Initially I wrote an article for Natalie Bradbury’s Shrieking Violet Zine which you can find and read here in Issue 23

Since doing the research for the article I then researched the children who came to Eccles and stayed at St. Joseph’s Home in Patricroft.

This research led to an exhibition in June 2017, The Basque children in Salford and Eccles 1937 at Ordsall Hall Museum in Salford. For this I created a doll to represent every child in the photograph, and a game that told the story and the experiences of the children who came to Salford, and the welcome they received in Salford. I interviewed local residents who were children at the time, and could remeber them being here and gave a local child’s perspective of the story.

Following this exhibition I was invited to exhibit it at Southampton University Level 4 gallery in June 2018 to support a conference about the Basque Children who came to the UK. I was also invited to continue my reaearch in the Basque child refugee archives held in the Universities Special Collection.

The exhibition had a very different feel to it in the Level 4 Gallery. Much more austere, particularly as children under the age of 16 cannot access the university library.

Within the Southampton archive is a report from the conference which includes the following description of the exhibition

“Exhibition and afternoon of talks at the University of Southampton June 2018
A report by Barbara Coombs and Simon Martinez”

“In Search of the Basque Children
Claire Hignett

This exhibition by Claire Hignett was on display in the library at the University of Southampton.
Using textiles, Claire Hignett tells the story of the group of children who came to Salford in 1937 after fleeing the Francoist bombardment of Guernica, Bilbao and other towns and villages in The Basque Country in Northern Spain.
Claire takes themes from photos and stories from old newspapers and local people to create an interactive exhibition that takes us with the children on their journey to safety, through partings, anticipation, anxiety, loss, the kindness of strangers, and the memory of home. Each child is represented by a textile doll, contained in a small bag like an item of treasured luggage brought from home. The bags are displayed in a corridor-like space, conveying an idea of transience.
A moving and thoughtful exhibition adding another dimension to the afternoon of talks on the experience of the Basque Children of 1937.”