Launch of The Hidden Pressures of Staffordshire’s War project

The Hidden Pressures of Staffordshire’s War is part of the Digital War Memorial. It brings together communities and artists across the UK to make unique creative responses to the First World War Centenary. Using the rich resources of local libraries and archives as the starting point, these new artworks tell the diverse stories of how the First World War touched people’s  lives and how it is remembered today.

In Staffordshire Uttoxeter and Stone Libraries have engaged with the County’s Archives to explore two aspects of impact of the war on the Home Front. At Uttoxeter, a Year 10 group studying Rural Studies, from Thomas Alleyne’s High School, have looked at the challenges faced in agriculture and food supply and contrasted these with today’s challenges. They have explored agriculture from Georgian times and considered the progress over the decades through to the First World War.

At Stone, a group of 9 to 13 year-olds, from Walton Priory Middle School, have met with retired people in the community to explore communication, based on the wartime letters from and to Stone resident, Lois Turner. Creative sessions led by the New Vic Theatre have used Archive material and the modern-day experiences of servicemen from Afghanistan to get the adults and young people to share letters and imagine scenarios based on the subtext of actual phrases used.

For further details of the project see  http://www.historypin.com/en/explore/first-world-war-centenary/the-digital-war-memorial/