Finding the North East’s First World War Trench Art


Type: Community and volunteer project, Educational project

 

Newcastle University logoBeamish logo

Trench art is the recycled stuff of war. It comprises a vast array of objects composed of war material that has been transformed into other, usually non-lethal, items, functional or decorative.

This project aims to establish how much trench art exists in the North East of England, creating a database of all known items. While the original makers and owners have passed away, the centenary of WW1 presents an excellent opportunity to research how trench art has acted as a means of commemorating the war and remembering its participants.

We are particularly interested in locating around 30 items for which we can establish a family narrative and biography. They would be at the centre of a virtual and mobile museum to be made available to schools and communities across the North East.

Typically, pieces are made from empty rifle or artillery shell-cases and can range from cigarette lighters to candlesticks and table bells, the final product being limited only by the ingenuity, skills and resources available to the maker. Some items were even made from discarded animal bones and army biscuits!

More skilled personnel, perhaps with greater access to material and tools, could produce intricate and complex artefacts such as this alarm clock made by Sapper Pearl of the Australian Imperial Force, incorporating pieces of Allied and German munitions and regimental insignia.

Australian War Memorial RELAWM14155. Trench art clock: Sapper S K Pearl, 5 Field Company Engineers, AIF.
Australian War Memorial RELAWM14155. Trench art clock: Sapper S K Pearl, 5 Field Company Engineers, AIF.

 

Central to our investigations will be an artefact-centred interview methodology, pioneered by Newcastle University, with the present owners at the very heart of our research.

If you own trench art and would like to have it recorded as part of this unique project please visit our website at:

www.beamish.org.uk/ww1-trench-art

or contact us by email at:
[email protected]