About the project
This project began when an opportunity arose to digitise Jake Whitehouse's important collection of photographs and postcards: Jake's widow, Gill, offered to lend the collection to Staffordshire Archives and Heritage to be digitised. Scanning was undertaken by staff at Stoke-on-Trent City Archives while the County Museum Service organised a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund's World War One Then and Now fund. The bid was successful and a grant of £7,400 has enabled us to research the collection and develop this website.
A team of volunteers from Berkswich Local History Society, Friends of Cannock Chase, the Landor Society of Rugeley, and Staffordshire County Museum Service researched caption information, dates and locations for all 1,695 images and entered them into the website database between June and November 2018.
Meanwhile, Staffordshire County Council's IT Projects team have created the Jake Whitehouse Collection website, using technology developed for the Staffordshire Past Track website.
Towards the end of the project, the Friends of Cannock Chase gave a guided tour for pupils from Etching Hill Primary of the World War 1 site of Brindley Hospital and the reconstructed Great War Hut at Marquis Drive, both on Cannock Chase. Events for the general public and project participants were held at the Museum of Cannock Chase and Walton Village Hall, culminating with the official launch on 30 November 2018, as part of the County's commemorations for the Centenary of the end of the Great War.
Staffordshire Archives & Heritage would like to thank:
- Heritage Lottery Fund
- Mrs Gill Whitehouse
- Beryl Holt, Bob Morton and Berkswich Local History Society
- Trevor Warburton and the Friends of Cannock Chase
- John Bennett, Marian Kettle and the Landor Society of Rugeley
- Bob Metcalfe, volunteer, Staffordshire County Museum
- Andy Holt and Paul Masterson, Staffordshire County Council IT Projects
- Andrew Dawson, Stoke-on-Trent City Archives
- Museum of Cannock Chase
- Etching Hill Primary School
- Brocton Village Hall
- Milford Hall Cricket Club
- Walton Village Hall
- West Midlands Military Historical Society