Update: Channel Islanders in Bury Project, and Film

Thanks to everyone who attended the Project Open Day at Ramsbottom Heritage Gallery and watched a preview of our documentary film, met our evacuees and shared their memories with us. The documentary will be finalised in late 2010 and details on how to obtain a copy will be shown here at that time. This project was supported by an award from the Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement.  See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/guernsey/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9096000/9096832.stm
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterbeacon/5178317390/in/photostream/

http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=6372
http://www.communityarchives.org.uk/page_id__1013_path__.aspx

Update: Channel Island evacuees in Bury and Tottington

We will be sharing some of our project findings at Ramsbottom Heritage Gallery and Library on Thursday 28th October, 1pm – 4pm. Please come along to meet evacuees and locals alike, with their memories of the Second World War in Bury & Tottington.  This project was supported by an award from the Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement.  See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/guernsey/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9096000/9096832.stm

You can contact me with Channel Island evacuation memories at gillianmawson@btinternet.com

BBC Television Documentary on Guernsey Evacuees

I am providing research to BBC Television for a documentary on ‘Guernsey evacuees in the North West’, to be broadcast in the North West and on Guernsey in late 2010

Gill Mawson – Meet the evacuees at MOSI Manchester, 23 August 1pm-3.30pm!

Bring the family along to Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry between 1pm and 3.30pm on Monday 23 August to meet two of the Guernsey evacuees who came here in 1940. Find out why the Guernsey evacuation took place, why they came here, and why many evacuees did not return to Guernsey after the war. How different was the Manchester area to their little island? Feel free to ask them questions, and take a look at some photographs and documents that tell their story.  Take a look with me inside a Guernsey evacuee’s suitcase – what did they bring with them to England, and what would you bring if you had to leave home at short notice and had just one small suitcase?

Gillian Mawson, University of Manchester

See the MOSI website: http://www.mosi.org.uk/whats-on/meet-the—-who-will-it-be-this-week

 I was involved in the July issue of a set of Guernsey Evacuation 70th anniversary Commemorative stamps, click here.

New Guernsey Evacuee Heritage Project in Bury, Lancashire

I am currently working with Joanne Fitton of Bury Museum and Archives to collect the stories of Guernsey evacuees who came to the Bury area during the Second World War.
These will be placed in Bury archives, for anyone to access,
A booklet and CD will also be produced, to tell the story of the evacuees and explaining what we have discovered during the project. We are holding an event at Ramsbottom Heritage Library & Gallery on Thurs 28th October 1pm – 4pm. All are welcome.

If you were evacuated from Guernsey to the Bury area in 1940, or have any other information that you feel may interest me regarding the Guernsey Evacuation, please contact me at :Gillianmawson@btinternet.com

For further information about my Guernsey research, click here.
For details of the June Guernsey evacuee reunion in Stockport, click here.  http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/life_and_style/s/1268475_70_years_on_how_wartime_evacuation_changed_lives_forever

Gillian Mawson – University of Manchester, England, UK

Hello world!

Since May 2008, I have been interviewing those who fled Guernsey to mainland Britain in June 1940, just a few days prior to the German Occupation of the Channel Islands. My particular research at the University of Manchester has concentrated on the thousands that arrived in unfamiliar  industrial towns in Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire.  The evacuees spent two to three weeks in Evacuee Reception Centres, before being provided with local accommodation. Over 5,000 Guernsey children were evacuated with their school teachers and many did not see their parents again for five long years. My interviews have revealed emotional stories from both children and adult evacuees, regarding the actual evacuation, their five years in England cut off from friends and family on Guernsey, and of their return to Guernsey in 1945