Heritage Lottery Project to uncover hidden histories in and around Eastern Rother.

Thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Rother Arts Development has spent the last year working with local artist Julian Hanshaw on a project to rediscover stories from the past. Stories which belong to the Rother area, some of which had been forgotten and relegated to the archives and some which were fading memories in people's minds.

With the help of Claire Eden, from Bexhill Museum a new group of oral history volunteers was created, their task to find find these hidden and forgotten stories.

That done, it was over to our artist, Julian to re-tell these stories in a new and accessible way, so that we can all remember what once happened right here within the landscape in which we live and breath.

So now we want you all to be able to find out more about the project and dig a bit deeper into the stories we chose to use in this project. We also welcome any additional stories, please feel free to add your comments to this site.

Not Everyone Rises

Exhibition rational by Julian Hanshaw

"I moved to Winchelsea some 8 years ago from south London and was instantly bewitched by the coastline. Tranquil, soft and desert like in the summer. Brutal, jagged and unforgiving in the winter. With Dungeness humming on the horizon and the large flat expanses of reclaimed land that I explored it was a landscape that fired my imagination.

Having eagerly consumed my war comics as a child I was aware of the plans that the Third Reich had for this gently sloped stretch of coastline, but as I read more local history books small vignettes and facts began to draw me in further, craving more information.

These small moments in time full of pathos and intrigue suggested they would work wonderfully in the medium with which I work: comics.

I wanted to use the sequential art form in a way that broke the stories down into small 'chapters' on the page. Coloured differently they would be read in their 'individual blocks' and the blocks when read together would become the whole story.

I also wished the audience would, of course, ultimately enjoy the story but might have to work at them a little. A piece of work which stands up to repeated views.

The works will be situated at 5 sites near to where the events happened and I think it will be fascinating to for example, read the piece on the downed bomber pilot and with a tilt of the head be able to look out at the same 'uncaring sea' in which his body was gently lowered 'in as Christian a manner as possible'.

I am unaware of comics being used like this in an outside environment and with this in mind I wish to thank Melanie Powell, Rother District Council Arts Development officer, who I approached some three years ago with the idea. Thank her for not laughing in my face and having nothing but faith in seeing the project through."

March 2012

Camber's Story

• Print This Page