Historyworks: WW1 projects in York

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Historyworks: WW1 projects in York

SYNOPSIS: A SERIES THAT BRINGS TO LIFE THE HIDDEN STORIES OF WORLD WAR ONE BY VISITING THE REAL PEOPLE, BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, AND NEIGHBOURHOODS OF YORK CITIZENS

FORMAT: ILLUSTRATED DOCUMENTARY FEATURES USING READINGS FROM LETTERS, DIARIES, NEWSPAPERS, WAR RECORDS, HOSPITAL AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE FACILITY RECORDS, ORAL HISTORY FRAGMENTS

STRUCTURE: 5 x 6 MINUTE FEATURES TO PLAY OUT AS A SERIES AND/OR AS 'STAND ALONE' FEATURES: USING A MEMBER OF THE BBC RADIO YORK TEAM AS PRESENTER/NARRATOR

STORIES: CONTRASTING FEATURES WILL TELL DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF HOW THE WAR WAS EXPERIENCED IN YORK, PAYING ATTENTION TO THE OFTEN NOW FORGOTTEN STORIES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WORK AND PLAY, IMPRISONMENT AND CASUALTIES.

HISTORYWORKS PROJECT with DAFX, performed at York's Guildhall example: "To Fight Or Not To Fight"

In 1916 York was a centre for conscientious objector activists, Quakers at Bootham School and the Rowntree factories. Aflred Martlew was put on a trial in the Guildhall and subsequently pressganged to the front line in France where he was tied to a barbed wire fence, but still refused to fight. This story is told through Hansard, Newspaper Accounts, and Letters to the MP Arnold Rowntree. The drama pivots on the relationship between Alfred and his fiancée, Annie, and a body found drowned in the Ouse: listen to ‘To Fight Or Not To Fight’ on Audioboo

HISTORYWORKS APP HISTORY TRAIL COMMISSIONED BY YORK MUSEUMS TRUST

EXPERIENCING THE GREAT WAR: YORK IN WORLD WAR ONE

‘Experiencing The Great War: York in World War One’ is a walking tour around historic York which explores a series of locations within the ancient city walls and the stories they can tell us about York and the people who lived there during the Great War.

We usually think of the conflict as one that happened overseas, in the trenches of Flanders, but this trail will illustrate how the war had an impact on York and its citizens. Along the trail we will discover stories of war horses, Zeppelin air raids, wounded soldiers back from the front, enemy aliens, and conscientious objectors.

The stories on the trail are the result of intensive research into York’s First World War history by researchers at the University of York, representing a variety of academic disciplines, joining together materials drawn from archives, alongside insights from artefacts in York Castle Museum’s collection and York’s historic centre to tell the global story of The Great War from a local perspective.

The media team at Historyworks have worked closely with the curators at York Museums Trust and drawn on the expertise of the City Archaeologist, John Oxley. Producers at historyworks have recently reversioned the script and recorded with the BBC's Jonathan Cowap, who is the voice for the audio guide on the app version.

User guide

The tour will lead you around York’s historic cityscape, exploring some of its forgotten stories. At each stop along the trail, listen along to the audio narrative provided and see the photographic illustration to position you at the location, and to reveal historic and archaeological objects from the site. These can be accessed via a script, a podcast, or an app as following: