St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - July/August 2018

Redcliffe cultures...
REDCLIFFE GARDENING CLUB
— ANGELA HOGG
PECO THEATRE: REDCLIFFE RAPTURE
— ANGELA HOGG
IT’S 21 JUNE, MIDSUMMER’S DAY
and today we pulled up eight
wheelbarrows worth of weeds —
thistles, dandelions, docks and Jack
Go-to-Bed-at-Noon to give more
growing space to Moon Daisies,
Sweet William and Love-in-the-Mist.
It’s prime growing time so the beds
of potatoes, cabbages, carrots and
peas could do with the same treatment
next week. Anyone walking
along Ship Lane should look out for
two wooden boxes of new shallot
and onion plants near the compost
bins where Ship Lane meets Prewett
Street.
Since last September when the NGO,
Growing Support ended its two year
contract to support the Redcliffe
Garden Club, club members have
worked very hard as an action
team, but we realised we needed
to do more strategic seasonal planning.
At the most recent Committee
meeting (comprising all members) it
was decided, inter alia, that we would
map all the green areas round the
flats (wild garden, rockery, raised
beds etc) and perhaps introduce a bit
of modest landscaping to enhance
the areas and make them more
exciting places for adults to relax in
and children to play in.
Architect George Lovesmith, who
helps facilitate Playing Out, is also an
Architecture tutor at UWE. He hopes
to encourage some undergraduates
to adopt the mapping and landscaping
of the Redcliffe high-rise
triangle as one of their study projects.
Good practice for them and an exciting
prospect for us! We shall be keeping
readers posted.
Angela Hogg
Photo: Rhys Williams
THE REDCLIFFE RAPTURE was performed in the Faithspace
Centre on Saturday 23 June to a packed audience.The actors were
local residents and people connected to Redcliffe and/or the
church — Marion Durbur stepped in at the last moment in the key role of
Historian.
The performance was the first draft of a new site-specific play and the
culmination of 7 months of 7 volunteers collecting 57 Redcliffe based
stories. The plot deftly combined these historic stories with earth and
water eruptions which divided the Redcliffe community. They began to
attribute the disruption to new development work in the area. (Readers
may deduce any post-war and current parallels for themselves).
The actors were a very well coordinated team portraying a complex
situation. At the end we were all suddenly ushered to the church to watch
and listen to an enchanting audio visual projection of the stories. Year 5
of St Redcliffe Redcliffe Church Primary School participated in making this
projection in concert with Rachel Aspinwall — Director of the whole project,
Redcliffe Present Perfect: Histories of Now.
And… not to be forgotten: the most elderly Redcliffe resident to contribute
a local story was invited to cut the red ribbon and formally open the story
collecting website.
Angela Hogg