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Home Front Legacy’s First Day School! 25 April 2015

Presentations made on 25 April

CBAEastWWISummary - Presentation made Dr Isobel Thompson, MA PhD FSA MCIfA, Historic Environment Record,Natural, Historic & Built Environment Advisory Team,Environmental Resource Planning,Hertfordshire County Council.

CocroftWalthamAbbey2015edited - Presentation made by Wayne Cocroft, FSA MCIFA, Senior Investigator Historic England.

The Royal Gunpowder Mills, aka “The Secret Island” at Waltham Abbey proved to be a great setting for the first Home Front Legacy Day School, hosted by CBA East and Historic England.

Our group of enthusiasts made the day, they joined in whole heartedly, representing various First World War community projects, local, family history and archaeology groups as well as heritage organisations.

Wayne Cocroft from Historic England, offered an expert’s eye view of the Home Front Legacy, including new buildings that were requisitioned for military purposes during the First World War to those newly built to cope with the demands of total warfare.

Our enthusiasts were impressed, they discovered “that there is an amazing range of WW1 related archaeology”

They were surprised “Raised my awareness of how much remains of WW1.Thought there was very little. An incentive to find out more about what happened on the Home Front!”

They appreciated the importance and value of the Historic Environment Record both generally and to this project.

Then they went on to learn how to record First World War sites for themselves using the Home Front Legacy toolkit and App.

“Learnt about the recording processes people would need to go through and so the range of people who would use the App.”

They gained an understanding “of how the App can be used to document our projects and sites”

Everyone enjoyed their day:-

“Enjoyed meeting people with different expertise and ideas on how to record and remember the First World War.”

“Actually holding the event in a real place was a thrill.”

“Nice to see the friendly and welcoming face of researchers etc. Inspiring”

“Motivated to go and use the App”

“Nice friendly group – hearing about some fantastic projects e.g. Forgotten Never”

Impressively they pledged to share their experience of using the Home Front Legacy App in a number of different ways.

“Have concentrated research on War Memorials and documenting information on names. Very interesting today to find new areas of interest and sources of information. A very good mix of ages, people and experience”

“Would like to share knowledge of Home Front Legacy and resources with CBA members.”

“Members of my local group have uncovered a lot of research material, about the local area, including photographs during the War and are

compling a book. I would like to test and see how much is recorded on the App and the HER.”

“I will tell the group about the possibility of Home Front Legacy funding and what we need to do about it.”

“I will feed back to staff at the War Memorials Trust.”

“I will share the use of the App, website and information with colleagues.”

“I will get in touch with the local historical society at Potters Bar and see what develops.”

“I will brief other members of my group and contacts that may be interested from other groups – Western Front Association and Herts Police Great War Society.”

“I will contact Herts HER with information and start using the App”

“I will explore information on Canvey Island during the War”

The icing on the cake was the guided tour of the Royal Gunpowder Mills led by Wayne.

Home Front Legacy relies upon an army of enthusiasts across the UK to document, record and map the Home Front Legacy 1914-18.

The next recording workshop is in Durham on the 15 August hosted by CBA North.