The Project
This project was set up in 2002 with the purpose of encouraging and enabling local people to compile some of their own history for themselves, using valuable local knowledge and contacts, in collaboration with VCH Essex who have provided guidance and training in useful skills. Some of the initial volunteers were drawn from the Clacton and District Local History Society (www.clactonhistory.com), and major financial support has come from the VCH Essex Appeal Fund and the VCH Trust. We thank these organisations for their help and encouragement.
From the start the project's work has depended upon its volunteers. The group first posed some fascinating research questions and then identified some project objectives. It has been fortunate to receive enough funding support to enable these to be achieved, including a publication at the end of 2003. The group is now working on an educational pilot project to use the materials collected so far to create printed and on-line resources for local schools about Clacton in WWII. For further details please visit www.essexpast.net/clacton/clactonhome.html
Volunteers
There is currently a core group of eight volunteers, some of them members of the Clacton and District Local History Society. Other members of the Society and local Clacton people have also been involved, sharing war memories, and making photos and other material available. The members of the core group have different experience and academic backgrounds, and include a retired guest house proprietor; a primary school teacher; a retired maintenance manager at Butlin's; three mature students from Essex University, one a retired RAF officer, one a tutor of adults, and one a former draughtswoman; and a retired senior training adviser in the construction industry who has recently published his own local history booklets. Some are experienced grandparents! They are all highly motivated, and have gelled as a group, co-operating in the various tasks. The regular meetings, which are held at Essex University, function as a kind of workshop, where members report back on what they have done and discuss together the problems that arise, benefiting from the guidance and training in basic historical research skills provided by VCH staff.
If you are interested in joining this project please contact any of the VCH staff at vchistory@essex.ac.uk
Research Questions
The group decided to research the topic of Clacton in the Second World War and set themselves a number of key research questions which they sought to answer:
For example:
From these general questions a set of more specific issues has emerged. For instance:
In each case there has been an attempt to combine the story from documentary sources, such as council minutes, with the recollections of the people affected, and as far as possible to use primary (i.e. original) sources.
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Objectives
An important aspect of the project has been the formulation by the group itself of a specific set of objectives. Those agreed were as follows:
Funding Support
The project has been generously funded by grants from the VCH Essex Appeal Fund, for expenses, such as stationery and travel, and also for publication costs. A further grant from the central VCH Trust covered VCH staff costs, the purchase of a laptop computer, and a small contribution to the publication costs.
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Publication
As intended the project has successfully produced a popular publication which will be enjoyed by the general public and local schoolchildren. This illustrated book combines the official story of Clacton-on-Sea during the Second World War, from documentary evidence, with the story of ordinary people living through an extraordinary period in history. In peacetime Clacton was a town whose economy was largely based on providing seaside holidays to thousands of people, but in wartime the holiday trade had to be suspended. Instead, the people who remained in the town came to feel that Clacton, because of its coastal situation, represented part of the ‘front line' in the struggle to defend their country against the enemy. The transitory population was no longer holidaymakers, but members of the armed services.
For details on how to order this book please go to Latest Publications.
Future Plans
The group has continued with further projects and more volunteers and offers of help would be welcomed. Please contact: vchistory@essex.ac.uk for more details.