Creative Writing Workshops

A series of creative writing and unearthing asylum history sessions led by poet and writer Jhilmil Breckenridge was held at Lancashire Archives in the first year of the programme exploring the heritage of Whittingham Hospital.

These workshops, held over six weeks involved over 20 service users, caregivers and members of the public who resonated with the project and were interested in creative writing and building biographical pieces from the lives of those recorded in the archives.

The archive collection proved to be a valuable and inspirational resource for these workshops. The photographs of patients and written records were particularly powerful and widely used to inspire a range of emotionally moving creative writing pieces. Some of these pieces have since been published and provide a thought-provoking legacy for the project.

One such piece titled ‘Helen’ by writer and reader Dave Rowe, who took part in the creative writing workshops was performed on the preview night of the Hidden Histories: Alternative Futures Exhibition at the Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library. The poem was a powerful representation of life in an asylum.