Art project to take moving stories of 23 Skegness women to twin town in Germany

Twenty-three women will have their photographs and personal stories exhibited in Germany on September 18 for a new project by local artist and photographer John Byford.

Called Her, or Sie in German, the project has been created for celebrations taking place in Skegness’s twin town of Bad Gandersheim, honouring Roswitha of Gandersheim, who lived more than 1,000 years ago and is recognised as Germany’s first female poet.

Over the past six months, John has photographed and collected the stories of 23 women connected with Skegness, with women represented from every decade from the 1930s to the early 2000s. From the oldest, Molly, who was aged seven when war broke out with Germany – to the youngest, Jessica, who was born in 2003 and now travels the world singing on cruise ships.

Some were born in Skegness, while others arrived here at very different points in their lives. Their stories are equally varied.

"There are stories of heartache and happiness, love and loss, difficult childhoods and new beginnings,” John explains. “There are wonderful memories too, of growing up by the sea, family life, careers and friendships, as well as the different journeys that eventually brought some of the women to the Lincolnshire coast.”

Yet despite the differences between the 23 women and their lives, there is one thing that seems to find its way into almost every story: the sea.

“The sea comes through again and again,” John said. “For some of the women it is part of their childhood, for others it represents home, escape, peace or memories. For some, it was the thing that first brought them to Skegness.

“I suppose that shouldn’t really surprise us. The sea is such an important part of Skegness. After all, it is one of the main reasons generations of people have come here on holiday. But working on Her made me realise just how deeply it becomes part of people’s lives as well. Twenty-three very different women, twenty-three very different lives, and yet the sea is there somewhere, quietly connecting them.”

For John, one of the most important parts of the project has been the trust each woman placed in him.

“I feel incredibly privileged that these 23 women allowed me into a small part of their lives,” he said. “They trusted me to take their photograph, but more importantly they trusted me with their stories and some very personal memories and experiences, knowing they would be shared with an audience hundreds of miles away in Germany.

“Some of the stories have been difficult to tell. There is heartache in them, but there is also so much happiness, humour, strength and some wonderful memories.

“What I didn’t want to do was turn these women into something they weren’t. I wanted each woman to remain herself, both in the photograph and in her words. The photographs are deliberately simple and unembellished. For me, the women and their stories are enough.”

The project has been created as part of Bad Gandersheim’s celebrations of Roswitha, a woman who found her own voice more than a thousand years ago. Her / Sie brings together the voices of women living in and connected to Skegness today and takes those voices to Roswitha’s home town.

John added: “There is something quite moving about taking these 23 voices from Skegness and sharing them in another country. These aren’t famous people. They are women from our community, with ordinary and sometimes extraordinary lives, and I think there is something very powerful in simply allowing people to tell their own story.

“Without those 23 women putting their trust in me, there simply wouldn’t be a project. I will always be grateful to every one of them.”

A telephone box that is still communicating

The exhibition continues John’s long association with Bad Gandersheim and the friendship between the two towns, which have been twinned since 1979.

His first project there, Made in England, took place in 2012, followed by projects including 4play, Two Voices, the British telephone box, the Skegness Garden at the 2023 State Garden Show and the installation of a historic 'Skegness' bench beside Bad Gandersheim’s historic cathedral in 2024.

The telephone box, which John installed in 2015, has undergone five colour changes since then, and is currently blue. For Her / Sie, some of the women’s portraits will be displayed inside the box in the centre of Bad Gandersheim, while others will form part of an outdoor display in the town’s park.

The blue box also carries the words: “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever,” a quote attributed to Lincolnshire poet Alfred Lord Tennyson who was born just up the road from Skegness.

For John, it creates another connection between the project, Lincolnshire and Bad Gandersheim.

He said: “I love the fact we have the words of Roswitha, written more than a thousand years ago, the words of Tennyson from Lincolnshire, and now the words of 23 women from Skegness all coming together in Bad Gandersheim.

“The telephone box has become part of the friendship between our two towns over the years. A telephone box was always a place for communication, and I like to think this one is still communicating, just in a very different way. Instead of telephone conversations, it sends out messages of friendship through arts, culture and conversation. Yes, the telephone may be gone from inside, but the conversations are still flowing between us.

“It has created a continuing connection between Skegness and Bad Gandersheim and has become a little piece of Skegness in the heart of our twin town. It seems a very fitting place for some of these women and their words to be seen.”

John will travel to Germany later this month to see the 23 women and their stories from Skegness finally on display.

More information about Her / Sie and the project can be found at roswitha.co.uk.