Digging Dad's Army project

[Andy Brockman]

Dear All,

 

This is a thread about a conflict archaeology project, but I hope it will be of interest to anyone in the HMV world with in interest in sharing the wider history of their vehicles with the public, or finding out more about the times in which those vehicles were built and used. Hence posting on the events forum.

 

Our first event is this saturday, March 7 2009, when we are holding a short seminar to discuss the project at Shrewsbury House, Bushmore Crescent in Shooters Hill south east London from 11.00-13.00.

 

So what is "Digging Dad's Army," all about?

 

Digging Dad's Army [DDA] is a new, research led, community based project which is designed to investigate and publish, the material survivals and people's experiences of the conflicts of the 20th Century as they impacted on the communities of south east and east London. It covers the period 1914 to the Cold War.

 

The project has been set up under the umbrella of the "Great War Archaeology Group," after discussions involving Nick Saunders of the University of Bristol, Neil Faulkner visiting lecturer at Bristol and features editor of Current Archaeology, Martin Kender of the Great War Archaeology Group and myself. However, we would like to bring DDA to a much wider audience for comment and discussion before we settle on the final project aims and design. In particular we don't want it to be kept closed to the usual archaeological suspects.

 

This is because, as well as archaeological and historical research, the project also aims to look at ways of sharing the knowledge generated and the skills required to acquire it, with the contemporary community through work with primary and secondary schools, the higher and continuing education sector and and via a range of public events. The archaeological programme starts with fieldwork and a public event in the Shooters Hill area this June with the support of the London Borough of Greenwich Parks Department.

 

This is Public Archaeology and Archive work coupled with a strong commitment to education and outreach and we want to involve a wide range of skills, expertise and enthusiasms in the planning and delivery of it. Hence this invitation is not just to Archaeologists and Historians, professional and vocational, but is also to Teachers, Living History Practitioners, and in fact anyone with an interest in this subject and the geographical area covered by the project.

 

In particular, we all know how evocative it is to see, hear and touch vehicles from the past so we particularly want to involve members of the HMVF and preservation world in the project. For example, one of our research subjects is the D-Day transit camp at Wanstead Flats representing a story very seldom told where virtually every vehicle known to the allied forces involved in Overlord might well have turned up at some time.

 

In general, we see Digging Dad's Army very much as the chance to forge new and creative partnerships as we create a truly multi disciplinary project. It is a new way of looking at the subject and one which we think will be really exciting.

 

In fact we hope Digging Dad's army will be one bigg event.

 

You can find out more about the Project on the Great War Archaeology Group Website.

 

http://www.gwag.org/ProjectsDDA.htm

 

In addition if you have any comments ideas, or want to come on saturday please PM me. It would be great if the HMVF could be represented.

 

Best wishes

 

Andy B

Edited March 2, 2009 by Marmite!!
Added Prefix