Tees Valley Community Media

The Skinningrovers

An interesting session was had by all at The BBC today. The Skinningrovers were presenting their ideas for the Ochre Trail and the Virtual Tour that would accompany it. Several Skinningrove youngsters from Whitecliffe primary school had come along. The kids were delighted to see that the grown ups were just big kids really when they were shown the movies "Tommy's Plight" and "Skinningrove - Welcome To The Future".

My assistant helps with the powerpoint

The Skinnigrovers told of a boat they had rescued from Whitby where it was due to be disposed of. They brought it back to Skinningrove and refurbished it.

They sited it on the seafront where it will be a monument to the fishing industry which is now sadly in decline. The picture shows an artists impression of two sculptures that have been commissioned to be added to the boat.

Remarkably the boat has ended up across the street from the house where the old fisherman's daughter lives and today his two grandchildren were there to hear the story of their grandfathers boat.

Next it was the Adults turn to be astonished when the Head Teacher from Whitcliffe School, Mrs Shannon produced the 130 year old log book from the Skinningrove School

The beautifully written Skinningrove School Logbook

Several of the children read extracts from the book including one where the children of the day had to be evacuated from the school when a German Zeppelin arrived overhead.

It's now planned that Tommy and Barry will take a more "executive" role at Radio Skinningrove and the children will take over producing podcasts of readings from the old book plus reporting on current events. The adults and the kids will work together on the Virtual Ochre Trail.

There was some jocularity when we realised that later editions of the Skinningrove log book would include reports of the doings of Tommy's school career.

Tommy Evans: This is Your Life !