SCHOOL PUPILS are learning about Teesside’s links to the 1930s Spanish civil war, including how children evacuated from the Basque country were given shelter at Hutton Hall near Guisborough.

History is really coming alive for youngsters at Billingham South Community Primary School, they have met the daughters of one of the Guisborough Basque refugees while they are also discovering the links to Billingham and Stockton too.

Sharon Hardy, who lives in East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, and Julia Lee, from Stockton on Tees, are daughters of Fermin Magdalena, a Basque boy refugee. They visited the Billingham school to meet children in teacher Jess Brownlee’s history club. Supported by the GMB trade union, the history club has been researching the Spanish civil war and connections to Stockton and Billingham.

Stockton’s new International Brigade memorial, in the Wasps Nest Yard, features Stockton artists Abby and Owen’s reimagining of Picasso’s iconic painting Guernica; painted in response to the bombing of the Basque town in April 1937. Billingham pupils studied the original Picasso painting and the Stockton memorial image.

Brownlee said: “We’re proud of these students who have loved learning about the history of the Spanish refugees. The local connections make history seem much more real, with photographs of individuals, meeting relatives and listening to recordings of people’s experiences. It has been so interesting to learn about other people’s histories so close to where we live now.”

In addition to Picasso’s painting, another response to the bombing of Guernica was the evacuation of 22,000 children from the Basque country. Almost 4,000 were evacuated to Britain. Forty were housed at Hutton Hall near Guisborough, the Victorian hall built for Quaker industrialist and MP Joseph Pease. In 1937 it was owned by his son, Alfred Pease. Ruth Pennyman of Ormesby Hall persuaded Alfred to allow the Teesside Basque Refugee Committee to use Hutton Hall to house the Basque refugees.

Collaborating with The Association for UK Basque Children (www.basquechildren.org) the Billingham schoolchildren researched the evacuees and their experiences at Hutton Hall, looking especially at Julia, Fermin, Pilar and Federico Magdalena, four of only five refugees who did not return to Spain before the second world war. Discovering, for example, that as a punishment the Basque children were given potatoes to peel.

One remarkable coincidence is that the Basque children performed three times on stage at the Billingham Co-operative Hall, which is very near to the school; both are on Belasis Avenue.

Sharon and Julia described their father, aunts, uncle and grandparents.

Sharon recalled how her grandparents walked over the Pyrenees mountains to avoid Spanish dictator General Franco’s forces. In Britain, Fermin had a Home Guard role during the second world war. Sharon told the children that she had recently discovered that her father had to answer the telephone at Ormesby Hall if there was an air raid warning.

She said: “It’s been lovely to reread old newspaper articles and re-listen to interviews of our dad, which we’re lucky to have. And to pick up on things that may have been forgotten.”

Julia added: “We want to thank the Billingham children for inviting us to their school. We really enjoyed listening to what they have learnt about the Spanish civil war. ”

The school history club is supported by the GMB trade union because Ron Dennison, a Billingham-based International Brigade volunteer killed in Spain in 1937, was a member of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, which later became the GMB. Today, the GMB is supporting the pupils in learning about Ron Dennison and the eight other Stockton International Brigade volunteers who served in the International Brigade in Spain. The GMB is also supporting a campaign for a Billingham memorial to Ron Dennison  —  www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Ron-Dennison-Memorial.

The Billingham pupils are also planning the first Billingham Brigaders event on April 27. It will commemorate Ron Dennison, along with Guernica, the 40th anniversary of the dedication of the Teesside International Brigade memorial in 1984 and the first anniversary of the dedication of the Stockton International Brigade memorial.

Fellow students, parents, councillors, International Brigade Memorial Trust members and local supporters will be attending the Commemoration which will be held on Billingham Green.

For more information visit www.bit.ly/north-eastVolunteers or email NEVolunteersforliberty@gmail.com.