Jack Welch Columnist for the Dorset Echo Town Talk section gets people talking about us again

 

DT1 Town Talk: Walking in their Shoes project discovers interesting historical facts 12:00pm Wednesday 26th February 2014 in News

The past month for the Heritage Lottery Funded project Walking in their Shoes has seen the team take up their deerstalkers and magnifying glasses, as their latest research begins to uncover the latest clues and are now seeing some very exciting results of our investigations.

Some of our best discoveries this month include the revelation Dorchester had one of the largest German Prison of War camps in the country, with an estimated 5,000 inmates at its peak, nearly half the town’s population at the time.

With 2014 marking the significant centenary since the UK declaring war on Germany, we are keen to make as many findings as possible about this important narrative of Dorset’s role in the war.

We also found out Routes, 5 North Square, Dorset Youth Association’s Advice and Information Café where we meet, was a lodging home for off duty soldiers and a popular car servicing company next door was a hotspot for refreshments and sanctuary when they were not on the frontline.

We know that the home was first opened in 1888 by the Church and Temperance Societies and tried to make a warm, comforting place for soldiers and to encourage them to stay out of the pubs.

As young people we encourage each other to do the same today.

Meet Some of the Team

Welcome to some members of the "Walking in Their Shoes"  Team. Our first volunteer is Jonathan the graphic designer.

Liz is our volunteer support worker.

Douglas is our diary coordinator and history researcher.

Ashley is our volunteer military history researcher and Microsoft ICT mentor.

Rosie is the volunteer librarian and history researcher.

Julia is the volunteer support worker.

Micheal is our volunteer Facebook coordinator.

Edward is our volunteer web developer and Microsoft Hub ICT mentor.

James is our volunteer history researcher and Microsoft Hub ICT mentor.

Imogene is our volunteer press officer and history researcher.

Beki is our volunteer press officer and copy editor.
















And then there's me, Ben. I'm the volunteer photographer and Microsoft Hub mentor.

Bringing the News

STOP PRESS

Ray Seymour is a great friend of the project and Vice President and a trustee of Dorset Youth Association.
Ray owned Kingsbere Central Stores in Bere Regis from 1954 to 2004.

We have learned today that the stores delivered newspapers to Louis Strange, a Dorset Veteran flyer who flew through both world wars.

Jack Welch's column about the project in our local paper

DT1: Shocking stories from the past

12:00pm Wednesday 15th January 2014

by Jack Welch, a volunteer on the Walking In Their Shoes
project at Routes advice and information centre in Dorchester
The volunteers from the Heritage Lottery funded Walking In Their Shoes group have been exceptionally busy.
We have found some fascinating evidence from our research into Anglo-Saxon history in the area and also exploring the life of a soldier preparing to go into the trenches of the First World War.
Some facts have been quite shocking for us.
With the expertise of staff and volunteers from The Keep Museum in Dorchester and The Tank Museum in Bovington, we have gained the knowledge and insight we need to tell the soldier’s story on our walk. There has been an influx of young and older volunteers joining the project, as we enter our most exciting months ahead.
We have welcomed support from current Mayor of Dorchester, Councillor Stella Jones, and Dorchester Town Council Heritage Committee, which has called our project ‘fantastic’, as well as Waitrose of Poundbury – who gave us a generous £150 donation in recognition of our work.
More news came in the form of our digital literacy project, Routes IT Hubs, who awarded us the status of a ‘golden hub’, only one of three in the country.
If you’re interested in helping us make our interactive history walking in the shoes of an Anglo-Saxon monk and a First World War soldier, call Lorna on 07788203003. You can learn app development, history research skills and trek leading. It’s good for your CV and great fun.
Please visit http://walkingi ntheirshoes.blogspot.co.uk/ and follow us on Twitter @DorsetWitS

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Workshop in Wartime

23rd December 2013

By Jack Welch, Volunteer Press Officer

It was the final session of the year today, volunteer Sara, led a drama workshop on World War One making stories from facts and artefacts of the time to help us understand the experience of the people of Dorset back then. We thought that we'd let the pictures tell the story of our day, as we ended 2013 on a high. One of our volunteers remarked they "enjoyed getting stuck in aging paper, eating lots of chocolate, acting and being taught new information." Enjoy!:

A Military Routine

19th December 2013

By Jack Welch, Volunteer Press Officer

After Christmas celebrations on Tuesday, it was back to business as usual for today, as a number of the WITS team made a short walk up to the The Keep Museum, where its vast resources made this the perfect location to continue our investigations into Dorset soldier's experience of the First World War. The team split off into various tasks, in order to ensure we could gather enough evidence for the ten caches we are going to place around various locations on our interactive heritage trail of Walking in the Shoes of a First World War Dorset soldier's training for war.

Rosie, in her librarian role, compiles documents together.

Issy was delving into the works of T.E. Lawrence and his journey and listing Devon and Dorset regiments and the Dorset Yeomanry engagement in the war and researching 'telling facts' of a  Dorset soldier's personal experience. The team at the museum believe in the value of "bringing back to life' the soldiers of Dorset, by telling their story and we had the privilege of sharing in their research. They advised us by using real-life stories set in the correct political and social context of the war would have the most impact on the Dorset public.
 We were surprised to learn when a photograph revealed that our base, Routes: Young Persons Information and Advice Centre, 5 North Square, was once a recreational centre for soldiers who were based in the local area. How times have changed, with the building strikingly different compared to how it appears in the photo. Ashley had got himself stuck into his own specialist subject of the weapons of a soldier and recording a description from a retired sergeant major on how they would be trained to appropriately handle these dangerous objects.

The group getting busy with their assigned tasks

Rivan was on research duties, as he looked for additional stories and photo evidence on trench raids, and quizzed one of the Keep's volunteers on any findings about trenches and the experiences of crew members who operated tanks. Finally, Jack was capturing some new primary evidence, as he recorded the stories of curator, retired Captain Colin Parr and volunteer, Christopher Jary, about their own knowledge and family recollections of the time. Colin was even kind enough to don the hat of an officer, as he took Jack through the day in the life of  a new First World War recruit. The building of The Keep Military Museum was part of the barracks for the Devon and Dorset regiment and was a place that new recruits would have come to from all over Dorset.  Our morning there proved to be very constructive, with less tasks to complete now when the group returns to the museum after the New Year.

Alongside some of the treats we had leftover from Tuesday and hot drinks all round, we thanked the Keep for their time and expertise and terrific primary source research opportunities.

The group were very proud of their efforts.

Christmas Reunion

17th December 2013

By Jack Welch, Volunteer Press Officer

It's getting festive down at WITS central today, as we celebrated our countdown to Christmas and the fantastic achievements of our project so far while our volunteers feasted on an assortment of delicious treats, including chocolate cake, mince pies and the odd savoury snack once in a while! Today was perhaps all the more special though, for we saw the return of our hard-working student volunteers, as they make a brief return to Dorset to have a rest from their busy studies at their respective universities. We welcomed back Jenny, Jack and Issy to join in all the numerous activities we had in store for them and a special viewing of the sitcom, Blackadder Goes Forth.

Rosie and Liz read up on some of Hardy's melancholy work. 

First though, we had a bit of work to crack on with, when we had our resident Thomas Hardy poetry expert, Jasmine, a volunteer at the The Keep Museum, to investigate the context on some of Hardy's war poetry during the course WWI. Although the subject, and the poetry content itself, was less than festive in its spirit, the group were very intrigued to learn about how Hardy harboured a personal guilt about how he could only convey his frustration about the events through his writing. We are looking forward to investigating further the poetry written by Hardy and his contemporaries, as well as producing our own!

Thanks to our expert and volunteers who took part
in the activity. 

Once that task was completed, it was over to the back room as we enjoyed the remainder of our time watching Blackadder and his trials in the trenches. The snacks, unsurprisingly, went down a treat with the group and marking 2013 for WITS as a big success for everyone!