The Forgotten Dead is made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to create an immersive, artistic response to a piece of Gravesend’s history which involves the community and provides local people with a sense of ownership and pride over the heritage of where they live. Through training, workshops, and oral history recordings, we have been able to preserve and pay respect to a tragic element of a shared past.
This project is also proudly supported by Creative Estuary, Gravesham Borough Council, the Charles Burnett Memorial Fund, and our partners at Ebbsfleet Citizens Archive, the Oral History Society, and the National Maritime Museum.
Interview with Carole Trowbridge
Carole Trowbridge is the great great granddaughter of the skipper of the Princess Alice, William Grinstead.
Earlier this year, our Youth Advisory Board received training on how to interview and record oral history interviews from the Oral History Society at the British Library.
Following this training, they sat down with Carole to talk about her family connections to the disaster. The end result was a fascinating conversation which formed the basis of our research when writing The Forgotten Dead.
All media including films and oral history recordings are openly licensed under CC BY 4.0. Blueprint Arts CIC are the owner of all media published in relation to The Forgotten Dead. The deed for this licence can be found here.
In 2025, we launched an exciting new project that invited the local community to uncover, preserve, and share the rich maritime history of Gravesend, with a focus on the tragic Princess Alice Disaster of 1878.
Through a series of talks, training, workshops, and creative storytelling, this project brought history to life, while offering valuable skills development and opportunities for local residents.
This initiative provided hands-on oral history training, historical research trips, and community-led creative workshops, ensuring that the legacy of the Princess Alice is remembered and made accessible for future generations.
We worked closely with local historians, schools, artists, and archive specialists, creating a lasting resource for the community.
As part of this, we were particularly keen to engage young people and emerging creative producers, offering training, mentorship, and even paid opportunities to gain real-world experience in the cultural sector.
This project is proudly supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Creative Estuary, Gravesham Borough Council, the Charles Burnett Memorial Fund, and our partners at Ebbsfleet Citizens Archive, the Oral History Society, and the National Maritime Museum.
Want to get involved? Whether you have a story to share, are looking to develop new skills, or simply want to learn more, we’d love to hear from you as we look to develop this project even further.
Pilot Show at Gravesham Fringe 2024
Last year, we premiered a pilot performance of our Princess Alice project at Gravesham Fringe, and the response was incredible. Audiences were deeply moved by the storytelling, with feedback highlighting the emotional impact and power of bringing local history to life.
“Beautifully & truthfully delivered”
“Even though I’m 10, I really enjoyed it. All I could think about was the fear people would have been feeling”
“I would love to see more local history retold in a similar way”
“Only once at school was I taken in by a storyteller, in 1974. Today was the second time I’ve ever experienced this. Congratulations.”
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