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Shipwreck Sailors School Pack

 

Shipwreck Sailor Stories

Nicky Bailey, our partner from the South Devon AONB, has been working with Sara Hurley to create a film based around the Blizzard of 1891 and the wreck of the Marana, which took place near Start Point. See a fuller report in Some Wreck Stories. The idea of this film was to circulate it amongst the local schools and ask the children to write the ending.

Most of the story was filmed in the Chivelstone churchyard, next to some gravestones of sailors who perished in the storm of 1891 from the wreck of the Marana. Sara’s story telling was based on a character of a woman living in the village just after the storms. Sara stopped filming just before the end.

This film, along with a digital pack of resources to be used as inspiration, was sent to the schools (Stokenham, Charleton, Salcombe and Malborough).

This is the video of the first part of the story:

The children were then invited to write their endings to the story.  Almost 120 stories written by the children in the various schools were sent to Nicky, Sara, Vicky, Kate and Mark to judge (no easy task).

Below is the list of the winners and runners up from the various schools:

Malborough: Overall winner – Ayla

Shipwreck Stories overall winner

Charleton: Winner – Zak, Runner up – Fleur and Laila

Salcombe: Winner Zebedee, Runners up – Aniela, Jasmin, Poppy, Henry

Stokenham Y3 4: Winner – Chloe B, Runners up – Rosie Cowling, Delyth

Stokenham Y5 6: Winner – Toby year 5, Runners up – Freya , Martha year 5 and Tom and Grace Year 6

Here is the video of the end of the film:

We are hoping to display some of the stories at the Open Day on Saturday 25 September at St Sylvester’s Church.

They will also be produced for the South Devon AONB: South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty unit secured support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund towards its Celebrating South Devon @60  programme. The protected landscape designation was confirmed in August 1960.

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the campaign is wide ranging and plans to raise the profile of South Devon AONB as one of Britain’s finest protected landscapes, part of the AONB Network via  a programme which will be delivered from August 2020 – October 2021.

Key elements will look at life in the past, present and into the future:

  • Living here in the past – a series of mini-projects looking at specific events which have had an impact on our landscape, including the Shipwrecked Sailors of Start Point project, in partnership with Chivelstone Church PCC community and restoration project
  • Living and working here now  – a programme of visits, walks and talks, led by local people, about farming, fishing, boats and waterways, holidays and food in the AONB.
  • Living here in the future – A filmed, targeted, participative consultation with a range of groups, exploring what they think the AONB will look like in the future.

Shipwreck Sailors School Pack

The project was based around shipwrecks during the Great Blizzard of 1891, and some of the sailors are buried in the churchyard of St Sylvester’s Church, Chivelstone. A resource pack was sent out to all the schools with images, maps, tips for writing stories, references and articles from the time and a film, with Mrs Perry, the Coastguard’s wife telling the beginning of the story. The children were then challenged to write the end of the story and submit them for judging with volunteers with the church group. 124 children wrote and sent in stories; the winner’s entries were made into another film telling the end of the story.

Links to the documents from the Schools Pack can be found at the top of this page.