Ground Breaking Youth Project on Film - November 9th 2011
Back in August, at a time when parts of England were coping with riots and the youth of the country were coming under fire for their anti-social and criminal behaviour, in one part of the North East, a small group of teenagers were taking part in a remarkable project.
Cut off from the outside world in an isolated Northumberland castle, 35 young people were discovering the challenges of life in the first half of the nineteenth century. Dressed in period costume for the duration and without the aid of modern conveniences, the young people lived, learned, entertained, and even cooked for themselves according to the ways of the 1840s. Heritage professionals and Youth Workers ensured that the experience was as realistic and challenging as possible so young people were fully immersed in the project.
1840s Heritage Big Brother was a project developed and delivered by Woodhorn and Northumberland Youth Service and inspired by a time travel idea from a group of young people in Ashington. It was then developed into an inspirational week of cultural activities delivered at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland. 1840s Heritage Big Brother project was a collaboration between Northumberland Youth Service and Time Travel Northumberland which is part of NE-Generation and is funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to create a lasting cultural legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK.
The whole 1840s experience was captured on film by a crew of young people, and now the resulting fly-on-the-wall documentary is available to be viewed at Woodhorn.
Juliet Hardy, the NE-Generation Creative Mentor based at Woodhorn, one of the key figures in bringing the whole thing together commented:
“It was very exciting to see the young peoples’ ideas develop into a living reality. The youngsters involved brought an amazing energy to the project and it was so rewarding to witness. I was nervous about how they’d actually cope with the challenges of the week without a mobile phone, television or computer. However, in spite of our concerns, I think everyone found it an extremely rewarding project. I’m sure many people will now enjoy watching the film which is both thought provoking and entertaining, and finding out more about how the young people dealt with the challenges.”
Ashley Brown, Senior Area Youth Worker from Northumberland Youth Service commented:
“From Northumberland Youth Service’s point of view, in the space of 5 days we saw young people develop to be incredibly articulate, skilful, committed and resourceful.”
Rebecca Flynn, one of the participants in the Big Brother Event commented:
“The main thing about this experience was learning and enjoying yourself. The thing I will take away from the week will be trying to take less things for granted now and spend more time with my family: it was really nice sitting down and eating with other people and talking.”
The 1840s Heritage Big Brother film will be on show at Woodhorn until the end of November.