Place explored through a personal selection of the lives, novels, art, architecture, poetry and history inspired by England's industrial era.
Giving voice to the ‘not known.’
21st March 1917: ’Terrified canaries ran down Manston Lane.’
The canaries were young women and their skin was yellow from war work. They were fleeing a second factory explosion in 3 months. Explosions that killed 35 and counting. The carnage was so bad the final figure will never be known. If a canary survived the explosions, TNT poisoning lay in wait back at Barnbow National Shell Filling Factory Number 1.
Claire Crossdale’s drama-documentary inhabits lives, banished to the footnotes of history, through poems, songs, letters and historical documents: part of Claire’s mission to research and reveal overlooked stories through working class voices from Wakefield’s five towns; Normanton, Featherstone, Pontefract, Kellingley and Castleford.
‘All Quiet on the West Riding Fronts’ begins approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the recording.
Beryl Bainbridge Bradford Castleford CLR James Comedian Ian Smith Cultural Geography Ellen Wilkinson England is Rich Featherstone George Orwell Gerard Benson Get Carter Goole Halifax Harry Hopkins Huddersfield Iain Nairn Isle of Axholme Jack Common JB Priestley Kellingley Kevin Boniface Killingworth Manuscript in a Red Box Minty Alley Morning in the City Nelson Newbiggin-By-The-Sea Newcastle Normanton Pontefract Pre-Raphaelite Psychogeography Robert Westall Rotherham Sean O'Brien Selby Social History Southwold Stuart Maconie Ted Lewis The Division Bell Mystery The Rocket Tom Puddings Vermuyden