publication date: Sep 4, 2009
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author/source: Tim Walder
Horrible Histories: The Terrible Trenches a special exhibition about life on the western front in the
First World War, with a link up with the
Scholastic Books Horrible Histories and
TV programmes. The link up was very
evident in the style of
graphics and the audiovisual materials, and this was a
good thing, giving a feeling of a
house style, which provided a
familiar way in for our children.
The
exhibition begins with a short
cartoon film which briefly, simply and accurately
tells the story of the causation of
World War I through the narration of a
rat, who becomes a
guide through the rest of the exhibition. There is then a
series of exhibits about clothing, equipment, food, personal hygiene and
living conditions in the trenches. This moves on to the topics of
weapons, protection devices and
spying on the enemy. Towards the end there is a
series of short and arresting
contemporary film clips showing the reality and a quiz on
surviving the trenches which tests what the children have
learned: our 12 year-old knew all the
answers.
The
information is presented with
replica objects to touch, dressing up, audiovisuals and
display cases of real artefacts. The
hands-on element is very well done: it is fun to lift the
bucket lid and see the poo and
smelling the poison gases was a must, as were the
periscopes. This aspect was quite
brilliant: the hands-on related to the
topic properly, they were not broken and they were placed next to
real artefacts which related directly.
In many ways
The Terrible Trenches is excellent. Very good for boys particularly aged (perhaps)
under 14: it felt quite
primary rather than
secondary school to me. We spent about
forty minutes in there and did have real
conversations afterwards about what
great-grandad had experienced. It also left me wondering about the
Eastern Front which we never hear about. Perhaps a little
pricey, but then the rest of the
museum is (excellent) and
free. We had lunch in the
café and ate everything up, even though this too was
not cheap. The adjacent
park is good for a rest break and you could bring your
own sandwiches and it them there to
save money.
My only
hesitation was about the tone.
Horrible Histories specialise in a
jokey approach with a focus on
comic strip violence, the weird and the scatological. This gets lots of
kids into history, which is
marvellous for them and their history-loving
parents. But was the
exhibition having a laugh about what amounted the
holocaust of a generation of
European young men?
On
reflection, I feel that, although that is a
danger, this exhibition just stayed the r
ight side of the line on this.
Children will leave having a
real appreciation of the horrors of life in the trenches and having seen
real footage from the period. The
gags were mainly confined to
lice and loos, so within the bounds of
contemporary "Tommy" humour. There were
no jokes about killing or death. The
Imperial War Museum can also reasonably argue that they have a free, serious and
standing exhibition on the First World War, including the favourite and smelly
Trenches Experience.
Horrible Histories: The Terrible Trenches runs until 31 October, 2009
Adult £4.95, child £2.50, concessions £3.95
Children aged five and under go free.
