Year 9 students from Berwick Academy took part in a project to uncover evidence relating to cholera epidemics in Berwick-upon-Tweed in the 1800s. They used primary sources of evidence including archives, built historic environment and gravestones in the parish graveyard. They also gained an understanding of the science behind the spread of the disease by attending a workshop in the labs at Newcastle University. To share their research findings the students produced a comic and a pop-up banner in collaboration with a comic creator and a local graphic designer. Their work was displayed in Berwick as part of Heritage Open Days (September 2018) and Berwick Literary Festival (October 2018).
Bronze
15
13-14 year olds
June-July 2018
How the project achieved the sections of the award
Plan
To start off the project, the group of 15, Year 9 students from Berwick Academy took part in an introductory workshop at Newcastle University. They spend half the day in the university library archives, looking at documentary evidence for the arrival of cholera in Britain in the 1830s and the second half of the day in the science labs finding out about the cholera bacteria and how it spread.
On the first of our three days back in Berwick the group were asked to create their own research questions and think about how and where they could find the answers.
The questions they came up with were as follows:
1. When was the first case of cholera in Berwick?
2. How many people were killed by cholera in Berwick during this first outbreak?
3. Were there parts of the town particularly badly affected by the disease? If so, where and why?
4. What did they do with the bodies?
5. How did they treat cholera in the 1800s?
6. When was the final case of cholera in Berwick?
At the end of this first day in Berwick there was a discussion around the best way to share any findings with their peers.
Investigate
To answer their research questions students studied a variety of sources from Berwick archives and from websites e.g. National Archives, National Library of Scotland. Source material included:
• Death announcements in the local paper
• Burial records
• Census records
• Historic maps
Health reports and other public health publications/poster from the time.
Engage
Having explored the archives for background information, the students plotted deaths from the 1832, 1849 and 1854 outbreaks of cholera on a map from the period – looking for patterns and hotspots.
They also surveyed the local graveyard to find graves of cholera victims listed in burial records. Conditions surveys were carried out on the two ‘cholera graves’ found.
Students studied detailed plans of streets and buildings from the 1850 Heath Report for Berwick before going out to find the streets and buildings described, recording any changes/original features etc.
Inspire
The group then worked with comic creator Lydia Wysocki from Applied Comics and Newcastle University to turn their research into entertaining and informative narratives for a comic aimed at their own age group.
They also worked with a local graphic designer who turned their original drawings into print-ready documents… with their help.
The finished comic was distributed (free) at events in the town such as Heritage Open Days. The group also talked about the project at Berwick Literary Festival in October.
Check out the comic here: Cholera-Commotions-Comic
Reflect
Initial research questions were revisited at the end of the week and there was a general consensus within the group that all questions had been answered.
Pre and post project evaluation forms were completed by all participants.
Lessons Learned
The project took place during the last week of the summer term, during the school’s ‘enterprise week’. This meant that all the work had to be completed by the end of that week. It would have been better if the students had been able to spend more time with the graphic designer and printer at the very end of the project.
Highlight(s)
The group coming together as the week progressed and really engaging with the stories of the people involved through their exploration of the archives, buildings and gravestones. The finished comic reflected the amount and quality of research undertaken – we were amazed by the skills they had developed and the knowledge they had gained. Coming together again three months later to share their findings at the local Literary Festival was another highlight.
The benefit of using the Heritage Hero Awards
Heritage Hero Awards creates a very useful framework for a project. It encouraged us to let the students ‘drive’ the research and the outcomes.
Case study compiled by
Jane Miller, Museums Northumberland
With thanks to
Berwick Academy, Northumberland Archives, Learning Arc – Archive Education Group, Newcastle University, Economic & Social Research Council and Applied Comics Etc.