This project’s aim was to introduce new audiences to collections and archives which will illustrate the distinctive story of the Brecks. Using objects not normally on public display, new exhibitions were created to help people understand heritage and  how objects and documents can help inform present and future management of the landscape.

The project engaged a wide range of audiences including the general public, families, school children, under-5s, after school clubs, and community groups through the production and display of the ‘Flint Rocks’ exhibition at Ancient House Museum in Thetford. The Teenage History Club and volunteers assisted with the research and production of the exhibition which ran from October 2015 – October 2016. The exhibition charted the geology of flint and how it was used by early humans in the Brecks as tools and weapons, through to artistic and modern day uses. Items on display included the incredibly skilfully knapped flint necklace and alphabets, as well as one of the flint panels rescued from Brandon library. Material was adapted for visiting school groups as part of the Museum’s educational offering and pop-up panels were designed and produced by older students to form part of the roaming display version of the Flint Rocks exhibition.

The publicity generated by the project led to a new relationship being created between Grimes Graves, the prehistoric flint mine site in the Brecks and the Obsidian Museum in Nagawa, Japan. Members of the Teenage History Club and museum staff travelled to Japan to deliver some flint artefacts and their Japanese counterparts visited Thetford for an official twinning ceremony on 14th July 2016 – a world first! Flint from the Brecks is now being incorporated in the walls of the new Nagawa Museum building