Second World War exhibition showcased at Woodhorn Museum

Posted by The Journal on Jul 26, 09 11:55 AM in News

Fascinating memories of life on the home front and in foreign battlefields during the Second World War are showcased in a major new exhibition at a North East tourist attraction.

Northumberland at War tells the story of those who defended the county's towns and villages, toiled in the fields to produce food and were evacuated from their urban homes to the countryside as Britain's troops fought the enemy overseas between 1939 and 1945.

It recalls the experiences of people who served in the so-called Dad's Army local defence force and Women's Land Army, young wartime evacuees, Bevin Boys who laboured in North East mines, and even a German prisoner who worked on a Northumberland farm.

The exhibition, which opened yesterday at the ÃÂ£16m Woodhorn Museum and Archives Centre near Ashington to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of war, also showcases a Berwick-born soldier who became a prisoner of war of the Japanese.

Northumberland at War tells its story through the eyes of eight real people, whose memories have been saved for posterity on special oral history recordings held at the Woodhorn museum. Visitors to the exhibition can use old wartime-style telephone sets to listen to the recordings. They can view a replica of the crude Anderson shelters built during the war to protect people against bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe, specially re-created living room and kitchen sets from the 1940s and an end-of-the-war street party.

The exhibition is accompanied by a special soundtrack featuring air raid sirens, news broadcasts from the time and people cheering to mark the end of hostilities.

One of those whose memories are featured is Ralph Douglas, 85, who, after serving in the RAF, was sent back to his family's dairy farm at East Sleekburn near Bedlington in 1944 to help with the vital work of agricultural production and ensuring the nation was fed.

Yesterday he said: "I was in the RAF but was told to come back home to help produce food. People had been living on meagre rations during the war and it was thought more important in 1944 for me to get back producing milk and vegetables than being in the forces.

"That disappointed me because I had hoped to stay in the RAF and make a career of it.

"Working on the farm at that time was very hard toil, seven days a week and sometimes seven nights as well. I think this exhibition is very good.

"It will give people a real insight into what things were like during the war. It must have been a hell of a hard job for women, working on the land and trying to put together meals."

The eight people whose memories are featured in the exhibition also include a young girl evacuated from Newcastle to Northumberland, a wartime bride who worked as a cinema usherette and a Gosforth ATS volunteer who returned home after war service and became an actress at the People's Theatre.

Northumberland at War, which was funded with a ÃÂ£20,000 grant from the Northern Rock Foundation, is the culmination of Woodhorn's Access to Northumberland's History project, that has been running for two years and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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