LEARNING WITH A DIFFERENCE
Our first heritage project was to restore the ‘Smallest Theatre in the World’ to its former glory. Since then, we have celebrated our local history with a ‘living history’ project for schools, taken our coastal towns back in time with a ‘Museum of Coastal Curiosities’ and celebrated the sailing of the Mayflower with her local connections in film. All with the help of Heritage Lottery East.
‘All on board’ the Mayflower
First we commandeered a ship then simply added water. This project began as a touring show for schools based on local hero Christopher Jones who sailed the Mayflower to America, carrying its first settlers. Then Covid turned our plans upside down and it ended up as three films along with a tailored lesson package for teachers and live streaming to the classrooms.
The project was produced for Heritage Lottery and the Mayflower 400 celebrations in Harwich, home of Christopher Jones owner and Captain of the Mayflower. The films were made by Simon Wild (opposite)
“Mandy was delighted with the chorus she wrote for the Mayflower song ~ ‘Hey nonny nonny, it was cramped and smelly, no playstation, no flat screen telly’ the rest of us were bemused, but the children loved it.
THE DIARY OF A LEMMING 2020
The museum of Coastal Curiosities
Imagine a museum where every exhibit has a story to tell and a story teller to tell it. That was Dave’s idea for a touring exhibition that covered the seaside resorts of North Essex. It told the history of seaside entertainment from the early buskers to the end of the pier show and just to make the point we made sure there was a host of amazing seaside entertainers on the stage outside.
The museum was one strand of a project dreamt up by Mandy called ‘Resorting to the Coast’. It was researched by the Lemmings, put together with Essex County Council and funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund.
‘Mandy we might have a problem’, Dave said. ‘Your idea of exploring the history of early travelling entertainers in our coastal towns is great, it is just that the seaside resorts didn’t exist until late Victorian times!’ It’s a good job that we already have money, we both thought.
THE DIARY OF A LEMMING 2020
‘Step on Board’, bringing the Mayflower to life
This was a real enjoyment to perform. We took over a dozens of classrooms dressed the children in period costume then took them outdoors for a crash course in how to live in the seventeenth century. We put it together for the 2020 Mayflower Celebrations in Harwich; home of the Mayflowers Skipper. The children made ship’s biscuits, wrote with quills and even used a rope making machine, while Dave had fun with his favourite hobby ~ sailing.
“Grim lessons were to be learnt about the horrific conditions on the Mayflower. At the end of the day Dave asked the children, looking very stern, ‘so would you have liked to be on the Mayflower?’ ‘Yes’, they all screamed. The teacher laughed, Dave shrugged, that was not the right answer”
THE DIARY OF A LEMMING 2018
