WORCESTER children are transporting the Guildhall back to the Second World War as part of a school project.
The Spitfire Project is taking place at the historic building this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (July 12-14).
150 pupils from schools including Tudor Grange Academy Worcester and Tudor Grange Primary Academy Perdiswell will be taking part.
They are joining Professor Carl Chinn and members of the RAF Falcon Parachute Display team to create an immersive experience in the cells of the Guildhall.
It takes the form of a guided tour, with young people playing the parts of pilots, officers, nurses, prisoners of war, citizens in bomb shelters and even Clark Gable, who crash-landed in Worcester during the war.
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The project director is David Allen from Midland Actors Theatre.
“We have been working with groups of young people for over a year, looking at the impact that the Spitfire had on so many people and so many communities in the Midlands,” he said.
“Not just pilots and engineers, but factory workers, ordinary citizens experiencing the Blitz, and so on. We were interested in their stories.
“And now, we have created a ‘guided tour,’ with a mock-up of an Officers Mess, a Bomber Command Ops Room, an Air Raid Shelter, and prison cells for captured German POWs.
“Young people will be taking on the roles of people from the war - each of them with a story to tell about their experiences.
“We think it’s a great way to bring the past to life.”
The first day of the event (Wednesday, July 12) is open to the public and will include a free talk by Professor Carl Chinn at 2pm.
It will be officially opened a couple of hours earlier by Worcester mayor Louis Stephen.
Three other Midlands schools are involved in the Spitfire Project - Tudor Grange Academy Redditch, Holly Lodge High School in Birmingham and Orchard Learning Centre in Wolverhampton.
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