A Land is Jacquetta Hawkes’ seminal work, and a classic piece of British Nature writing. It is the history of the shaping of Britain and its people from the first, lifeless, Pre-Cambrian rocks to the days of the ice-cream carton and the hydrogen bomb.
First, as an archaeologist and geologist, Hawkes paints a picture of the creation of Britain from the very first forming of the earth’s crust, through periods marked by lifeless worlds of rock, water and air, to the first emergence of life that senses its surroundings. The worms and trilobites mark the beginning of the story of life that evolves through the great reptiles, dinosaurs and finally humans. This is science writing at its very best. Engrossing stories, curious facts and powerful narrative combine under the umbrella of poetic writing and unadulterated passion for the subject.
“Under the ravishing light of an Alaskan sky, objects are spilling from the thawing tundra linking a Yup’ik village to its hunter-gatherer past. In the shifting sand dunes of a Scottish shoreline, impressively preserved hearths and homes of Neolithic farmers are uncovered. In a grandmother’s disordered mind, memories surface of a long-ago mining accident and a ‘mither who was kind’.
In this luminous new essay collection, acclaimed author Kathleen Jamie visits archeological sites and mines her own memories – of her grandparents, of youthful travels – to explore what surfaces and what reconnects us to our past. As always she looks to the natural world for her markers and guides. Most movingly, she considers, as her father dies and her children leave home, the surfacing of an older, less tethered sense of herself. Surfacing offers a profound sense of time passing and an antidote to all that is instant, ephemeral, unrooted.”
I am about to get very busy with a number of Volunteer roles based primarily at Charterhouse Gardens & Heritage Park for Historic Coventry Trust whose vision is to find innovative ways to sustain historic places and to inspire, involve and connect people with the city’s history.
Historic Coventry Trust have a portfolio of properties preserving the heritage in the City and which they are custodians of. These include Charterhouse, a medieval monastic house. Charterhouse Heritage Park, a wildlife rich habitat and Paxton’s Arboretum located at London Road Cemetery, one of the most important Victorian cemeteries in the country, the recently renovated Burges & Hales Street, home to independent shopping, the City Gates, two medieval gatehouses that formed part of the City Wall, Priory Row, 15th Century timber framed cottages in the Cathedral quarter of the city (both have been renovated and re-imagined as luxury bolt-holes in which you can book a stay) and the recently renovated music and entertainment venue Draper’s Hall located adjacent to the New Cathedral and Cathedral ruins.
The roles I will be undertaking include Heritage Park Volunteer, Volunteer Research Assistant and Volunteer Kitchen Garden Assistant. The roles include environment management including growing and harvesting fruits, vegetables, foraging and fermenting, gardening, helping to clear weeds, seasonal planting and horticulture, landscape management over the River Sherbourne, the wider woodlands, Charterhouse Heritage Park and Paxton’s Arboretum as well as researching the history of the sites through specific themes and briefs set by the Trust, to help people engage further with the sites through the stories uncovered. The aim is to build and expand the knowledge bank of the sites, which feed into everything from tour guide content, talks, to educational, interpretation and training material. And finally I will be bringing new life to the Charterhouse gardens through the planning and development of the kitchen garden, planting the raised beds and herb garden and following the journey from soil to plate, producing a large harvest and keeping a natural diary to document the journey.
I am passionate about people, place, culture & heritage and how we can co-create meaning, agency, a sense of identity and belonging through collaborative creative practice. I will be conducting these activities alongside my own research organised around four routes; Place, Memory, Identity & Mapping as well as investigating sites of interest, from the statue of a Druid to a mythical island. I will also be continuing in my role as one of the Non-Executive Directors at Holyhead Studios, Coventry, where we host a variety of artists practices from Printmaking to Conceptual Sculpture.
For more information about the portfolio and the work of Historic Coventry Trust click this link Historic Coventry Trust.
