Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society
Our film about medical services on the Western Front and the contribution of Spennymoor people to them is now free to view on YouTube under a creative commons licence.
View the Behind the Lines film on YouTube.
A limited number of DVDs of the film are available from TSLHS. In the first instance copies will be distributed free to schools and local history societies in the area. If you are a member of such an organisation please email us at TSLHS to request a copy. Depending on take up of this offer, the remaining copies will be made available for sale in 2019.
The Society is also able to organise a film showing to groups and organisations requesting it (subject to the suitability of the venue) - please email us at TSLHS if you wish to arrange this. The film's premiere was in Spennymoor Town Hall (see below) and, subject to sufficient demand, other showings could be organised there.
FILM PREMIERE AT SPENNYMOOR TOWN HALL ON 21 OCTOBER 2018.
In May 1920 Sister Kate Maxey, a shopkeeper’s daughter from Spennymoor, was honoured as one of the first recipients of the International Red Cross’s Florence Nightingale Medal. She had served in casualty clearing stations and hospitals behind the Western Front for three and a half years before being wounded in a German air raid. To celebrate Sister Maxey’s service, and that of others from the town involved in medical services on the Western Front, Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society, with the support of a £10,000 National Lottery Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, commissioned Lonely Tower Film and Media to make this film. The Society is deeply indebted to Kate Maxey’s family, who have made photographs and other records available, and to the many other people involved in the project for their support, including Spennymoor Town Council.
We see the film both as a commemoration of the 100 years since the end of the Great War and an insight into how communities were involved in medical services at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was most appropriate that the film first showing was at Spennymoor Town Hall, which, then a new building, saw many of the local events associated with the war, particularly fund-raising events for those serving and celebrations of homecomings and medals won.
Film was in its infancy when the events celebrated in Behind the Lines took place; but our forebears had plenty of opportunities in the town to see films and, we hope, would have appreciated the expertise and perseverance which Lonely Tower Film & Media have brought to this project. Mark and Marie said that the Kate Maxey story we put on the Durham at War website was “film worthy” and we hope that you, our viewers, agree.
Click on the links for details of the making of Behind the Lines
Behind the Lines Film Commissioned Sep 2017 (214k pdf)