We are very grateful to the The Arts Society, Dartmouth and Kingswear for sponsoring this project.
Purchase your copy on line of this book with some of the proceeds going towards Dartmouth Mayflower’s new Education Fund, which has been set up to support local students during this challenging period.
For orders of 5 or more please contact education@dartmouthmayflower400.uk
Lindsay Ellwood, Education Project Lead for Dartmouth Mayflower 400 said, “This has been a fantastic educational project. It’s clear to see from the quality of the writing and illustrations that the children have really engaged with the story of the Mayflower’s journey. It will be wonderful for them to see their work in print.
I would like to thank the rest of the team: Sally Walley, who brought us the original idea and Claire Humpage, for the hard work they have put into this project. I would also like to thank all the class teachers for their hard work and cooperation and for guiding the children to produce such imaginative content.”
This has been a collaborative project between four primary schools in Dartmouth and the surrounding area, and involved around 90 children in years 5 and 6. Each class has written and illustrated a different section of the Mayflower journey – background history, escape to and life in Leiden, Holland to Dartmouth on the Speedwell, life in Dartmouth, Dartmouth to America, settling in to new colony, one year later – Thanksgiving. The children’s stories are based on an actual group of Mayflower passengers that represents each leg of the journey.
In early September 2019, Katy Cawkwell – a talented storyteller – performed The Mayflower Story to all the pupils, and this provided an inspirational starting point for the children’s writing and illustrations. A recent graduate of Plymouth College of Art, Jack Viant, worked on the design of the book.
Our aim was to provide children with rich learning opportunities, and finding out about the way of life in the 1600s and what it must have been like when the Mayflower and Speedwell visited Dartmouth, as well as on board the ship, was an important part of this educational project.
