WW1 Heritage Day on 5th July – Sketches of Wartime Wincanton

On Saturday 5th July Wincanton will hold a World War One Heritage and Arts project. There will be lots to see and do in town and work is under way preparing a whole range of displays and activities to take place in the Balsam Centre, the Library and the Museum.

I caught up with Sophie Bellars who has been involved in securing our Heritage Lottery Fund Grant of £8,100. She has been hard at work organising, leading and enthusing different groups and activities such as these and she has been telling me what is evolving.

The Textile workshop
A team of ladies from Carrington House have been working with Sophie to produce an embroidered list of the names of Wincanton’s fallen that are commemorated in the Parish Church. The workshop was inspired by embroidered postcards from World War One generally known as "WW1 Silks". The work produced over the six week workshop will be exhibited at the Balsam Centre on Saturday 5th July.

The Monastery Hospital Alphabet Book
During WW1 the Catholic monastery building, currently the flats behind the church, was handed over by the church to be run as a hospital for wounded soldiers, and one of the nurses, Constance Bailward, composed and illustrated a beautiful and amusing alphabet with drawings and verse describing and celebrating working life in a hospital during the Great War.

At great expense this is being bound using archive quality preservation methods and it will be on show with selected pages reproduced in the Library and Museum.

Drama from King Arthur’s Community School
Under the direction of Susan Huggins, Drama Director and co-creator of The Ministry of Play and Director of The Octagon Theatre Company, Yeovil, Year Nine Drama students are preparing work inspired by Nurse Bailward’s sketchbook to be performed at the Balsam Centre as part of the Sketches of Wartime Wincanton.

2nd Wincanton Guides
With the help of their leaders the 2nd Wincanton Guides and Sophie have been exploring, with some hand- on exposure, both weapons and poetry from WW1 and have responded by producing art work and printing on textiles which has developed into “soft sculptures.” These will be on display at the Balsam Centre.

Wincanton Youth Club
Again working with Sophie, the Wincanton Youth Club has been producing work illustrating the time-line of local boy Harry Hamblin from 1 West Hill, who was in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

Wincanton Primary School
Year Five pupils from Wincanton Primary School will be collaborating with selected Year Seven and Eight students from King Arthur’s Community School to produce artwork based on the stained glass windows in the Catholic and Parish Churches.

The Museum and History Society and the Library will be working together to produce a really interesting exhibition of documents and WW1 artefacts and computer based images and displays, together with advice on how to use the Library computers to access WW1 Family records.

There will be opportunities on the day to take part in historical walks, sample WW1 recipes and listen to songs from the time period.

All this adds up to a range of activities involving all age-groups and spreading right across our community, so put Saturday 5th July in your diary and be sure to be there.

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