Maplewell Hall Scribes

In 2016 Century of Stories kick started a project working in partnership with Maplewell Hall School in Woodhouse Eaves. The aim of this initiative was to initially support the launch of the County-wide Battle of the Somme commemorations and to support Maplewell School’s Challenge Day which takes place every year, you can read more about this project by clicking here.

As a follow on from the hugely successful WW1 Challenge Day, Century of Stories now facilitates a ‘Challenge Group’ at the school who meet weekly to improve literacy and creative skills. The first topic the group approached was inspired by their visit to the Carillon Tower where they met Volunteer Guide and Local Historian, Mel Gould, who told the story of Songster the famous Warhorse from their local village. The group curated a banner all about Songster which now tours schools and libraries around the county.

Following on from their project about Songster the war horse, the group then chose to create a silent movie. Century of Stories formed a partnership with the Great Central Railway Heritage Volunteer Group and called upon volunteer Film Maker of Pudding Bag Productions, Wendy Freer, who worked on a previous project with Century of Stories, Moira Primary School, Life on a Canal Boat During WW1.

The stage for the movie was the platform in Loughborough which is over 100 years old and collections from the heritage group were used for research and understanding.

Below: Image of the Maplewell Hall Scribes with volunteer Wendy Freer (front central), Century of Stories Project Co-ordinator Helen Emery (far right) and teacher Jadie (second from right)

The filming day for the silent WW1 movie was held on 22nd November 2016. The day was a huge success and many remarks were made by the teachers and teaching assistants about the improvement in the students over the course of this project in both social communication and grades in class. These comments can be heard in a film made of ‘behind the scenes’ commissioned by CoS to capture and share the day’s activities. The silent movie was completed in December and all the captions and narrative were written by the students. Each student at Maplewell Hall School has a statement of special educational needs and they were each given a DVD of the film to share with their families. The film was shown at school assembly in January 2017.

Behind the Scenes! Murder on the Maplewell Express –

Murder on the Maplewell Express Silent Film –

The group are now busy thinking of their next WW1 project!