21 and 22 October 2025
In October 2025, The Story teamed up with the British Army Northeast Engagement team to run two days of engagement with secondary schools and colleges across County Durham and Teesside. Led by Major Kate Hannaford, the army ran the sessions with military precision (pun intended), inviting small groups of young people to take part in a team-building exercise where they solved puzzles, did field first aid, and shot at targets with air rifles on our lawn. One activity included using a takeaway menu to send secret messages!
Inside The Story, we were hard at work running a history session using our DLI and Local Studies collections. Following the story of Harry Sell, a POW in the Second World War who secretly built a Canary radio in captivity, the young people solved a series of puzzles linked to archives to earn pieces of a radio kit.
Puzzles included recreating Red Cross boxes without using Sellotape, deciphering code messages and using archive material to work out which fellow soldier would be the best for Harry Sell to have as an ally while he remained in the camp. By the end of the two days, 166 young people had taken part in both sessions.
One student from a Sunderland school said: “I did not realise what I could do in the army! I have loved seeing the radio and learning about the radio and the local history.”
The army was thrilled with the event, and another is in the works for next year!