Beyond the Brickworks Project

This project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the local community to discover and engage with the heritage of the Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum (BBIM). It culminated with a video interpreting the heritage of the Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum the last steam-driven brickworks in the UK collaborating with the young volunteers from Solent Youth Action.

An important element of this project was to record the testimonies of the former employees. Their stories and knowledge gave a valuable insight into how the site used to work. The young people working on the project were trained in interview techniques, video and sound recording. From the education sessions and researching the archive, they developed questions to ask the former workers. They made animations and drama reconstructions based on the testimoniess. The dramas were set during the Victorian era as the machinery and production processes for the brickworks are rooted in that time period. The costumes were based on the archive photographs of how the workers dressed then. The finished film ‘Beyond the Brickworks’ was screened in a red carpet event at which all the participants receive a copy of the film on DVD. The young people on the project achieved the Bronze Arts Award qualification.