Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

Update on the artists' work

Hi,

Well, time is flying by and it's only a week until the big night.  We've finished our research and have been busy creating the artworks for the event.

We're stitching, sculpting, writing, editing, creating sounds and generally running around and enjoying it!  We were very excited by the Verdin Exchange where we could have spent hours rummaging around their costume department.  We limited ourselves to an hour and came away laden with useful bits and pieces, props and some fantastic outfits!  Come along on the evening to see them!

But we aren't the only ones who have been busy.  We have run a couple of workshops with youngsters from Barnton Youth Group who will be performing on the night.  They've been as busy as bees - but we don't want to give too much away.

Also, we have worked with some ladies from the W.I. choir, who will be kindly presenting a piece of work on the 4th.  A big thank you to them. 

It's been great seeing Anderton Nature Park changing over the seasons and even in the last few weeks things are looking more autumnal.  It's also been good to see the area in the dark as it's a completely different experience.  Anyway, we have finalised the details of the walk and decided where most of the artwork will be and we are looking forward to installing the work and seeing you at the event.

We'll post some more pictures in the next couple of days.

Julia and Megan, the artists

Watch this space

The highlight of MWH Mersey Basin Week in the Upper Weaver area will be the Nantwich Riverside Environment Day - Sunday 12th October 08 - based at Shrewbridge Road car park in Nantwich.  There will be opportunities to plant a variety of wildflower seeds and plugs, have a go at willow weaving, and BBC Radio Stoke will be covering the whole event.  Come down between noon and 4pm to join in the fun

More details coming soon, or email Izzy at [email protected] for more info

birch woods

research images

Hi there

we will be posting up our favourite images from our research for the Night Garden project,

Here's a little one to be going on with!

Introduction from the 'Night Garden' artists.

Hello, this is the first update from myself ( Megan Broadmeadow) and Julia Peat. We are the two artists who are working to produce the ‘Night Garden’ event in Anderton Nature Park on the 4^th of October.

Firstly we just have to say how excited and honoured we are to be producing the event.  We have met some lovely people though workshops and research, and every time we visit the nature park we come away inspired!

We are two friends based in North Wales who are lucky enough to be able to work together to produce art and performances for various exhibitions and events across the country.  We have a strong interest in producing work for the great outdoors and try to make work that reflects the history and people from the local area, with an emphasis on finding out and reflecting on personal and sometimes obscure stories!

So the story so far with ‘Night Garden’ is that we have been doing our research, and along the way becoming obsessed with salt, factories, birds and bats!

We have held two creative writing and art workshops in the park itself with members of the public, and are going to use the results from these sessions in the actual event…although we don’t wish to say exactly how as we want it to be a surprise!

We have also visited the salt museum, Lion Salt works, and been given a guided tour of the Brunner Mond factory which is opposite the park.  The factory visit was the highlight of our year- it was fascinating! We took about 300 photos each, and got some great sound recordings.  The people from the factory have been most helpful and have invited us back to get blocks of  *limeish material for us to carve. * (despite the enjoyment of the visit I am afraid I cannot remember the technical names hence   ‘limeish’)

We have also met a keen local musician Chris Hardy who has agreed to help us create some original live sounds for the event, we think his piece will be pretty special and are very thankful for his commitment to the project.

We have also been on guided walks of the park with bird and bat experts Alan Garner and Paul Hill. We are most grateful for their advice and help.  In fact we spent last Saturday night in Northwich- not in a nightclub though- we were listening and recording the extraordinary sounds of bats!

We are now coming to the end of the research, we are bursting with ideas, and ready to get making and building our artworks… we don’t want to give too much away, but will be posting snippets of material from the workshops, and photographs from along the way.

That’s all for now, we will keep you posted!

Megan and Julia

Creweblog visits Quaker's Coppice....

Just a quick post to point out a post on CREWE BLOG today detailing the author's trip to Quaker's Coppice in Crewe with Izzy from Action Upper Weaver. Creweblogger has posted some great pictures of his trip to the site - go on, hop over and take a look......

Night Garden at Anderton Nature Park

Artists will bring the nocturnal delights of Anderton Nature Park to life by creating a ‘Night Garden’ using installations of light and sound. 

Primary school children will be working with local artist Wendy Meadley, during September, to make lanterns. 

Community groups from around Anderton will also have an opportunity to discover the Nature Park and work with artists, Julia Peat and Megan Broadmeadow, to create sound and light artworks that reflect the park's history and people's relationship with it. 

Night Garden is a Cheshire Year of Garden's 08 project managed by Vale Royal Borough Council and Action Weaver Valley, with support from Cheshire County Council, Mersey Basin Campaign, British Waterways and FOAM (Friends of Anderton and Marbury).

Students enjoy the Riverside

Just before the summer holidays started, pupils in Year 6 at Leighton Primary school in Crewe visited Nantwich Riverside for two days of river studies.

Staff from Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council, Natural England, Nantwich Museum and the Mersey Basin Campaign led activities including Willow Weaving, pond dipping, Balsam Bashing, soil sampling, and a walk around Nantwich to see how the river Weaver has been so important to the history of the town.

The days were a great opportunity for the children to put what they'd learnt about rivers into practice outdoors, and their teacher Mark Preston added that "It has also shown our Year 6's how what they learn at school can lead to environmental careers in adult life and hopefully inspired many to consider these possibilities when at high school and upwards."

Bird's eye view of Liverpool's Tall Ships Race

This weekend sees over 70 tall ships arrive in Liverpool's Wellington and Albert Docks, and local radio station Radio City have capitalised on their position atop St John's Beacon to provide a bird's eye view of the action. They have placed a webcam on top of the tower so that you can log on over the weekend and see what's happening on the Mersey. You can also keep track of the shipping movements using this satellite view as well. Be careful, I've learned from bitter experience that it can be quite addictive......

You can also watch an alternative webcam view from the Tall Ships Race official site where you'll be able to view the Parade of Sail in all its glory on Monday.

BBC Merseyside have provided some useful travel information, so if you're planning on seeing the ships in real life, check it out.....