We're all Stories in the End: Jimmy's Journey

The bear is still there.
Image courtesy of Heritage & Culture Warwickshire

The background

In April 2017 Heritage & Culture Warwickshire worked with The Play House and pupils from Westgate Primary to create tales inspired by objects on display at the Market Hall Museum.  Four classes from Westgate Primary came to the museum to work with Julie and Juliet. They used their imagination and created eight new fairy tales and legends, inspired by different objects in the museum.

Jimmy’s Journey by Year 3

The children were inspired by the Warwickshire Bear in the front entrance of the museum. They wondered about how the bear got to the museum and where he came from?  Listen closely to the story to hear what they thought happened to our bear.

The curators of the museum know the true tale of our Warwickshire Bear and about his life as part of the Warwickshire museum collection.  More information about the bear can be found on his own Our Warwickshire page by clicking here.

Heritage & Culture Warwickshire would like to thank the children from Westgate Primary who created these stories. They are available to listen to at the Market Hall Museum, ask the staff or volunteers at the front door if you can borrow the Story Trail bag. All the objects are in the museum for you to see yourself.

The ‘We’re all Stories in the End’ project was made possible by funding from Arts Council England and with the support of the West Midlands Museum Development team.

Transcript:

Story Files

Jimmy’s Journey by Year 3

[Bear growls]

JIMMY BEAR: Hello Sir, Hello Madam. Don’t be afraid. I know I look a bit scary but I won’t bite, I promise! I’m Jimmy Bear and I like to have company. I haven’t always lived here, you know. I grew up in Alaska but that was a long time ago. I lived in a cave in the forest and for a long time I lived alone. My family and friend were long gone. One morning I woke up feeling very lonely so I decided to find some friends. I took my wooden staff and my trusty pocket watch and walked through the snowy forest. I kept on walking for days and found no-one. Soon I came upon a river. With the help of my trusty staff I managed to jump straight across to the other side. The snow had stopped and the sun was shining. And all of a sudden, I was surrounded by curious creatures. Three cheeky monkeys, three polar bears and one shy deer peering at me from behind a tree. “Hello”, I said, waving and smiling, and they all laughed! I lived happily there for a while but dreamt of new adventures so when the time was right I said goodbye and travelled on. I met new friends on my journey, even more brown bears just like me. And soon we were many. We walked together with our staffs in hand until we reached the ocean.

ROSIE: What’ll we do now?

JEFF: It’s too big for jumping!

JIMMY: Let’s build a boat with our staffs.

And in no time at all the boat was built and we were ready to set sail. We sailed for a month and a day, eating only fish. All was well, until Jeff Bear spotted land.

JEFF: Look! I see land!

We looked and jumped up and down with a cheer!

[Cheering]

ROSIE: Oh no, my fur is getting wet!

JEFF: Water’s coming in!

JIMMY: Everyone, swim for it!

It was a tough swim to the shore and only myself, Jeff and Rosie Bear made it. The next days were sad ones: we cried, we slept, we ate only fish. But to say goodbye we had a ceremony on the beach for our lost friends.

ROSIE: Goodbye dear bears.

JIMMY: You will be missed

JEFF: We will always love you

JIMMY: We placed a stone in the earth for each lost bear and moved on.

After many days of walking, we came again to a seashore. The water was rough and full of waves, but being strong swimmers we dived in and swam. Finally, we reached the other side and were so exhausted we fell straight to sleep.

When we opened our eyes, we looked up at a circle of brown furry faces just like our own staring down at us and smiling.

FRIENDLY FEMALE BEAR: Welcome to England!

We hugged, we danced and a whole new bear family was formed and we lived happily together for many years.

More from Warwick