Events
Project: ‘Whispers’ – Voices of the Great War, July 10th 2016
On 31, Oct 2016 | In Events | By Nicola Gauld
Taking people of all ages on storytelling sessions around the trench system, that I made at my place of work in Pendine, Carmarthenshire, I realized there was a need to initiate an archive of personal stories.
These stories, sometimes seemingly insignificant give an insight in to the social and cultural background of a century ago. It occurred to me that with the media capabilities that we have these days it would be relatively easy to archive the stories.
Sunday, July 10th was set up to be a day of commemoration on the centenary of the Battle of Mametz Wood and we wanted to combine the event with the ‘Whispers’ project. The Tin Shed in Laugharne houses a WW2 museum and doubles up as a music venue in its pole barn ‘out the back’.
At first it was family and friends who were invited. People that I knew had stories to tell. They were invited to the commemorative performance of Trenchfoot at The Shed. Alongside that we invited people prior to the performance to spend Sunday afternoon at the Shed telling stories of The Great War, whether it be a family story or other. People were encouraged to bring photos, as their stories would be videoed to start a collection that possibly could be then published on a You Tube channel or/and to the People’s Collection.
Social media was plastered with posters and requests to come along. It was open to everyone. After getting no help from local or national press for the initiative I was still positive as so many people had agreed to turn up. As a supporter of the band, Trenchfoot, Frank Hennessey advertised the event on his Sunday evening folk programme which pulled in people I didn’t know and with the help of local historical societies we were able to engender an interest in the event. On the day over 100 people turned up. We were able to record 9 interviews on the afternoon and did another 5 on a separate day for those who couldn’t make it on the Sunday.10 to 15 people were nervous in front of the camera and turned down the offer of telling their story. I did think of telling their story for them but it seemed the wrong thing to do and so we concentrated on the people who were relatively happy in front of the camera.
While interviews were being recorded in the cottage at the bottom of the garden, performers were being recorded in the museum and throughout the afternoon/evening entertainment was both improvised and planned. Robert John sung WW1 marching songs, The Camel Club gave renditions of wartime songs and Luke Edwards, a virtuoso guitarist arranged wartime songs in a classical finger-picking style. He was joined by a member of the audience for ‘Danny Boy’. The early evening event was finished off by a 45 minute set of songs from folk band Trenchfoot who gave their usual mix of heart rendering ballads and foot stomping up tempo numbers that kept the capacity crowd singing along to original self-penned numbers about the 1914-18 period. In the middle of all this Jaye Swift, independent film producer and script writer from Barry, South Wales allowed us to show her short film, ‘Letters Home’, based on soldiers in the trenches, and their thoughts, just before going over the top on July 1st 1916. An outstanding production accomplished on a miniscule budget.
The results of the project are evident in the documentary film of the day. The stories are what they are: giving an insight into the social and cultural life of 100 years ago. The emotion that is still felt by the people of today when they remember their ancestors, the effect of the war at home and abroad and the strength of common people to keep stories and memories alive for future generations.
Andy Edwards
View the compilation film here
View the interviews here:
