During the summer of 2018 Well Read supported Heritage First to deliver a community engagement and education project to complement essential maintenance and conservation works to the Memorial Clock Tower in Coalville, Leicestershire.

The project, which received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was delivered on behalf of North West Leicestershire District Council as part of their programme of activities to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.

The first phase of the project involved planning and delivering an education programme for a local primary school, working closely with teachers and the Coalville Heritage Society to plan the lessons and teaching resources. Well Read also worked closely with the teachers to develop an education pack about the Memorial Clock Tower and Commemoration aimed at Key Stages 1 & 2. This included devising the various components of the packs – lesson plans, teachers background information and Powerpoint slides – linking to different aspects of the curriculum. You can see the Education Pack here

The project culminated in an exhibition detailing the history of the Memorial Clock Tower and other memorial sites in Coalville and its surrounding villages.

Well Read supported the research into the various memorial sites around Coalville and helped manage the involvement of local college students that were recruited to photograph the memorial sites for inclusion in the exhibition and accompanying brochure, entitled ‘These Names are Lamps of Sacrifice’ – which was taken from a memorial inscription. You can view a pdf of the brochure here.

We involved the local community by recording their memories of the Clock Tower and its environs, known as Memorial Square. Coalville Heritage Society helped with these recordings and a number of these ‘oral histories’ have now been deposited to the County Archives. You can listen to some of the recordings here.

We worked closely with the Council’s communications team to publicise the project through press releases and a project blog hosted on the Choose Coalville website.

Michael Faulkner, Director, Heritage First, said: “Kate has a can-do attitude and worked diligently to ensure we delivered on this project – coming up with solutions to the various challenges we faced.

“Kate has a natural flair for communications and her knowledge of PR and social media was a great asset to ensuring this project was effectively communicated across the local area.”