For concerned book lovers: These books were going to be pulped, they haven’t been wantonly destroyed 🙂
Category: Environment
Silent Sunday
The Rats Bay Shindig – a weekend of arts, culture and river trips. Plus, good news from the Coastal Communities Fund.
A new family friendly extravaganza of festivities is taking place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th April, when the area surrounding Sun Pier in Chatham will come alive with arts and culture between 11am and 5pm each day.
Overlooking the pier, Sun Pier House is opening the doors to the new Sun Pier Gallery and Tearoom for the first time. With panoramic river views, it’s set to become a scenic retreat in the busy town centre and will launch with a large exhibition of work by the 15 resident artists: ‘Presenting, Sun Pier House’ will incorporate a variety of art, craft and fashion.
The weekend also witnesses the launch of the first charter boat trips in a generation from the newly refurbished Sun Pier, with the Sailing Barge Edith May and Jetstream Tours providing unique river experiences for all ages. On dry land you’ll find the inaugural Sun Pier Arts Market, a new outdoor market set to take place regularly throughout the year. Stallholders will be offering a variety of work to buy, food to sample, activities to try and classic carnival games for all the family.
The Rats Bay Shindig has been instigated by the managers of new creative venue Sun Pier House, with the intention to bring some much needed life back to the west end of Chatham High Street. Over the course of the two days there is a full spectrum of entertainment on offer, including art workshops, live music performances, river trips, dance classes, exhibitions, history tours, evening functions and a Sunday night cult film screening. It’s a weekend not to be missed!
For enquiries please contact Heather Burgess on 01634 812 805 or heather@sunpierhouse.co.uk
In the past two years, the Medway art scene has seen a massive boom of activity in the west end of Chatham, with Sun Pier House, Printed Wonders, Coalshed Press and the Nucleus Hub all based there. This is set to expand further, with news that Medway Council was successful in its bid for funding from the Coastal Communities Fund. Granted £598,525, the council bid states:
“This project aims to drive the regeneration of Rochester and Chatham High Street by developing business units within existing but currently redundant space around Sun Pier House and The Arches. The area will be provided with incubation space and social enterprise support provision for cultural/creative industries. The project aims to stimulate activity in the creative arts and provide specialist training for the unemployed through an innovative “Art for Work” programme, providing access to employment in this growing business sector.”
For join in a conversation about the fund, search #coastalcommunitiesfund on Twitter.
Ranscombe Farm Touring Exhibition
What does Ranscombe Farm Reserve mean to you? was a postcard competition organised by Plantlife, an organisation that protects wild plants and wildlife at Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve, in partnership with Medway Council, as part of a Heritage Lottery project to continue Plantlife’s on-going education and outreach work engaging and involving local people in it’s wildllfe, landscape and heritage.
Launched in April this year, participants were asked to design a postcard-sized piece of art that illustrated what Ranscombe meant to them. Plantlife were looking for entries that were exciting and original showcasing Ranscombe’s wild flowers, landscape and history. There was an opportunity to win one of 15 prizes to be awarded across four age categories from young children to adults. In addition, the winners’ artwork has been printed as real picture-postcards.
To inspire local people, a series of free creative workshops were organised, run by professional artists at Ranscombe Farm Reserve, and free nature-inspired workshops were also offered to schools across Medway, with a handful of schools taking up the offer. Children created nature-inspired mono-printed flags and designed their own flowers.
The competition closed at the end of July with the final winning entries selected by three judges. The winners attended an awards ceremony on Sunday 1 September, as part of Plantlife’s Woodland Open Day with The Worshipful The Mayor of Medway Councillor Josie Iles as the guest of honour.
To celebrate this competition, an exhibition of the final winning artwork can still be seen in the following libraries across Medway:
· Cuxton Library – now until Tuesday 12th November
· Luton Library – Tuesday 12th November – Saturday 23rd November
· Rochester Library – Monday 25th November – Saturday 14th December
You can also find out much more about the work of Plantlife and Ranscombe Farm Reserve with various information leaflets available as well as the opportunity to take home a postcard pack of the winners’ artwork (while stocks last!).
For further information please contact Plantlife on:
Telephone: 01634 292062
www.plantlife.org.uk/ranscombe
Twitter @Ranscombe_Farm
The Little Chapel, Guernsey – smallest chapel in the world?
If you know different, you’ll have to let me know!
We discovered this little gem on holiday recently. It’s both a labour of love and a work of art, begun in 1914 by a Brother Deodat of Les Vauxbelets. On his arrival there, he set out to recreate the grotto and basilica of Lourdes and, with a few stops and starts (read the history here) the one you see was finally finished. The chapel is meticulously and gloriously decorated with pebbles, seashells and broken china, and guardianship is now in the hands of the Blanchelande Girls College.
Medway: Brilliant or crap?
Freelance journalist, Sam Jordison, has just released details of his latest book, Crap Towns, a tongue in cheek look at Britain’s urban sprawls. I don’t know how you nominated which town should be included but some Medway folk decided that our town* deserved a spot inside the covers.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know Medway isn’t perfect but find me a town in Britain that is. With the exception of the idyllic one road villages scattered across the country (and look closer, you’re sure to find even they have their less desirable spots) every town will have the same issues as anywhere in Medway – the late night revellers and other social concerns. The difference in Medway is the amount of people doing positive things to give the local community a reason to be proud. And yes, while there’s a nice line in self deprecating humour “If Kent is the garden of England, Medway is its compost heap” and we’re happy to take the piss out of ourselves, we’ll jump to the defence of our patch. There’s a huge number of individuals and groups working to make Medway a better place and it’s frustrating when some residents clearly can’t be bothered to find out about them.
No-one likes councils, it’s just a fact of life – doesn’t matter who’s in charge; But – free festivals abound for Medway’s residents, beginning with the Chinese New Year celebration in February and moving through the summer with the English Festival; Sweeps; Dickens; Fuse; Armed Forces Day; River Festival; Under Siege; Medieval Merriment; Will Adams, and then in December, we have the Dickensian Christmas. And they’re packed, not just with locals enjoying them but also bringing in people from outside the area to spend their cash in our local businesses.
If live music is what you want, we have Homespun, ME1, TEA Concerts, Medway Eyes, Motherboy Noise, Suburban Kings, Manny’s Music and more, holding festivals and free gigs night after night in local pubs and clubs. Phil Dillon of Medway Eyes is a major fan and supporter – check out his Flickr stream.
We’re rich in art and culture activities, and having a local consortium recently awarded Creative People and Places funding, this is only going to increase, with more people engaging the community in arts activities. Aligned to those already doing it – Rochester Literature Festival, LV21 and Creatabot to name but three – ongoing exhibits throughout the year at our galleries and other, more unusual spaces, and you’ll be tripping over arts activity from the moment you cross your doorstep. Assuming, of course, that you’re one of those positive residents who can actually be bothered to seek out them out. What’s on guides (both council and privately funded, such as WOW magazine) can be readily picked up or received through your letter box. Search on line for what’s going on in Medway and you’ll be inundated with results.
Heritage: Absolutely no excuse to not know about our history with the RE Museum; Historic Dockyard, Fort Amherst, Medway Archive Centre, the Guildhall Museum and Medway Libraries activities. Plus, it’s all around you, living history in the walls of the castle, cathedral and other ancient buildings.
Sport and hobbies: Loads of sports clubs encourage all ages to get involved, from badminton or sailing. Want something less strenuous? How about archaeology or Viking re – enactment?
Residents’ Associations: The community folks who, with or without funding, work tirelessly to make their area better: South Shore RA; Chatham Big Local; All Saints Community; DNA; White Road Group.
Parks and open spaces: Our landscapes are lovely, with Riverside, Ranscombe, The Vines, Victoria Gardens, Broomhill Park and so many more, most with ‘Friends of’ groups looking after them. Initiatives like Full Frontal Gardens have brought colour and nature to brick and concrete streets.
All the above mentioned are a mere snapshot of what can be found happening in Medway. Whatever your hobby, interest or work, you’ll find others like you and the means by which to meet them and share your enthusiasm. Many community activities are free, so why waste time and energy being negative? Embrace what’s on offer to enrich your life.
*Medway isn’t actually a town. It’s a river, upon which sit the five areas that make up the Medway Towns: Rainham, Gillingham, Chatham, Strood and the City of Rochester – we don’t recognize admin errors.
Artists in the Woods: Gunpowder Works, Oare
Top 10 Tree Tunnels of the World
These are beautiful – and two in good ol’ Blighty!
Discussions on the Urban Fringe
Finding an interesting hashtag on Twitter is usually a short term piece of fun (e.g #MedwayFilms: Naked Gun Wharf; Nightmare on Elm Court etc). However, the #urbanfringe hashtag not only introduced me to artists Jo Roberts and Stephen Turner (interviewed here) but offered the opportunity to attend the Urban Fringe seminar and find out more about the project overall.
Since I’ve covered Jo and Stephen’s personal journeys already, my focus during the event, held at UCA Rochester, was on the film Recorded Delivery, and the thoughts behind it of makers Simon Barker and Nayan Kulkarni, the other artists commissioned by the Kent Architecture Centre for the project.
The split screen narrative drew together two very different communities within a short distance of one another: Medway Gate, a fairly new housing development which ‘ticked all the boxes’ for new developments, and the Medway Bridge Marina – which, incidentally, I also recently visited – an established boat yard, in which local business owner, John Reynolds, opened up a cafe and social space.
Exploring the area, Simon and Nayan encountered the urban mythologies of the space: rabbit heads adorn gateways at the entrance to Medway Bridge, underpinned by stories of white witches and lost children. The film followed the journey of a trolley, laden with a guitar, from Medway Gate to the marina, where the music loving community used it to share their songs. Simon and Nayan ingratiated themselves sufficiently to be invited to film the community at play (their Halloween party) with the film makers largely ignored but sometimes posed for.
Sadly, the Medway Gate community was harder to crack, since the artists were unable to meet many of them – short of knocking on doors (not desirable) very few hung around the streets. Simon advised: “Residents complained because the developers never built the social spaces that they promised.” He and Nayan would love to replace the trolley with a boat they build in the marina – relational architecture – which they can drag to Medway Gate instead and use it to create the missing social space. Simon lamented that the inhabitants have to drive out of the area just to buy paracetamol, or a Sunday paper – a boat in situ could provide that. The first connection between the marina and Medway Gate would be firmly established, and a re-shoot of Recorded Delivery undertaken.
Stephen’s ‘Environmental Solutions’ – the fragrant waters and essential oils of Eau de Bordure (Eau de Fringe) – have their own brand: Janus, the god who faces two ways, showing the interaction between human kind and nature, which took on a pertinent edge when he quoted housing minister, Nick Boles: “We’re going to protect the greenbelt but … sometimes buildings are better”. This Jo reinforced with a discussion about whether the urban fringes and greenbelt have to be pretty to be valuable. Ominously, on that evening’s Newsnight, Boles said there’s a “huge amount of room to build houses over England.” Does he mean brownfield sites, or is he suggesting concreting England’s green and pleasant land?
Introduced by KAC’s Chris Lamb, the seminar provided a discussion board for on how to develop living space. He quoted renowned architect, Sir Terry Farrell, who said “the place is the client” in development and planning. “It’s drawing out the DNA of a place” continued Chris. “If people understand what’s unique about places where they live then they may engage more with the planning process.”
Ultimately, a space depends on its people belonging to the community. In the case of Medway Bridge Marina, the community was already there; the social space developed because of them. Just building a social space in a new housing development is unlikely to work. You need a catalyst, a resident ‘doer’ who’ll organise and cajole their neighbours to do stuff. (Think of those neighbours without whom no street parties would’ve taken place this year.) And that takes time the planners and developers seem unable to allow for – unless, do that many new developments need building? Aren’t there enough boarded up streets in England, just waiting to be reclaimed? Shouldn’t those existing spaces with established communities be renovated and restored first?
Vandalism and anti-social behaviour in those places can be tackled – we’ve community doers in Medway actioning change right now, with the help of schemes like Big Local. If new developments are to take place, we can only hope the planners do as the Urban Fringe project suggests: See the area, feel the area, engage the existing communities within its borders and shape it to fit.
To read the best of what’s happening in arts, culture, architecture and more nationally, the BBC’s The Culture Show link is here.
Exploring the culture and heritage of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey has been wronged. Outsiders believe this corner of Kent to be both a cultural and physical waste ground, with maritime industries long since left and people fending for themselves with regard to their heritage and culture.
This perception is unjust. On spending just a few hours over the bridge, I found four real gems for both the resident community and visitors alike to take pride in and become involved with, to learn and evolve from.
Originally an old school building on the site of Queenborough Castle, the Castle Connections Community Centre was home last weekend to the 365 Exhibition, the photographic record taken by the community of one year in the life of Sheppey. Due to its popularity this has now been extended for a further month.
Castle Connections, Queenborough
Chrissie Williams is the manager and she took me on a tour of the building.
“Local people formed a company, the Queenborough Town Community Centre Ltd, and set about making this building what it is. It took time and money but we’re almost self-sufficient now – we’ve a dance school based here, leisure and hobby classes, a cafe and more. And we’ve 28 volunteers, all trained in either food hygiene or first aid.”
There are two beautifully restored rooms for hire with a sympathetically restored stairwell leading to them. It’s decorated with original school photos lending it an authentic air – it actually reminded me of my old primary school, which was probably from the same era; it even smelt the same (in a good way!)
Bringing Queenborough Back to Life was a recent project and this includes getting local artists involved as well as the community at large. Chrissie continued: “We have wall space for artists in the cafe at no charge, as we want to help local artists be seen; it’s really nice for local people to have art at their fingertips.”
Castle Connections believe that encouraging art, culture and history, local people will develop an appreciation of their heritage for generations to come.
Much more than a heritage centre: Blue Town’s Jewel
The only cinema on Sheppey; tourist information; history tours; music hall; museum; cafe and, coming soon-ish, a replica deck of the HMS Victory, complete with cannon!
Blue Town Heritage Centre
The Blue Town Heritage Centre, although now a registered charity, is owned and run by Ian and Jenny Hurkett, on their pensions and the kindness of volunteers and regular visitors.
It’s an awesome place, like an historic T.A.R.D.I.S – from the outside you can’t believe how huge it is on the inside. Begun with just a couple of old cameras on a shelf, it’s now a tangible, physical history lesson.
Jenny says: “We just want people to view Sheppey for our heritage and culture; our unique selling point, there’s so much of it. The community has got behind what we’re trying to do here and it’s evolved because of them. The key is to get our young people to take a pride of place and interest in the heritage – not just ours but others off the island, so we can dispel the negative connotations.”
The heritage centre houses the only cinema on Sheppey, in the Criterion Music Hall, which was reopened specially for a one off film about Blue Town – but when a hundred people turned up, Jenny and Ian realised there was a desire that needed to be sated. Says Jenny: “We bought the place originally as a bathroom showroom business but ill health put paid to that. But the turnout for the film was so amazing it gave us a whole new direction. Word is getting around now, so if anyone is having a clear out, we’re their port of call with anything we might be able to use.”
The heritage centre buzzes with individuals and groups: a job seeker seminar in the music hall, a business meeting in the Aviation Room, a workshop in the Dockyard room and mid morning coffee breakers in the cafe. Wednesday is Tea and Flicks, where the audience watch a film of their own choosing. Next year, a six week season begins in earnest.
Barton’s Point Coastal Park is a gorgeous 40 acres of adventure space, just waiting to be invaded.
Barton’s Point Water Sports
Mandy Shade has been there for just 18 months and it’s so much more than just a business. She told me: “We’ve a beautiful lake, a cafe which I’m hoping to turn into a proper bistro, camping, events, venue hire, water sports, murder mystery evenings and at Halloween, we’ll be working with the miniature steam railway to bring a Ghost Train to life!”
Another local catalyst, Mandy is determined that future generations of islanders learn to appreciate everything they have. She’s keen to expand her work with schools, a key area in which to invest a sense of place in the local population. Making the facilities affordable and plentiful at Barton’s Point is just the start.
Fishing for people
Collaborating with all three venues for the Sheppey Promenade, Chris Reed of Big Fish Arts said: “It has been really amazing. I’ve been involved in three big festivals before but this one was a bunch of really busy people who managed to have short, concise meetings that got jobs done – it was the best collaborative festival I’ve been involved with.”
Chris Reed of Big Fish Arts
Normally a “people thing” rather than a “place thing”, Big Fish Arts have actually taken up residence in Sheerness High Street now and are looking forward to running more workshops. Chris continued: “We take the history of the island and turn it into drama, plays, stories, ghost walks and tours. We’ve recently been commissioned to produce the Milton Creek Memories project and our popular Lantern Parade will be taking place again, probably in early December. Now we’ve got this space the lantern making can really get underway and we’ll hope to involve as many in the local community as possible.”
It’s clear from speaking with these community doers that they share the same passion and aims for their island. With the focus on education, participation, engagement and community involvement, they seek to ensure that residents and outsiders alike understand and appreciate the culture and heritage of Sheppey.
Due to the nature of each of these projects, they aren’t open all day, every day – please check their individual websites for opening hours and take time to visit them, you won’t be disappointed. Other community and heritage centres are dotted around, see them in the photo gallery below:
Jaye Nolan 