Washington in the Great War

The 'Washington in the Great War' project began in about 2005 with four friends deciding to identify the 102 men listed on the Harraton Memorial. It subsequently grew to include the Usworth Memorial (121 names) and the Washington Memorial (179 names). We received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund during the First World War Centenary. Our journey is ongoing, with thirty volunteers having already produced the research material for, and commissioned, four films - 'Wad Thou Gan?', 'From Washington to Wipers and Warlencourt', 'Washington Men at the Somme' and 'The Wear at War' (available on YouTube). Project members visited Washington graves/memorials located in France, Belgium, UK, Berlin, Gallipoli and Northern Italy. A core part of the project involved engaging with local schools for classwork, through assemblies and a visit to the battlefields of France and Flanders. One pupil helped design a 'Wor Poppy Walk' phone app for the project, containing a lot of information about the individuals researched, whilst we also created an extensive project website with dedicated links to recent events, films, photographs and supporting information. Other outcomes produced included an interactive map which allowed people to complete a four-mile walk across Washington, which connects all three memorials and takes them past thirty (of one hundred) bronze resin poppies that marking houses and buildings from which local men left to fight and didn't return. A special 'Washington in the Great War' book was published by Pen and Sword and we held a public Peace Party at Beamish Museum in the Summer of 2019 . We also commissioned the band 'Fool's Gold' to write six songs about Washington men during the conflict - they performed these songs at five concerts over the course of 2018, under the title 'Now This Lousy War is Over'. This led to a CD album with copies distributed to all local schools. We also engaged in a whole host of activities, ranging from large to small, as part of the project. These included creating materials for, and mounted, exhibitions at Arts Centre Washington, Washington Library, Beamish Museum, Albert Tourist Information, Tanfield Railway, Tyne and Wear Archives, Durham County Hall, Durham Western Front Association Annual Conferences; organising talks for local groups of all kinds, including the Friends of Sunderland Museum, local History Societies, Probus, local U3As, Mesothelioma and Church groups (alongside well-attended talks of up to seventy people hosted at local clubs and pubs). We donated over £3000 to the local Services charity SSAFA from the sales of albums, books and donations. We hung over 12,000 knitted poppies from Fatfield Bridge; organised knitting in local pubs and for public days; we hung labels on trees in local churchyards to commemorate the centenary of an individual's death; we set up a dedicated commemorative bus stop; we organised local services for Remembrance Sunday, with around four hundred attendees in November 2018; through utilising television, local radio and press slots, we supplied the fruits of our research to families in Washington and beyond via online outlets, such as our Facebook Page and Twitter account that we still post on every week. We helped the council with gardening by creating a small memorial wild garden. We additionally contributed a podcast for the Western Front Association, listed all our men (and woman) on the 'Shrouds of the Somme' installation, offered monthly First World War-themed research clinics for Beamish Museum visitors. We met and advised other local groups engaged in similar work and contributed to Heritage Open days. We also drank a lot of tea and coffee and ate a lot of cake.