Looking back on VE Day 75
On the 8th of May at 9am, I logged onto my computer ready to start work. This wasn’t a normal day in the office, although there is nothing normal about working for the Museum of Croydon at the moment whilst we are based remotely in our homes without access to my archival collections. Our original plans were to hold a two hour event in the Clocktower but soon after we left our building at the end of March, it was clear that we would not be able to hold the event in person, so we began to plan to hold the event online.
We compiled a programme of online content on our website, including films, a virtual handling collection, ‘Croydon Remembers’; a selection of Museum & archival objects and several blogs written by members of the team and volunteers. Our ‘live’ content was to be on our twitter feed so I scheduled the tweets beforehand. One member of the team recorded a summary of the VE Day celebrations from the official war history written by Chief Librarian W.C. Berwick Sayers. The main interactive session was a thirty minute ‘Ask the Archivist’ session on Twitter at 12 noon followed by the launch of the VE Day film at 12.45. Further tweets would be programmed to go live during the afternoon and over the weekend to direct people to the exhibition content.
So back to VE Day. The final content went live on the website at 9am and I started to check earlier twitter activity for questions for my 12 noon session. We also posted some content on our Facebook page and compiled an Instagram story for those channels. At 10.59, our first tweet went live, marking the readiness for two minutes silence across the nation to remember those who lost their lives in WW2. We followed this by some information about our involvement with the Home Front Project, funded by National Heritage Lottery Fund and a link to the Home Front Croydon film, followed by a tweet directing people to our online exhibition.
At 12 noon we started the ‘Ask the Archivist’ session, where I fielded questions about the range of resources we have to research WW2 and what my favourite one was, to which my response was our school log books which tell the story of life for children and teachers throughout this period. I also posted about our bomb maps, reports and photographs used by Borough Engineers to record damage and plan to rebuild after the war. I showed an image of Moore Road, Upper Norwood after a bomb hit and a later image showing council staff rebuilding houses after the war. I added some information about our Oral History collection in response to another question and addressed why it is important to collect during times such as war.
Finally I shared the story of Rose May Hopper, who was evacuated from Croydon to Wadebridge in Cornwall.
I was filmed by BBC Countryfile last year telling Steve Brown her story as she was his Grandmother. A range of items from our handling collection were shared online and then we launched the VE Day film and finished with the recording from Berwick Sayers account of VE Day. I spent the rest of the day, following activity on twitter and enjoying the sunshine, coverage on national television and toasted with Dame Joan Collins at 3pm.
This was our first ‘online’ exhibition and will help define a template for many more to come. Thanks to all who helped to create it and to all those visitors who viewed it on the day and will continue to experience it on our website
Lindsay Ould
Borough Archivist
