ripple

Our latest audio is a little hidden and out of the way, it is part of Devon Remembers, a series of events celebrating the centenary of the first World War. ripple have created an audio to accompany a small exhibition that’s on view in the Guards Room [to the right of the door above] at Crownhill Fort on the outskirts of Plymouth.

On the 23rd August 1917 there was an official announcement from Lord Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, for the formation of a new regiment, eventually made up of four battalions, the 38th to the 42nd; the unofficial name – the Jewish Legion and there was a camp located on the outskirts of Plymouth, at Crownhill Fort.

Lieutenant Colonel James Patterson was asked by the war office to organise a Jewish Legion and become the Commanding Officer.  He believed that raising a Jewish legion should mean they would be catered for in a Jewish way “for the only way to make good Jewish soldiers of the men was by first of all treating them as good Jews;” [Patterson, page 39]. Through his insistence the battalions were able to take the Sabbath off to go to synagogue and provision for Kosher food was made. 

Having worked with the synagogue on their cemetery audio trail we created a different audio, a patchwork of sounds and stories that we found from the archive and various books.

One of these stories was about Morris Smith [most probably changed from Schmidt] who was stationed at Crownhill and sent to Egypt and Palestine. Wounded in action he returned to Plymouth to recover in the military hospital and once recovered decided to make the city his home and he relocated his whole family from London. Sadly Morris left Plymouth after the 1941 WW2 Plymouth blitz tragically claimed his mother and sister’s lives, they were the first victims and their double gravestone can be found at the Gifford Place Jewish Cemetery, Plymouth. Morris moved the remaining family to Exeter where the Exeter blitz forced them to move again, to North Devon.

His story and that of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and David Ben Gurion who were both stationed at Crownhill Fort in 1918 and who were instrumental in the history and establishment of a Jewish State, [Ben-Gurion, who loved Crownhill Fort so much, became the first Prime Minister of Israel] play a part in our audio.

Crownhill Fort Open Days 

Friday 21st August & Friday 28th September at 12-4pm. Friday 26th October Time TBC as this is part of the Museums at Night event.

We used these books for reference

Susser, Bernard (1993) The Jews of South-West England: the rise and decline of their medieval and modern communities. The Exeter University Press:Exeter

Fry, Helen (2915) The Jews of Plymouth Halsgrove: Somerset

Ben-Gurion, David (1968) Letters to Paula, Valentine Mitchell & Co: London 

Lawer, Diana (2007) Get Your Skates On, Three Towns Publishing: Plymouth

Patterson, John Henry (1922?) With the Judæans in the Palestine Campaign, Hutchinson & Co : London http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41848/41848-h/41848-h.htm

On the weekend of the 9/10th of September ripple will be presenting their audio trail in the Ponsharden Burial Ground in Falmouth between 2-4pm. Prior to the cemetery opening we will be giving a talk about the wider project, called Hidden Stories: Hidden Places, at the Falmouth Poly at 12.30pm. There will be stories that are firmly rooted in Falmouth but ones that take us away from the county and ones that have strong connections across the eighteenth and nineteenth century Jewish communities across the south west of England. It is hoped that if you attend this free event you will get a rounder context to the audios and the background to the project as a whole; once the presentation is finished there will be time to make your way to the Ponsharden Burial ground for the open day.  Hidden Stories: Hidden Places also includes audios in Exeter that will be accessed within the Exeter Synagogue  also open on the 10th. Here you will be able to listen to stories that are pertinent to people buried in the Jewish cemetery at Bull Meadow plus there will be some short films to watch.

Hidden Stories: Hidden Places is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Exeter City Council’s small grants scheme and FEAST, a programme to make great art happen across Cornwall.

FEAST harnesses the talents and energy of Cornwall’s artists and communities, generating new opportunities for everyone to enjoy the arts. The focus is on bringing people together to share experiences as audiences or participants, and on animating local celebrations and cultural life.

For the link to book your place at the Falmouth Poly see below

http://thepoly.org/whats-on/event/491/hidden-stories-hidden-places

http://www.dissenters.moonfruit.com/open-day/4587242113

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/exeter-synagogue2

ripple theatre co are offering a unique opportunity for a film student or emerging film maker who would perhaps be interested in collaborating with us to create a short documentary film.
We are currently in the Research and Development stage of our current project Hidden Stories: Hidden Places. In 2017 we were commissioned to create an audio trail of the Old Jewish Cemetery on Plymouth Hoe for The Plymouth Synagogue. This was included in the 2016 Plymouth History Festival and repeated in September for the Plymouth Art Weekender. Due to the success of this project we secured funding from Feast, Exeter City Council and Arts Council England to expand our project to include Exeter Jewish Cemetery and The Falmouth Jewish Cemetery and Dissenters Burying Ground.
We are now in the process of writing and recording the audios, editing for which will be completed in August. We have some strict deadlines we must adhere to for which you must be confident you can too. We are holding two public events at the Exeter & Falmouth sites in September of this year which we require to be filmed. Also, for you to conduct any relevant filming/interviews in connection to our work. Our intention is to create a small documentary style film that we can use in our report to the Arts Council and which can also be used to support an application for the next stage of our project. We anticipate film will play a more integral role in the next stage and there is potential for the successful applicant to be a collaborator with us.
If interested you can contact us in the first instance via our Contact page. Please give details about yourself, including contact details and links to any relevant examples of your work.
There is a fee available for this initial opportunity.