These half-term workshops aimed to bring to life the world of Old Winchelsea a key coastal town in the medieval period until it was lost in a storm in 1287.
The young people imagined how the town might have looked and who might have lived there and what happened to them after the town was “drowned”.
Our worldbuilding exercises were fuelled by research on medieval manuscripts and the lives of peasants. So with the map of the town began to fill with post-it notes of things we know existed in the real Old Winchelsea back in 1287 – a port, an astounding number of pubs to people – there was an opportunity to draw out the characters and the stories of the place, and once we started speculating these creative young minds couldn’t be held back! A priest who’s declared himself Pope, a holiday castle for the king, a witch with an army of sheep, both land and water dragons and the ominous presence of the sea and its storms. A series of diary entries and comic strips were created detailing the lives of their new characters.
In our second session, we brought Old Winchelsea into 2026, imagining that this underwater town was still thriving, how would it function? How medieval would it be? Our participants adapted the town in brilliantly imaginative ways – we had housing equality, a currency of shells, dolphin pop bands, water filtration systems and a controversial waste disposal system which involved rockets and the moon. The young people wrote postcards to themselves in Rye detailing this underwater world, began editing the local “Flying Fish News” and created objects to be found in Old Winchelsea’s museum.
One 10 year old asked if she could go get her brother to join in as she was having such a good time! We were catering for the full age range of 10-17. It was very impressive how everyone listened to each other’s ideas, with the older writers noting down details on the map as well as creating independent work.
Every young person who dropped in to any part of the session created a character and contributed something to the map of the town, and all our evaluation forms ask for more workshops like this to happen again at the youth club.
The workshops were facilitated by StrongBack Productions’ producer Sally Wood, and poet Laila Sumpton and supported by Arts Council England. They took place February 2026.
Words & pictures by Sally Wood & Laila Sumpton
StrongBack Productions is thrilled to have been awarded a grant from a private Estate Fund in support of their SongMaps Rye Programme.
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