New trailer for Finding the Pathfinders- a great Christmas gift...

To celebrate the launch of the limited edition DVD of our first edit, we've made a new trailer.

Take a look here

Don't forget you can buy your DVD from us with the Paypal button at the bottom of this page. It would make a fantastic Christmas gift for any aviation or history fan! These last 50 copies are all signed by Douglas Percy Cannings DFM himself so grab one whilst you can!

The premier... and the DVD!

Finding the Pathfinders 11th September 2013, Kinema in the Woods

Wow, what a day...

Over 120 people came to support this very special premier at the Kinema in the Woods, Woodhall Spa. Much bubbly, nibbles and cake consumed and we were joined by Chris at the Lincoln Bomber Command Memorial Appeal and Chris Keltie, author of "Riding in the Shadow of Death", a wonderful book about another bomber command veteran.

Sean Taylor from East Kirkby Aviation Centre gave us a fantastic talk on a typical day for a "bomber boy" and the film itself was very well received by our appreciative audience. Many said that they laughed and cried in equal measure!

Thanks again to BBC Look North who came out again to see us. It was a chance for us to thank them for helping us find the last crewmate, Gordon Brown. Without their help, the story would have been incomplete. Thanks also to BBC Radio Lincolnshire for their excellent coverage too. Many of the relatives that we met at East Kirkby made the journey over to see the premier and we were joined by a relative that we had not met so far, a son of Ron Parker from 97 Squadron.

The day was rounded off by an amazing flypast of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster, the "City of Lincoln". They came out just for us, despite a change in their flight plans that day. Huge, huge thanks for giving us three spectacular flypasts that set off the car alarms in the car park!

We know that there were many people that couldn't make the screening due to work commitments, or living too far away. We have made available a limited edition DVD of the film, signed by Douglas Percy Cannings of course and you can buy it here simply by clicking on the Paypal button below. A mere snip at £15, plus £3.00 postage, it's a special piece of history. Please accept our apologies if you experience a slight delay as we can't keep up with demand this week! All purchases should be with you within a week of your order date.

Getting ready for the Kinema Premier, "Finding the Pathfinders" 11th September

Everything's ready to go with our premier of "Finding the Pathfinders". Editing done (huge thanks to Martin for the 100s of man hours in the last couple of weeks!) flypast confirmed (weather please hold!!) and nibbles kindly donated by Ruskington Co-Operative, Sleaford Tesco and Di Ablewhite.

Tickets will be available on the door on the day and you can also book here:

This is our portal from an earlier post:

Our visit to Belgium

We recently travelled to Courtrai (Kortrijk in Flemish) in Belgium in order to get some footage for "Finding the Pathfinders".

Dirk Decuypere, a historian and author invited us to film some of the bombing sites and interview locals who remembered the air raids. Here he is in the square. It was fascinating to see how accurate the bombing was with the Pathfinder Force, minimising the civilian casualties.

We met some amazing people, all of whom you shall meet when you come and see the completed documentary of course!

"But where do you get tickets?" did I hear you ask... Look no further...

http://erminestreetproject.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/heres-how-to-get-your-tickets.html

Reunion Day at East Kirkby

What a wonderful day it was! Last Wednesday, we finally got to meet some of the relatives of Dad's crew. Lovely people, with lots of stories, photos and memories, keen to meet Dad and ask him about his own memories.

We had great coverage from Tolu at Look North who did a brilliant feature on us and has helped us try and get the word out re the elusive Gordon Brown, tail gunner! From that feature, we've had a lead from an old neighbour in Halifax who remembers a Gordon Brown who flew in Lancasters. Could it be our man? We are making enquiries now so we are crossing everything that we find him in time for our screening on 11th September.

Don't forget to book your tickets here...

Reunion filming day nearly here...

Over the last couple of weeks we've made some progress with getting some more relatives for the reunion day and we've had an emotional day in Bingley when we found Geoffrey Mander's final resting place.

We're still looking for one crew mate: F/S Gordon Brown, who came from Yorkshire. He's still proving to be very elusive, despite our small army of researchers. Can anyone help?

Our filming day at East Kirkby is going to be so special. As well as a good selection of relatives of crew mates arriving for the occasion, we've invited our wonderful team of researchers who have helped us in our ongoing search for what happened to all these young men. For those that haven't seen our trailer, this is what sparked all the interest off from Facebook and Twitter, have a look at this previous post:
http://erminestreetproject.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/finding-pathfinders-trailer.html

It's been a busy week!

Lots of things happening over the last week or two... We've had a hugely successful event at Cambridge Guildhall last Sunday to celebrate the Steampunk channel on ESPTV. Glorious sunshine and wonderfully colourful traders, visitors and entertainers. Will most definitely do this again next year! Seek out Steampunk in Cambridge Facebook group and join in! Our army of researchers for "Finding the Pathfinders" have been wonderful- we have had successes in tracing quite a few of the relatives now and some of which are coming to our big filming day on 24th July. Still looking for info on one in particular though- F/S Gordon Brown- all our leads on him have drawn a blank. We'll see if we can get some more interest in our search by contacting Look North, as there's a possibility that he came from Yorkshire. In August we shall be travelling to Belgium to do some filming over there, to highlight some of the good work that the Pathfinder force did in minimising the civillain casualties; lighting up the legitimate targets for the bombing runs. Tickets are on sale remember- Don't miss out!

Here's how to get your tickets!

At Last!

Finally, tickets are available for our very special screening of Finding the Pathfinders on 11th September, 2013.

View the trailer here on our channel, :ESPTV
For those on iPads that don't support flash, view on YouTube

The doors open at the Kinema at 11.10am with various things for you to see, including of course, the premier screening of Finding the Pathfinders. The whole event will last until 2pm and we hope at some point to have a very special flypast too.

A link to the Kinema's site is here: http://www.thekinemainthewoods.co.uk/

Tickets are £12.00, which includes drinks and nibbles, including some birthday cake as there are two birthdays that day, of course!

You can purchase them here on the "Buy Now" Paypal link below, and simply bring a print-out of the transaction on the day as your ticket. We would advise buying in advance as, due to the limited nature of tickets, we cannot guarantee any availability on the door.

Date set for screening of Finding the Pathfinders

We have a date!

Finding The Pathfinders

11th September, 2013, The Kinema in the Woods, Woodhall Spa. Doors open 11.10am. The film and various events will start at 11.20am for a 2pm finish, including a very special fly-past! (weather permitting).

Our premier of "Finding the Pathfinders" will be on a very special day. Douglas Percy Cannings DFM, will be celebrating his 90th birthday.
Coincidently, The Kinema will be 91 years old the very same day!

I suspect there may be cake...

Tickets will go on sale shortly, along with limited edition DVDs of the film signed by the star of the documentary himself. We have some great footage already, amazing stories and lots more to come before we put it all together for you on the 11th September.
We hope to see you there!

E-mail problems 15th April

Just a quick note that we're experiencing problems with accessing our e-mail today.

Use sharoncannings@btinternet.com if you need to contact us urgently. When we've sorted out our gremlins we'll update this post.

Revelations from our article in The Glaswegian!

Had some fantastic e-mails from a lady whose uncle flew with Dad in 100 squadron!

Andrew Coulter Barr was killed only a month before the end of the war. All bar one of his crew died on the 8th April 1945, and we have now in our possession new photos and a first hand account of the crash that fateful night from the tail gunner who miraculously survived.

Amazing stuff, and possibly a lead on another Scottish crew mate too...

It was all too much for Sandy, my sister, when we filmed her reaction to these new stories. A few mascara moments! This documentary is going to be a wonderful testament to the selfless, unassuming young men that risked, and gave their lives on a daily basis.

We may not have been successful with funding, but we have a burning desire to get these stories told. True, it means that myself and Martin shoulder a great deal of the work ourselves, unable to pay for people to help us (and we are most certainly NOT going to ask anyone but ourselves to work unpaid) but we know that as long as we can sell 180 tickets to our screening in Woodhall Spa, we'll cover all our costs.
We may even be able to involve the wider community with our filming still- more news on that over the coming weeks.

When we know the exact date (either 11th or 12th September) we'll let you know, and if at all possible come along! In fact, bring a friend... bring five! Share our labour of love.

Our article in The Glaswegian today

Many thanks to Joe McGuire for the lovely article he ran today about Finding the Pathfinders.

Read the Glaswegian's great article here

Let's hope that it finds the right people out there and they get in touch!

Pathfinder Fudge!

Here it is... Pathfinder Fudge!

Made especially for Ermine Street Project CIC by the Captain's Ephemeral Emporium, this fudge is a plain fudge (or plane...geddit??) with a hint of chocolate.

All profits for this limited edition fudge will go towards the filming costs for Finding the Pathfinders. Remember, we were unsuccessful with our funding bids so your support is crucial. More fundraising events will go on in the next couple of months- watch this space.

If you haven't watched our trailer already, take a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHVoBs_mqaI

Go on, treat yourself to a bag of delicious fudge today and do some good, too! (Did you know that fundraising fudge has no calories...?) OK, we may have made that last bit up...

The fudge will be sent to you via first class post in a 150g bag and will keep for at least two weeks, although it doesn't tend to stick around once the bag is opened, we find! You discover new friends when a bag of fudge is opened...

Buy it now- you know you want to...

Fudge ingredients:

Sugar, double cream, golden syrup, milk, butter, milk chocolate (chocolate contains cocoa mass, cocoa butter, lechitin) 

The fudge may contain nut traces as it is made in a kitchen that handles nuts.

Finding the Pathfinders- a trailer

Our trailer is done, have a look here:

Finding the Pathfinders

For those using an ipad/ iphone that doesn't support Flash you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHVoBs_mqaI

(Although I'd suggest using a browser app like puffin to get around this annoying problem for websites like ours until the powers that be sit around a table and sort out their browser differences and get a reliable platform that works for everyone...rant over!)

We'll be holding some open days in Lincolnshire over the next couple of months to tell all you good folks how you can get involved. Look out for Sharon in the local press and media too!

This is how we would like people to help:

 1. Do you want to help us find the crew mates that we're looking for?
2. Are you 19 this year? The same age as many veterans were in 1943? Do you want to find out more about what the "bomber boys" went through exactly 70 years ago?
3. Do you have Lincolnshire wartime memories to contribute to the film?
4.. Do you want to come along to a 40s night fundraiser in Lincolnshire this Spring?
5. Do you have something you could contribute to a fundraising raffle?
5. Would you come along to a "get involved" afternoon that will tell you more about the project and how you can help?
6. Do you wish to book yourself a ticket to our gala screening this autumn?

Just want to contribute to our fundraising to help us make this a reality? You're more than welcome! We're busy raising £2000 to enable us to pay for filming permits and travel expenses for the relatives to come and meet Mr Cannings at a special day at East Kirkby Aviation Centre.
Donate any amount via Paypal here:

Let's get these stories told!

News round up...

Well, ESPTV is up and running more content is being added weekly. It's looking great!
Our "Steampunk" channel is the most populated right now, gaining work from outside of Ermine Street Project in the form of music videos and short films as well as our own in-house creations.

We still want more! Send us your work to be considered on the channel.

The community channel was launched recently with a film we made a little while back with the East of England Association of Parish and Town Councils and very shortly there will be a trailer for our forthcoming documentary "Finding the Pathfinders".

Although we were unsuccessful with our funding bids from Awards for All and the Heritage Lottery Grants, we hope that it won't completely scupper our intentions to make this very much a community project.

We hope that we can engage local schools in some work experience and inspire them to create their own wartime projects. We also want to reach out to local people who were alive in the 1940s when the Lancasters took to the skies above Lincolnshire.

When the trailer goes live in a few days there will be ways that you can get involved.

1. Do you want to help us find the crew mates that we're looking for?
2. Are you 19 this year? The same age as many veterans were in 1943? Do you want to find out more about what the "bomber boys" went through exactly 70 years ago?
3. Do you have Lincolnshire wartime memories to contribute to the film?
4.. Do you want to come along to a 40s night fundraiser in Lincolnshire this Spring?
5. Do you have something you could contribute to a fundraising raffle?
5. Would you come along to a "get involved" afternoon that will tell you more about the project and how you can help?
6. Do you wish to book yourself a ticket to our gala screening this autumn?

This is going to be a very special project and we hope to do the veterans proud. Especially my Dad, as this is why we're doing it.

My Dad, Douglas Percy Cannings DFM is my hero. He doesn't think he did anything special. He did a job. Barely 19 years old and fighting for his country. He's 89 and now he wants to know what sort of lives he other crew mates lived. Who else made it through the war? What did they do? Did they make a difference?

Help us make this documentary a reality.