Working in partnership with youth radio station, Youthcomm, the cast created and performed a play which can be listened to online or downloaded at www.learningcurve.gov.uk/prisoner4099

This new online resource is suitable for use by students of differing ages and abilities, but is particularly relevant to KS3 Victorian Britain. The play and historical documents that shaped the project also offer cross-curricular links to both Citizenship and English, whilst providing ways for students to develop creative thinking skills.

All the young people taking part in the project were blind or partially sighted and wanted to use historical records to create an exciting new online project for children and young people. The students were interested in exploring real historical events encompassing campaigns for better rights, criminals and prison life.

The performance was inspired by the story of William Towers, a Victorian child prisoner. At just 12 years old William was caught stealing two pet rabbits. He was sentenced to 1 month’s hard labour in Wandsworth prison – he was Prisoner 4099.

Jeanette Normanton Erry, Head of History at New College Worcester explains: “A study of Victorian child prisoners fitted in well with the KS3 study of nineteenth century Britain. The project provided an ideal opportunity for students to broaden their appreciation of the nature of sources, and to link up with other students “

The National Archives has many documents on rebellion and crime, but some of the much older documents are difficult to read. Many are handwritten and some are in Latin Therefore the students decided to use Victorian sources and feature the project online. They researched the project by making visits to The National Archives to talk about famous documents, run workshops on Victorian child crime and experiment with document handling sessions.

The website offers primary source material such as a reading of a letter from Oscar Wilde regarding prison conditions for children and the opportunity for students to explore other child prisoners’ stories. These provide interesting and emotive material for classroom work.

In December 2005, the LOOK youth group made a visit to the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law Galleries of Justice in Nottingham. They attended a hearing in the Victorian courtroom and descended the depths of the original prison cells, walking in the shoes of a Victorian child prisoner.

To ensure William’s story could be accessed easily on the web, Darren Pascal, who is studying computer science at university, worked closely with The National Archives’ web team. Darren explained: “Part of my job was to help make sure every page of the Prisoner 4099 project could be read by absolutely anyone.”

One of the most significant outcomes of the project was to show that students with a visual impairment can use primary sources independently to work alongside their fully sighted peers, and can produce a resource for use by a variety of young people.

Technically, the website is designed for easy use, with project partners helping shape its accessibility. As a blind person, Darren is unable to read what is on a computer screen by looking at it. Instead, like many other visually impaired and blind people he uses a screen reader to read out text, but says: “It can't describe a picture on a web site unless the designer of the page includes a description of it.”

The Prisoner 4099 project has made a big impression at The National Archives and one of the biggest lessons learned is the value of direct involvement with partners and young people such as Darren. Sara Griffiths, Outreach and Inclusion Officer at The National Archives, describes how the project has impacted upon the organisation:

“We now think more creatively about the design and content of our workshops, web design and printed materials. We have learned that a visual response to our products and services is only one response. By using our imagination, we can make our users’ experience of the website more rounded and multi-layered.”

This learning could not have taken place without the direct involvement of partners. Their advice, experience and resources enabled The National Archives’ learning to become more efficient and their openness has encouraged honesty and debate.

Sara concludes: “Although we thought the students would find the play interesting and fun to create, we had not anticipated that the project would prove to be so enjoyable. For this, we are grateful to the energy and dedication of the students, teachers and youth workers.”

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