Many of us from all over the world went on an epic trip to France and Belgium to visit World War One (WW1) battlefields and memorials to learn more about what happened on the Western Front during 1914-1918. In our group there were people from Britain, Kenya, Gambia, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Hungary, Pakistan, Vietnam and China, everyone was from each end of the age spectrum and some from the middle too! This interesting mix of cultures and ages meant that we came together to share our own cultural heritage and learn more about how so many countries contributed to the Great War.
Our amazing tour guide was called Bruce Cherry (a very amazing name indeed!) - his immense insight into this subject blew us all away. What was particularly special about the trip was that Bruce tailored the tour to fit with our new community project called ‘Eleven Eleven Eleven’ - he focused on the international contribution on the Western Front which kept us all very engaged and inspired us to take lots of photos and even write some poetry! The main aim of the project is to collect non-British WW1 stories from Nottingham’s diverse local communities for a major exhibition that is launching at Nottingham Castle on the 25 July 2014.
During the trip we wanted the blog to capture our experience through film, photography, poetry and writing. We hope that reading our blog will inspire others to learn more about the Great War or take similar journeys to the peaceful lands where thousands of soldiers from all over the world now rest in peace.
Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting our thoughts, poetry and photography from the trip.
If you would like to be a volunteer on the project or if you have a story to tell, please contact Melissa Lewis on 0115 8762738 / Melissa.lewis@yahoo.co.uk or Rosny Hayward on 0115 8762248 Rosny.hayward@nottinghamcity.gov.uk