Author: Larissa Allwork

In November, I was fortunate to attend the NCCPE Engage conference (29 – 30 November 2016) at the Bristol Royal Marriott Hotel.  Sessions included ‘Raising the Bar’ which saw Associate Professor Paul Manners (UWE and Director of the National Centre for Public Engagement) and Sophie Duncan (Deputy Director of the National Centre for Public Engagement) award the first ever Engage Gold Watermark Accreditation to the Centre for Public Engagement at Queen Mary, University of London. Community Liaison Officer, Mike Noble and myself also participated in a highly relevant workshop on the lessons learned from Connected Communities projects, which was led by Katherine Dunleavy (University of Bristol).  Other sessions that I participated in included a session on ‘Public Engagement as Method in the Arts and Humanities’ as well as talks on academic and museum partnerships led by Carolyn Sargentson (University of Sussex) and museum representatives of The University of Oxford. Read more →

Dr Nick Baron (History, University of Nottingham), Dr Sarah Badcock (History, University of Nottingham) and Dr Erin Snyder (Digital Research Manager, University of Nottingham) have been working with Life Lines community group and heritage consultants Culture Syndicates on the realization of the COREL project (Curating Online Resources for Engagement and Learning). This project is being funded by the Centre for Hidden Histories, the Higher Education Innovation Fund and the University of Nottingham.

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On 28th November 2016, the Centre for Hidden Histories was very pleased to support the blessing of a headstone dedicated to the memory of two First World War Belgian refugees, Frans Buyssens and Henri Burghys. Dr Hannah Ewence (University of Chester) has been leading a Centre for Hidden Histories community research project on Belgian refugees who came to Cheshire during the 1914-1918 conflict. Approximately, 250,000 Belgians came to Britain during the First World War, of which approximately 250 resided in Cheshire.

November’s ceremony was the result of research conducted by community historian Alan Lowe (Northwich and District Heritage Society). Lowe discovered that Buyssens and Burghys were the only two deaths in Mid Cheshire. Buyssens, died of Peritonitis aged around ten in February 1915 and Henri Joseph Burghys, also aged around ten, died following surgery at the Victoria infirmary (June 1915).  Local chemical industrialist and political liberal, Sir John Brunner paid for the boys funerals in 1915. However, until November of this year, their graves have gone unmarked. Following an approach by Lowe, Tata Chemicals Europe who brought the Brunner Mond Company in 2005, kindly agreed to honour Sir John Brunner’s legacy by paying for the headstone.

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