Back to the Front is a community-based Project to research, record and remember the men and women from Abbots Langley, Hunton Bridge, Langleybury and Leavesden who served during the Great War (1914-18). Over one thousand men from the four Hertfordshire villages served, some never to return, all with a story to tell and some as yet not remembered on the village War Memorials. The Project aims to uncover and record these stories and commemorate and remember these individuals a century on from the conflict.
Through association with other organisations in the local area the Project also aims to retell the stories and raise awareness of how the war impacted everyday life for everyone who lived through those times. Throughout the 2014 to 2019 period a Programme will include performance, music and community-based events, talks, exhibitions, trips to the Western Front battlefields, walks, a re-creation of the villages’ Rolls of Honour, and involvement with the local schools.
The Project plans to engage with the local communities to assist with the research activities as well as to reveal the untold stories of their families through providing access to photographs, personal records and possessions which will all help to develop the picture of the lives of those both at the front line and at home.