Author: Callum Pepper

Just like William Tritton, William Rigby and Major Wilson did in 1915, Myself, Ben, Gabby and Steph had a meeting to discuss and layout our ideas of what we could do about the Tank and its development in Lincoln, but also how it could relate to The Great Grandstand.

Our first couple of ideas centred on how the Tank could link to the Grandstands building, but we realised its more about the area surrounding the Grandstand than the building itself, most notably West common. Research we had found prior to our meeting suggested that West common had been used during the First World War for the testing of new aircraft, also the practising of building trenches, but there was no evidence about the First Tank and West common.

We had come across a problem, how could we relate the Tank to the grandstand?

That question got me thinking outside of our meeting and after reading the hand out we had been given during our seminar, Mike Pearson had posed the question “What are the marks, traces and details of human activity: past and present” ((Mike Pearson, 2011, Some Approaches to Research)) Could there been traces from testing of the Tank in Lincoln? Could we try and replicate its testing on grandstand area? Because I had asked myself those questions it got me again thinking about how we could leaving our mark just like the Tank had done 98 years ago. Even better could we replicate the Tanks process start to finish? Drawing our own blue print, construing a model on site and final testing it out at the end of our performance.

How would the site be affect by us bringing a piece of the past to present?

Last Wednesday afternoon a group of us ventured up to the Museum of Lincolnshire life to see what information and documents they had on the first tank. On discovering the museum and its interior, it struck me how little I knew about life in Lincolnshire and the history that surrounds Lincoln. The museum itself is a listed former barracks built in the 1857 for the Royal North Lincoln Militia, in its present form, it is a collection of social history that reflects on the culture of Lincolnshire, also featuring a large selection on the areas military history.

The section that intrigued me the most was the First World War and how Lincoln had played a major role in its duration. A small part of the area had been built up like a Trench and that as you walked through you would be stepping back in time witnessing horrors of what Trench warfare would have been like, mannequins lie on the tops of the trenches injured or trying to get to cover, barbed wire stringed across the tops, even a soundscape of a battle echoed through the passage and the sense that death could been only a footstep away.  Previous research that I had found indicated that the area of West Common, which is across from the Grandstand had been used to practise digging Trenches, handfuls of men craving their way through the earth, changing the landscape of the area, making their mark.

The main aspect of what we had come to see was located in the Transport area, The Tank. During 1915 the Landship Committee had decided that a new weapon was needed for the war, to conquer trench warfare. They commission William Tritton, William Rigby and Major Wilson of the war cabinet to come up with a design and that Fosters of Lincoln (owned by William Tritton) where to build a ‘Landship’.

On September 22nd 1915, William Tritton sent this famous telegram to the Admiralty.

“New arrival by tritton out of pressed plate STOP

Light in weight but very strong STOP

All doing well Thank you STOP

Proud parents” ((http://www.friends-of-the-lincoln-tank.co.uk/4.html,accessed 5th March 2013))

Little Willie was born.

Little Willie would change the face of warfare forever…….