Former workers at one of Leicester’s secret wartime munitions factories are being sought to join in a special commemorative event on Remembrance Day.
The Venue@DMU is De Montfort University’s new events centre but the building has a long and surprisingly varied history in Leicester.
It was opened in 1909 as the Boulevard Rink Company Limited to accommodate the newest sporting craze to hit Edwardian Britain – roller skating, or ‘rinking’ as it was known.
However it played a key role in the First and Second World Wars. During the First World War, the building served as the perfect space for drill sessions and training of new recruits, who were stationed just down the road in the barracks within the Newarke, where DMU’s Hugh Aston Building stands today.
The Boulevard played an even larger part in the Second World War, when it was requisitioned and converted into the Number 21 Factory due to its strategic location to the Great Central Railway.
The history of the building was compiled by DMU’s Dr Su Barton, a city councillor, who found that between 1942 and December 1944 a total of 1,257 pairs of wings for Spitfire aircraft were produced for the war effort; its wide, arched roof providing the perfect manufacturing location for the iconic aircraft.
On Wednesday 11 November - Remembrance Day - DMU is hosting a special event in The Venue to commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The university would like to invite people who used to work in the Spitfire factory and their relatives to attend the event which includes lectures on the wartime experiences of local soldiers and a stunning piece of music and narration based upon one of the war’s most mysterious events.
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Journalism lecturers John Dilley and David Penman have been researching how local newspapers reported the experiences of soldiers. Their stories, rivalling the war poets for powerful imagery, will be told in the first lecture
David said: “Millions of words have been written about the First World War but it’s fascinating seeing how the first-time chroniclers of history – the journalists – covered the conflict.”
John, who is Director of the Leicester Centre for Journalism, said: “Local paper editors got round the hogwash by using the remarkably honest – and graphic – accounts of life at the front written by soldiers in letters home to their market town families.
“There was certainly no shortage of material – around 12 million letters were sent home every week – and the readers truly believed the accounts because they either knew the soldier or knew of his family.”
Dr David Clarke will speak on the myths and legends popularised during wartime, and the event will end with a special performance by Professor John Young of An Angel at Mons, which had its UK premiere at DMU in November last year.
It is inspired by the legend of a celestial intercession 100 years ago, credited with saving the lives of British soldiers trapped by a superior German force at the Battle of Mons, in Belgium, the first major military action of the war.
Men of the British Expeditionary Force spoke of an apparition in the sky which appeared to fend off an ever-growing enemy, allowing the soldiers to make a safe retreat to Paris after facing almost certain death.
The music, created using the latest digital audio technology, incorporates a recording of a soldier involved in the fight giving his first hand account of the battle and ghostly intervention on that night in August 1914.
Following the war, the building was taken over by Leicester Colleges of Art & Technology, predecessor to DMU, to provide sports facilities to students and the community. It then became the John Sandford Sports Centre.
- Did you, or one of your relatives, work in the old Spitfire factory? DMU would love to invite you to the event, or to have a tour of the building as it is now. Please email debbie.n.tinsley@dmu.ac.uk
Posted on Monday 2 November 2015