From the Women’s Forestry Corps in Heathfield to the airship stations at Polegate and Slindon, Brighton’s military hospitals to the training camps on the South Downs, Sussex played a key role in the First World War.

“It seems every town and village was involved,”

says BBC Sussex producer Simon Furber, who is spearheading a new series on the period as part of the BBC’s nationwide centenary commemorations.

Drawing on listeners’ stories, local library archives and Imperial War Museum resources, World War One At Home starts on Monday (February 24) and aims to show how the global conflict rippled down every street, from major cities to rural areas. More than 1,400 stories will be told across all BBC channels, including dozens from Sussex.

“We’ll be looking at everything from the role of women in the Great War to how a Sussex manor house was transformed into an Army cookery school for soldiers heading to the frontline,”

explains Furber.

“We’ll tell the story of a Brighton footballer who swapped the football fields for the battlefield and will reveal how the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams – who was educated in Rottingdean and married in Hove – went to war aged 43 and served in the field ambulance, one of the most demanding jobs of the war.”

The nationwide project is one of the most ambitious ever undertaken by the BBC. Over four years, it will cover themes from medicine to arts and media, with each story broadcast and then featured online.

“It’s surprising how much we are still learning about the First World War,” says Furber. “We’re getting new information almost daily.

What’s more, we’ve learned there is a great public appetite for these stories.

Many people want to learn more about what became one of the bloodiest battles in history.”

Here, Furber previews three of the local stories set to be broadcast next week.

*World War One At Home begins on BBC Sussex (and across the BBC) on Monday, February 24 The soldier’s postcard that took nearly a century to reach its destination.

“During the First World War, Newhaven’s primary role was the transportation of supplies and munitions and some 17,000 crossings of the Channel took place with more than six million tons of supplies carried to the French coastal ports.

“A relatively small number of soldiers were stationed at Newhaven in a camp based on the hillside behind the fort. They included one Alfred Arthur who wrote a postcard back to his sister Nell in 1916 before heading to France. The postcard never reached Nell and only arrived at its intended destination almost 100 years later when Alfred’s niece and nephew were tracked down by a historian.

“Until then, they had no idea they had an uncle Alfred.

The family never spoke about him after he died fighting for his country, so it was a very moving moment for us all when together we visited the camp where the postcard was written all those years ago.”

*Hear the full story at 10.40am on Tuesday, February 25 The British Women’s Institute is born in Singleton “The WI movement actually originated in Canada in 1897 but began here when the Agricultural Organisation Society appointed a Canadian, Madge Watt, to establish Women’s Institutes across the UK.

“Mrs Watt had friends in Sussex and so there was a degree of luck to the fact that Singleton became the first English WI group. That said, the women of the village were a determined lot. They owed much to the landlady of the local pub, Mrs Lashley, who gave them a place to meet.

“In 1915, it was almost unheard of for women to enter public houses but this wasn’t normal life – this was a reaction to the Great War. Men weren’t around to do their usual tasks and the ladies needed to take action. The Women’s Institute movement was born and set about tending the land and keeping a war-torn nation going.

“Singleton WI is still going strong and the ladies are as determined as they were 100 years ago.”

* Hear the full story at 10.40am on Wednesday, February 26 East Grinstead soldier becomes first Private to be awarded the Victoria Cross “Sidney Godley was the first Private in the First World War to receive a prestigious Victoria Cross for his bravery during the first battle of the Great War.

“When war was declared, Godley, a Royal Fusilier, was immediately sent to France to help stop the advancing German army. The Royal Fusiliers were ordered to hold two bridges over the Mons-Conde Canal with two machine guns while the rest of the British Army retreated.

“When the three gunners were killed, Godley stepped into their place and began firing. Within a few minutes of taking over, a shell exploded by the side of Godley and a piece of shrapnel entered his back.

“Although in terrible pain, he continued firing at the Germans trying to cross the bridge. A bullet hit him in the head and lodged in his skull. Godley’s single-handed defence of the bridge for two hours gave the men enough time to retreat.

“He was born and lived in East Grinstead where they now intend to lay a commemorative paving stone to recognise his bravery.”

*Hear the full story at 8.15am on Friday, February 28