Unsung Heroes Community Project

Unsung Heroes is a project by Cohere Arts in partnership with Suffolk Archives, Asset Education and Britten Pears Arts, supported by Heritage Lottery Fund. The aim of the project is to engage children with their local heritage by developing skills in archive research, songwriting and performance. 

PROJECT AIMS:

Project activity in a nutshell…

Ringshall song is called Heroes (Widow Waspe)

This song, written by Francis Goodhand with children at Ringshall Primary School, was inspired by a 1955 newspaper article from the Daily Herald. The article talks about the plight of East Anglian farmers being forced to pay a tithe (or tax) on their crops (in the form of 10% of the crops) despite poor harvest and financial hardship. The song celebrates a 70 year old widow, Mrs. Waspe, who stood up to authorities and refused to give any of her crops, becoming a hero of her rural community. A shorter version of this song is used as our Unsung Heroes Theme Song.

Francis Goodhand

Francis led a songwriting workshop with the then year 5 children before putting together their ideas into a song. Click the link below to hear the song.

Tom Appleton - Choral Director

Tom Came to Ringshall in September 2023 to teach the children the song and give the children lots of amazing singing instruction.

VID_20231117_142054.mp4

Four of our children performed in the final concert at Snape - what an experience.