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| About FINEST HOUR |
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| Although people were encouraged to 'Keep Mum' at the time, URBAN STRAWBERRY LUNCH are encouraging people to talk about their memories and experiences of the Liverpool Blitz.
Finest Hour is a sound archive gathering project that focuses on recording the memories and experiences of the people who lived through the May 1941 Blitz. |
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The sound archive will be gathered from now until 2008 and will be housed at the Liverpool Records Office, National Sound Archive, North West Sound Archive and The Museum of Liverpool Life.
There will also be an annual event staged at St Luke's on or around May Day Bank Holiday. The event will draw on the archive and will culminate in a spectacular portrayal of the Blitz on Monday May 5th 2008 - the anniversary of the destruction of St Luke's, when the archive will be officially closed. |
| Finest Hour was established as a result of the childhood memories of Ambrose Reynolds, Artistic Director of Urban Strawberry Lunch. As a boy he would get off the bus with his Mum at Leece Street and ask about the Church- "Why does it look like that? Why was it bombed? When was it bombed? Who bombed it?" |
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As he got older, Ambrose realised that not only did he learn about his city's history from this local landmark but also that very little information seemed to be available about the Liverpool Blitz. Most people know the extent of the damage suffered by London during the Second World War; some people even know about Coventry. However, the general public are not aware that Liverpool was one of the most heavily bombed cities outside London. |
| There are many archives dedicated to the experiences of those in the armed forces and on the front line during the War but very little that explores the experiences, emotions and effects on those people living and working in Liverpool. As time moves forward many of those memories will be lost as the older generations pass away. Unless this material is gathered and archived, a valuable opportunity will be gone forever and younger generations will not gain access to the history of their city and their ancestors. | 
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The main aim of Finest Hour is to open a dialogue across generations by asking those who experienced the Liverpool Blitz to be interviewed by their younger relatives or by USL's chosen representatives. The archive will be a valuable resource for future generations, so they can understand that, for the people of Liverpool, the May Blitz was indeed their FINEST HOUR. |
| © Urban Strawberry Lunch 2005 | Back |
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