Sharing flow of river memories
MEN OF THE TYNE ... the cast aboard the cruise ship Fortuna. From lef,t Ray Spencer, Ian Ravenscroft, Andy Hagan, Ted Cuskin and Tom Kelly.
MEN who have spent their lives working on or around the River Tyne are sharing their memories with schoolchildren through a pioneering website.
In a unique project, organised by the Customs House in South Shields, dozens of Tyneside men have been detailing their experiences of working on the world-famous shipbuilding river.
And those tales of tugboat men, platers and other skilled tradesmen are now available to download from specialist website www.ch-arted.co.uk and used for educational purposes by teachers, parents and young people across the UK.
This includes a series of vivid archive photographs and specially-written songs about the river, which were gathered in a series of creative sessions by Customs House bosses in partnership with Age UK North and South Tyneside, South and North Tyneside Councils and South Tyneside PCT.
The aptly-named Men of the Tyne project, which involved men aged 55 and over, also saw a number of workshops being held to discuss the changes in the river over the past five decades.
These, too, will be included in the Ch-arted download via a series of monologues.
Emma Horsman, cultural development manager at the Customs House in Mill Dam, said: “Men of the Tyne arose from casual conversations with local people about working conditions and the history of the River Tyne.
“Their stories are the sort that have traditionally been passed down from father to son through the generations, and now, via www.ch-arted.co.uk, children across the UK, who may never even have been to Tyneside, can hear them, too.”
Ch-arted was originally launched by the Customs House last autumn in partnership with educational resource specialist ShooFly Publishing, and with backing from Arts Council England, CCE, Creative Partnerships and both South and North Tyneside Councils.
The site is regularly updated with a new range of interactive educational tools, lesson plans and ideas for classroom-based activities, all designed to engage young people in subjects and social issues applicable across key stages one to four.
Many of the resources on the site are free for teachers and education professionals to download and use, with others, like Men of the Tyne, available for a small, one-off fee or yearly subscription charge.
The charge is used to fund the site and other similar activities run by the Customs House cultural development team, both in schools and in the wider community.
Men of the Tyne costs £25, or can be downloaded free as part of the £120 annual subscription to the site.
For more information, visit www.ch-arted.co.uk or contact the Customs House cultural development team on 427 8197/88.
Twitter: @shieldsgazvez
Email to a friend
Print this page- Transfer Rumours May 22: Newcastle United, Sunderland, Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Barcelona, Wigan, QPR, West Ham and Blackpool
- Transfer Rumours May 12: Sunderland, Newcastle, Chelsea, West Ham, Liverpool, Blackpool, Reading, Tottenham, West Brom
- Transfer Rumours update May 22: Sunderland, Newcastle United, Liverpool, West Ham United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and QPR.
- Newcastle United weigh up bids for defensive duo
- Transfer Rumours May 12: Sunderland, Newcastle, Chelsea, West Ham, Liverpool, Blackpool, Reading
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Jarrow
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.