:00:00. > :00:00.partnership with Imperial War Museums, more than a thousand
:00:00. > :00:00.stories from your experiences will be told over the next two years.
:00:00. > :00:09.Robert Hall has been finding out more. 3 million people have visited
:00:10. > :00:15.the Imperial War Museums here at offered keys since it opened in 2002
:00:16. > :00:19.`` at Salford Quays. This year, thousands more of all
:00:20. > :00:23.ages welcome here to learn about the First World War, the conflict which
:00:24. > :00:28.claimed 16 million lives and which turned virtually every UK community.
:00:29. > :00:31.The BBC has joined with Imperial War Museums at Salford and in London to
:00:32. > :00:36.unearth more than a thousand new stories which link the places we
:00:37. > :00:39.live in today to the events of a century ago. We are going to show
:00:40. > :00:47.you just a few of them. Here is a taste of what is coming up.
:00:48. > :00:52.In response to the suggestion from the Dorset education committee, many
:00:53. > :00:54.of the older children have volunteered to collect acorns and
:00:55. > :01:02.horse chestnuts for the Royal Navy will cordite fact tree at Holton
:01:03. > :01:06.Heath. `` the Royal Navy cordite factory Holton Heath.
:01:07. > :01:13.These women for a `` were a long way from the archetypal genteel
:01:14. > :01:16.Edwardian league this `` ladies. 100 years ago, Lizzie was doing her bit
:01:17. > :01:24.for the war as much as any Sheffield person. This is where the miniature
:01:25. > :01:29.rifle range was, and this was where Carl Odey was brought on the morning
:01:30. > :01:37.of his execution `` Carl Lody was executed by firing squad.
:01:38. > :01:49.On the 22nd of August 1914, this gun fired the first artillery rounds of
:01:50. > :01:53.the war near Mons, in Belgium. Communities back home would find
:01:54. > :01:58.themselves on the front line all too soon, including the peaceful seaside
:01:59. > :02:03.town of Scarborough. On one winter today, German warships launched an
:02:04. > :02:08.unprovoked and shocking attack. Michelle Lyons of Look North the
:02:09. > :02:11.story. On the day of the bombardment, my mother came here for
:02:12. > :02:19.holy Communion at eight in the morning. And during the Communion
:02:20. > :02:26.service, the bombardment started and the church was one of the first to
:02:27. > :02:29.be hit. The intense shelling left a large roof in the whole of St
:02:30. > :02:34.Martin's on the hill in Scarborough, and as hundreds of visitors and
:02:35. > :02:40.residents fled the seaside town, one woman decided to stay, as she had an
:02:41. > :02:46.important engagement to keep. My parents were to be married in the
:02:47. > :02:49.church, later on. And after the bombardment, she went around and
:02:50. > :02:55.pick up a piece of shrapnel, which we still have, and then had a
:02:56. > :03:00.discussion with the vicar, and they decided that the wedding would go
:03:01. > :03:04.ahead full of this attitude that life must go on prevailed in
:03:05. > :03:07.Scarborough, and is tourism industry was bonded to the aftermath of the
:03:08. > :03:12.bombardment. Now people were not coming to the seaside town of fresh
:03:13. > :03:17.air and fun, they were coming to survey the damage. It is difficult
:03:18. > :03:20.to imagine postcards of blown out ill thing is being produced. We had
:03:21. > :03:27.one of the major coastguard producers in Scarborough. There were
:03:28. > :03:31.also ceramic souvenirs. We have a lovely one in our collection which
:03:32. > :03:36.is the lighthouse with a whole blown through it. I have not seen many
:03:37. > :03:43.examples of that. And there were pieces of shell that were not just
:03:44. > :03:48.circulated, but sold as well. And they were mounted on blocks of wood
:03:49. > :03:50.and pieces of metal. And there is one legacy of the bombardment in
:03:51. > :03:56.Scarborough which is still attracting attention, Number 2
:03:57. > :04:00.Wykeham Street. It was badly hit. A mother and three of her children
:04:01. > :04:04.died as a result. This house may have a macabre history, but people
:04:05. > :04:10.are still interested in its past. I have had quite a few people on a
:04:11. > :04:17.regular basis. Every year, somebody knocks and enquires, did I know
:04:18. > :04:22.anything about the house? A lot of them bring books and pictures with
:04:23. > :04:27.them and want to show me what has gone on. It took years for the town
:04:28. > :04:31.to recover from the bombardment. Compensation for the damage was slow
:04:32. > :04:35.in coming, so residents had to rally round and do the best they could
:04:36. > :04:39.with the money they had. But slowly and surely, Scarborough made a
:04:40. > :04:42.comeback as the tourist destination we know and love today, made famous
:04:43. > :04:50.by its beautiful views and not its ugly past.
:04:51. > :04:54.On the home front, all sorts of people were lending a hand,
:04:55. > :04:59.including workers at a cordite factory in Dorset. Cordite was an
:05:00. > :05:01.explosive propellant used in all sorts of weapons, and because the
:05:02. > :05:06.Germans were attacking supply convoys, the British army was
:05:07. > :05:08.running short. The answer lay literally on the ground, and the
:05:09. > :05:14.government enlisted children to help out. Former war correspondent Kate
:05:15. > :05:22.Adie set out to investigate for BBC South.
:05:23. > :05:28.The Royal Navy was the most powerful in the world in 1914. This gun fired
:05:29. > :05:32.the first British shot in World War I. It is now in the Royal Navy's
:05:33. > :05:36.national museum in Portsmouth full of the need for munitions for this
:05:37. > :05:44.gun and millions of others led to enormous demand on the whole of the
:05:45. > :05:48.country. The remote area of Holton Heath in Dorset became home to the
:05:49. > :05:52.Royal Navy's cordite factory. Commissioned by Winston Churchill,
:05:53. > :05:55.and first Lord of the Admiralty, Holton Heath was the ideal
:05:56. > :06:02.location. Isolated, a good water supply, a railway and the local
:06:03. > :06:05.workforce. Today, the site is an industrial park, but its original
:06:06. > :06:11.purpose is still apparent. John England worked here in the 1950s.
:06:12. > :06:16.This is the main laboratory. And behind this little buildings was the
:06:17. > :06:20.storage of chemicals which were to be kept out of the laboratory.
:06:21. > :06:29.Cordite is a mixture of gun cotton and nitroglycerin , drawn out in
:06:30. > :06:33.strands like spaghetti. A lot of ladies came in on the trains full of
:06:34. > :06:38.they got called the glamour puffers. The girls who came here
:06:39. > :06:44.were given books about what to do and the conditions of work. And one
:06:45. > :06:50.of those survives? What strikes you about it? No smoking. And you have
:06:51. > :06:57.got to watch out for dangerous chemicals. This could be potentially
:06:58. > :07:01.extremely dangerous. It could. They will air out cordite onto benches,
:07:02. > :07:05.and then they would have to cut it to length, probably still hot. Does
:07:06. > :07:09.it have any effect on them? It does, unfortunately, because
:07:10. > :07:14.nitroglycerin will absorb into the skin and that will give you
:07:15. > :07:17.headaches, I'm afraid. In 1917, a problem threatened to stop
:07:18. > :07:22.production. A crucial ingredient, acetone, was being imported from
:07:23. > :07:27.America, but naval blockades in the Atlantic were stopping the supply
:07:28. > :07:33.ships. A Jewish chemist called M3 macro came forward with the answer,
:07:34. > :07:42.a new `` a new process was invented by a chemist called Chaim Weizmann.
:07:43. > :07:47.Maize was what he was working with. He did try potatoes, but people
:07:48. > :07:55.wanted to eat those. What was available in the autumn of 1917 was
:07:56. > :08:00.acorns, and even conkers were used. So, who were the experts at electing
:08:01. > :08:04.conkers? Schoolchildren, of course. Here at Lockyer's School in Corfe
:08:05. > :08:09.Mullen, the children are learning about their school's connection to
:08:10. > :08:15.World War I. The proof of that connection is here in the school
:08:16. > :08:19.logbook. Dated the 19th of October, 1917. In response to the suggestion
:08:20. > :08:22.from the Dorset education committee, any of the older children have
:08:23. > :08:26.volunteered to collect acorns and horse chestnuts for the Royal Navy
:08:27. > :08:31.will cordite factory at Holton Heath. What happened to Chaim
:08:32. > :08:38.Weizmann later in life? He became the first president of the state of
:08:39. > :08:41.Israel. When the cordite came out of the factory, it would go through the
:08:42. > :08:47.harbour and out into the channel. The cordite went by barge to the
:08:48. > :08:52.naval depot in Gosport. This is now the museum of naval firepower, where
:08:53. > :08:57.you can see what cordite actually looks like. The children have come
:08:58. > :09:01.here today, and it is going to take a big leap of the imagination to
:09:02. > :09:07.connect all of this with the conkers collected by their school in 1917.
:09:08. > :09:13.Much can be learnt inside the museum, but to see one of the
:09:14. > :09:17.exhibits, they have to go outside. Big guns were fired relentlessly
:09:18. > :09:22.throughout World War I, on land and at sea. People living in the south
:09:23. > :09:26.of England sometimes heard the thunderous Arar Drover in northern
:09:27. > :09:31.France. Luckily, such sounds are rare today `` they heard the
:09:32. > :09:34.thunderous barrage. Today might be the first time some of these
:09:35. > :09:37.children have heard a gun fire in front of them. Black powder
:09:38. > :09:53.substitutes for cordite here, for safety reasons. Oh, my days! This is
:09:54. > :09:58.just one tiny element of a huge world war, but it shows the way that
:09:59. > :10:02.war reached into everyone's lives, whether they liked it or not. The
:10:03. > :10:05.scientists, the sailors, the women who made munitions, all made their
:10:06. > :10:13.contribution, even children, collecting vital conkers for
:10:14. > :10:17.cordite. A world at War led to great social
:10:18. > :10:22.change, with men away at the front, women stepped into many of the roles
:10:23. > :10:27.they had left hind. The women of life in Northumberland were among
:10:28. > :10:30.thousands who met that challenge, but their reputation as equal
:10:31. > :10:36.opportunity pioneers was not just one in the workplace. This story
:10:37. > :10:40.comes from Gerry Jackson of Look North in Newcastle.
:10:41. > :10:48.She was a minor's daughter. Tall, strong and only 17. And a
:10:49. > :10:51.goal`scoring phenomenon. Organised women's football had begun in the
:10:52. > :10:56.1890 smack, but it was not until the Great War that their game became
:10:57. > :11:01.generally accept it. Times were changing fast. Women were taking on
:11:02. > :11:05.jobs vacated by men, and they were the vast majority of munition
:11:06. > :11:11.workers applying the front lines overseas. It was often hard physical
:11:12. > :11:15.work. Those with energy to spare began organising themselves into
:11:16. > :11:19.football teams. The best of them were Blyth Spartans Ladies, and
:11:20. > :11:25.their star centre forward, Bella Reay. Nearly 100 years on, her
:11:26. > :11:33.granddaughter is walking in her footsteps. There were crowds of
:11:34. > :11:37.sometimes 22,000, which was a lot of people in those days. Some of them
:11:38. > :11:42.don't get that now. In one season, Bella's team were unbeaten in all
:11:43. > :11:52.their 30 games, and she scored 133 times. So on average, it was at
:11:53. > :11:57.least three goals a game. I don't think there was ever a game when she
:11:58. > :12:02.did not score. What would the atmosphere have been like at this
:12:03. > :12:04.ground in those days? When you consider that the people were
:12:05. > :12:10.working very long hours, seven days a week, often, with very little time
:12:11. > :12:13.off, there was nothing else in the way of release for them from the
:12:14. > :12:21.hard work. And suddenly to be able to come to what is after all a
:12:22. > :12:26.beautiful ground, and see a prop and match between two teams of women, it
:12:27. > :12:32.was unique. The matches drew ever bigger crowds, all raising funds for
:12:33. > :12:35.the war effort. For some people, there was the novelty of seeing
:12:36. > :12:40.women in shorts. For others, that was a minor scandal. But these women
:12:41. > :12:46.were a long way from your archetypal, genteel, delicate
:12:47. > :12:49.Edwardian ladies. Some of the language that could have been heard
:12:50. > :12:55.here was a bit industrial. But it was not just the language. They
:12:56. > :12:58.could be quite violent. Kicking and hacking one's opponent was common
:12:59. > :13:02.among the girls. Della herself commented on the fact that she
:13:03. > :13:07.sometimes came up against some big, hard ladies and had to give as good
:13:08. > :13:12.as she got. This helps explain why she was so successful! In 1918,
:13:13. > :13:18.blithe beat allcomers to win the north`east munition cup.
:13:19. > :13:22.Bella, naturally, scored a hat`trick in the final. When she was
:13:23. > :13:29.interviewed, she said, I was good, but I know I was good. It is nice to
:13:30. > :13:38.think she was that good. We have a gold medal to prove it. It is nice
:13:39. > :13:42.to think that you have a bit of history behind your family. So,
:13:43. > :13:47.Bella and her colleagues were pioneers and their exploits could
:13:48. > :13:53.have been a real springboard for women's football. Unfortunately, in
:13:54. > :14:01.1921, the FA officially banned it. That ban was not lifted until the
:14:02. > :14:07.1970s. Bella herself worked well into her 60s for a local farm. I
:14:08. > :14:11.sometimes wonder if, when she was working the fields, she cast her I
:14:12. > :14:14.in the direction of Croft Park and heard faint echoes from the past of
:14:15. > :14:26.people shouting her name, and imagined herself 17 years old again.
:14:27. > :14:30.The First World War had a voracious appetite for new recruits, and if
:14:31. > :14:34.you were a man of God, joining up you were a man of God, joining up
:14:35. > :14:44.was a One such man was in school chaplain. The Reverend Richard Coles
:14:45. > :14:59.was also chaplain at Wellingborough and we asked to reflect his
:15:00. > :15:04.predecessor's choices. Lord, how many are my adverse arrears? Many
:15:05. > :15:09.are they who say to my soul, there is no help for you enjoy God. Before
:15:10. > :15:18.the war to end all wars, Bernard was the chaplain at the school. He was
:15:19. > :15:22.born not far from here and educated at Jesus College What turned this
:15:23. > :15:26.man of God into a man of war? In Cambridge. How could he live with
:15:27. > :15:33.what he did on the killing fields of France? I am about to walk a while
:15:34. > :15:39.in his shoes to find out about Bernard.
:15:40. > :15:52.I am in northern France on the banks of St Quentin Canal. We are trying
:15:53. > :15:56.to get a feel for what he did here. Cloaked in fog. He has two get his
:15:57. > :16:08.men across this canal anyway he can, dry them back and into the open
:16:09. > :16:11.country they owned. `` beyond. This is where he won his Victoria Cross.
:16:12. > :16:18.He fought mortal, hand`to`hand combat. He could see the whites of
:16:19. > :16:27.their eyes as he took the lives. The Germans are not giving ground, so it
:16:28. > :16:32.is intense, it is personal. He can actually see it there. He becomes a
:16:33. > :16:35.killing machine. Revolver in one hand, riding crop in the other,
:16:36. > :16:45.driving the whole line forward, and for that he gets The Victoria Cross.
:16:46. > :16:50.But four days later, just weeks before the end of the war, he was
:16:51. > :16:54.killed here by a German sniper. It was just before sunrise that he
:16:55. > :16:57.fell, shot through the heart. He would never return to see his wife
:16:58. > :17:05.Doris and he would never see his son, whom she was carrying. Just
:17:06. > :17:11.three miles away from where he fell is this British cemetery, where I
:17:12. > :17:18.found his grave. According to his obituary, he never forgot that he
:17:19. > :17:27.was a priest of God. A great priest, who in his days pleased God. In some
:17:28. > :17:31.ways, I feel quite close to him. We are both priests, we both come from
:17:32. > :17:34.the same place, but in other ways, I feel very distant from him. I can't
:17:35. > :17:41.imagine what it was like to lead his men so heroically in battle. But I
:17:42. > :17:46.feel close to him in the cemetery as he lies alongside his Allman
:17:47. > :17:53.comrades. `` his fallen comrades. It reminds us that we all come to the
:17:54. > :17:58.same place. The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God.
:17:59. > :18:07.War brought change to people, but it also brought change to buildings. In
:18:08. > :18:13.the case of one national landmark, war service was just a continuation
:18:14. > :18:16.of its purpose. The Tower of London had been a place of imprisonment and
:18:17. > :18:30.execute tuition, but it could now do its duty once more. `` execution. My
:18:31. > :18:40.dear ones. I have trusted God and he has decided. Tomorrow, I will be
:18:41. > :18:51.shot here in the tower. Those were the last words of the no tourist
:18:52. > :18:58.German spy call Hans Lodi. He was executed on the 6th of November
:18:59. > :19:04.1914. His crime, spying. Lody was the first man to be executed here
:19:05. > :19:10.since 1743. The public was aghast that an enemy of the state had moved
:19:11. > :19:13.among them. The country was already in the grips of war with Germany and
:19:14. > :19:20.Lody had been sent to gather intelligence on the country's
:19:21. > :19:31.defences. The Secret Intelligence Service were already on Lody's tale.
:19:32. > :19:41.`` tail. He was captured and faced trial, he was found guilty and
:19:42. > :19:47.sentenced to death by firing squad. It is here where the executions took
:19:48. > :19:54.place. Not in this car park, but this was where Lody was brought on
:19:55. > :19:58.the morning with execution. `` the morning of his execution. A total of
:19:59. > :20:08.11 executions, nine of which within this rifle range and two were in the
:20:09. > :20:15.malt. `` moat. It is more than the executions of Henry VIII within the
:20:16. > :20:20.walls of the tower. A grisly part of history. Records are kept at The
:20:21. > :20:28.National Archives. This is the file by Carl Frederick Muller. We know he
:20:29. > :20:40.was found guilty of sending letters in invisible ink. This is the letter
:20:41. > :20:46.with the secret writing. What did he use for invisible ink? They said it
:20:47. > :20:49.was made from a lemon. And here is the lemon, this was part of the
:20:50. > :20:53.evidence given in court, which led to his execution. 11 German spies
:20:54. > :20:59.were caught and executed at the Tower. They had come to spy for
:21:00. > :21:09.Germany, but lost their lives by doing so. The learning centre here
:21:10. > :21:11.is all about giving children hands`on experience of history and
:21:12. > :21:14.the commemorations are about convincing today's generation that
:21:15. > :21:22.they can connect with events from the history books. One item bound to
:21:23. > :21:32.catch their attention is the part played by animals. The story of
:21:33. > :21:42.Warhorse captivated viewers, but is there are other stories as well.
:21:43. > :21:45.Deployed to carry soldiers in the cavalry regiments and to pull
:21:46. > :21:53.artillery, ambulances and supply wagons. Most horses were sent to the
:21:54. > :22:02.Western front to help pool vehicles. This elephant filled in for horses.
:22:03. > :22:10.She was loaned to scrap metal businesses to pool carts around the
:22:11. > :22:13.city. The government requisitioned all the animals and all the animals
:22:14. > :22:18.from circuses were put to the war effort. Most of the horses went to
:22:19. > :22:24.the front to be requisitioned for the circus animals. The Indian
:22:25. > :22:30.elephant became a familiar sight on the cobbled Sheffield streets. This
:22:31. > :22:37.is the only footage of her pounding around, shackled to a weighty load
:22:38. > :22:43.with a bunch of onlookers behind. Jill bring the war, she was based
:22:44. > :22:49.here at Castle house. It was opened by a vet in 1900 as a kind of
:22:50. > :22:53.multistorey stables. Inside, there are low brand is to allow horses to
:22:54. > :22:59.get to the top level. It was the perfect home for a heavy,
:23:00. > :23:05.hard`working beast of burden. Stories about the elephant have
:23:06. > :23:08.passed down generations. Charlie Cook's dad frequently told tales of
:23:09. > :23:12.this elephant. My dad came from a large family with eight brothers.
:23:13. > :23:18.They used to come down to the main road and follow the elephant. They
:23:19. > :23:21.used to throw things at it and chase after it, so the men who were the
:23:22. > :23:25.drivers would chase them off, usually with a stick and if they
:23:26. > :23:38.caught them, give them a thick year as well. `` a thick ear. My
:23:39. > :23:41.favourite story is that a tractor engine got stuck and the elephant
:23:42. > :23:49.pushed it out of the way. That is a massive piece of kit for an elephant
:23:50. > :23:55.to push. 100 and go, she was doing her bit for the war as much as any
:23:56. > :24:00.Sheffield person. The image of the animal with pedestrians became
:24:01. > :24:10.routine. This elephant earned her place in Sheffield folklore. For the
:24:11. > :24:14.past half hour, we have given you a flavour of the stories which our
:24:15. > :24:18.teams around the UK have been tracking down. Some of those stories
:24:19. > :24:25.may be on your own doorstep. Some of them, you will be hearing about as
:24:26. > :24:31.this centenary un`folds. Perhaps via TV, radio or via our website. For
:24:32. > :25:03.now, from the Imperial War Museum at Salford, goodbye.
:25:04. > :25:04.It is a beautiful day across so many parts of the country today,