited Routes to share their plans for an exciting new War Horse exhibition. We especially liked their idea of positioning mechanical horses in the exhibition as they would surprise visitors by talking to them in first person about their experiences of the Great War. We are also planning a First World War creative writing workshop for young people in the first week of August. To find out more about our project please visit: http://walkingintheirshoes.blogspot.co.uk. If you want to join our group call us on 07788203003. 

At the bottom of the article the visit from Bovington Tank Museum is mentioned. They visited us at Routes to discuss their plans for a new War Horse exhibition which will hopefully be on display early next year, in line with the 100 year anniversary of World War One. As well as the talking horses they are hoping to have two tanks on display, one of which featured in the film War Horse itself.

The staff bought in original artefacts and photos from the Great War as well as photos taken on the set of the film. We found the images very moving as several featured injured soldiers or horses. However, we thought these highlighted the real, serious nature of the war and the harsh consequences the soldiers faced by fighting for their country. We found the artefacts very interesting, particularly the sword and rifle!
The museum staff were very enthusiastic about their new exhibition and spoke animately about the history of World War One, it was like our own private history lesson!

Hopefully the author of War Horse, Michael Murpurgo, will be able to visit the exhibition and see the work he has inspired!
We know we certainly can't wait to see it!

We have also decided that the WW1 creative writing workshop will probably run later this year so we have longer to get artefacts together and make it more fun!

Look out for our next column which should be published in the next four weeks in the Dorset Echo DT1 supplement.

Please follow us on Twitter @DorsetWitS for project updates!