The commemoration of the Great War has produced many resources drawing upon the experiences of local people within the archive collections and the community. These are of interest to many people from family and local historians to teachers and schools.

Century of Stories WWI Project

A Century of Stories is a Heritage Lottery funded project which has explored the social history surrounding the individual and shared legacy of the First World War of the people of Leicester and Leicestershire. The project started in 2014 and  finished in December 2018 but its legacy will survive in the resources it has produced. To find out more about the project please click here

Research Guide

Thousands of connections to the Great War have been discovered and the individual stories from local people are diverse and form the core of the project. Please visit Historypin to read these stories.

At the beginning of every journey, participants were given a resource pack to help them with their research and discovering their connections. The resource pack contains step by step advice on how to begin your research with useful contacts and web pages. This can be viewed and downloaded here

Education Packs

In 2016 at the National Remember WW1 Awards, the project won two awards; one was for ‘Bringing WW1 Alive in Schools’ using the Century of Stories Education Packs. These packs have been specifically designed for Key Stage 2 and 3 but are also more than suitable for other groups beginning their voyage of research and discovery into WW1.

We are delighted to be able to provide 17 topics to choose from, ranging from ‘life in the trenches’ to ‘conscientious objectors’. Each section provides key questions for discussion, background information for tutors, with exciting images from Leicestershire and a selection of activities to enhance learning. This resource pack can be viewed and downloaded here: Century Of Stories Learning Pack

Academic Research

An important part of the project was to commission research topics specific to the local area that have not been researched before. This research was shared initially at an event at De Montfort University on 9^th November 2018 and the papers are accessible on the Century of Stories Project page.

Leicestershire Regiment World War I Medical Records (MH 106)

This vast database was kindly presented to the Record Office by the Century of Stories project. For further details please click here.