In 1897, a young boy was facing his final days living at the Sunderland Orphan Asylum. He was about to turn 14, and would need to leave the orphanage. He was a choirboy, and during one church service he scribbled down words to the future on the back of an order of service. “Dear friend. Whoever finds this paper, think of William Elliott.”

Over a century later, as the church was being restored, that letter was rediscovered, folded and mouse-bitten, down the back of a church pew. Which set off the community at Seventeen Nineteen in Sunderland, formerly the Holy Trinity Church, to reach back through time and investigate… What happened to William?

This time last year, last April, ‘William’s Castle’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. We (as the production company Sister Sounds) held an event, in Seventeen Nineteen in Sunderland, the very place where William hid his letter. And we brought together people involved at various stages of the project to talk about the journey. Our panel was chaired by Chantal Herbert, who is the Founder and Director of Sister Sounds, the Newcastle-based production company behind William’s Castle.

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