Doncaster Heritage Services (Museums, Archives and Local Studies) has received a confirmed grant of £926,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the Doncaster 1914-18 project. This is an ambitious five year project to uncover the First World War heritage of Doncaster and the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI). It aims to engage many more people in Doncaster with their heritage, harnessing the public interest in the First World War to help us make a real change in how heritage is delivered, perceived and engaged with in our area.
Key to the project will be an online digital resource, which will make the First World War heritage of Doncaster and the KOYLI, that is held by Doncaster’s Heritage Services, more accessible. An important element of this online resource will be the ability to allow the general public to upload their own local or family history. The online resource will also support digital exhibitions, podcasts, a GPS enabled app and the use of Augmented Reality technology to create computer-generated characters. Doncaster College students will be involved in developing additional online applications as part of their course work.
To complement this digital resource there will be a series of local and family history workshops and lectures. Events will cover the Home Front of ‘make do and mend’, ‘rationing’ and ‘grow your own’ and communal fundraising such as Tank Bank Week and Comfort Packs, where we aim to inspire the people of Doncaster to replicate the spirit of the First World War by collecting for comfort packs for modern Riflemen away from home at Christmas [the Rifles are the KOYLI’s successor Regiment]. A drilling event in 2016 would look at the introduction of conscription.
There is also a planned community archaeology dig of the old Scarbrough Barracks (home of the 5th Battalion KOYLI), now under land belonging to St Peter’s in Chains and undisturbed since the barracks were demolished.
Throughout the project ‘The Great War on Tour’ will travel around Doncaster holding events within the community to help inform people about Doncaster and the KOYLI during the First World War, letting residents bring their family history information and photographs to us and teaching people how to use the online resource.
To support this work there will be a series of travelling exhibitions to be held around the borough libraries and at the Mansion House, with more long-term displays at the Museum & Art Gallery, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Museum, Cusworth Hall and the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum. The exhibitions programme would cover the themes of Doncaster soldiers, the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the Home Front (including the anti-German riots of 1915 and the conscientious objectors), the Country House at War and the Doncaster airfield and the Zeppelin raids of 1916 along with stories of some of our first airmen of the Royal Flying Corps.
Volunteers will be extremely important to the development and delivery of this whole project. We hope to use them to research stories, digitise collections, and help people who are undertaking their own research, help us to evaluate the project and also to post information online.
Doncaster 1914-18 project posts
Doncaster Heritage Services are seeking to fill four project posts for our Heritage Lottery Funded World War One project, Doncaster 1914-18. These posts will be responsible for delivering the project, which will involve events, exhibitions, workshops, a community archaeology dig and a digital website with accompanying applications. We will also be working with several partners across Doncaster and engaging the community with this project will be vital to its success.
These posts and more details of the project are advertised on the Doncaster Council jobs website at http://doncastercounciljobs.co.uk. For further information about any of these posts please contact Peter Robinson or Carolyn Dalton on 01302 734293
Project posts:
- Project Manager – Grade 8 (£23,346-£28,199) 37 hrs per week until 12.7.2019
- Content Officer (digital) – Grade 6 (£16,658-£18,930) 37 hrs per week until 12.7.2019
- Community Engagement Officer – Grade 6 (£16,658-£18,930) 37 hrs per week until 12.7.2019
- Research Officer – Grade 6 (£16,658-£18,930) 37 hrs per week -15 months contract
Doncaster 1914-18 project contracts
Doncaster Heritage Services are seeking to fill five project contracts for our Heritage Lottery Funded, World War One project, Doncaster 1914-18. These contracts will be responsible for helping our project staff to deliver the digital resource, marketing strategy, temporary exhibitions, family history workshops and project evaluation.
These contracts will be delivered over several years and more details of the project are advertised on the YorTender website at www.yortender.co.uk For further information about any of these contracts please register with the YorTender website as queries must be placed through YorTender.
Contracts:
- Evaluation contract (YORE-9N4P-DA5647) – Closing date – 20 October 2014 (Approximate budget: £10,000)
- Family history workshops (YORE-9N4P-BD1LIX) – Closing date – 27 October 2014 (Approximate budget: £10,000)
- Marketing contract (YORE-9N4M-JHT08E) – Closing date – 27 October 2014 (Approximate budget: £64,000)
- Exhibitions contract (YORE-9N4P- 2LZKRG) – Closing date – 3 November 2014 (Approximate budget: £130,000)
- Digital contract (YORE-9N4N-DPH4SW) – Closing date – 10 November 2014 (Approximate budget: £135,000)
