Development thinking
History is at the heart of the storylines captured within the installations.
As an example we would look at the stories relating to the old pathways and include laser cut words cut through the Corten sheets that build a narrative into the pieces that have been informed directly from the community.
There are other stories such as the straw plaiters - we envisage a straw plaiter weaving straw which flows into the artwork and becomes part of the physical infrastructure of the artwork. These are the Talking Points that sit within the flowing arch or horseshoe that overlays each artwork.
Cut into the horse shoe is a Headline that encapsulates the main theme for each artwork. Each artwork has a hidden or unexplained Thing.
This is the thing that sits at the bottom corner of each artwork.
There is an opportunity to add value to each artwork by mapping the landscape with a number of structures. Each structure carries a similar concept but with a varying theme which taken together adds value to each of the artworks by being part of an overall suite of Interpretative Installations. The artworks can be further enhanced by adding trails and markers that lead into and away from the community into the wider landscape. An opportunity for new people to find old stories and for them to begin creating their own stories anew.
Concept thinking
The concept began with a shape a network of elements woven around a shape a series of shapes built on the “old ways” Then the names of things began to emerge. People, Place, Thing became the central axis around which a new shape emerged. The elements have receded into the landscape.
Their significance only that of the unifying the places into one. People Place Thing have become the place setting for a new and emerging landscape. People Ramblers, travellers, drovers, explorers.
The Place is built into a landscape criss-crossed with ancient paths and deep history. Places have names and these names are still to be found: Plaiters Place, Puddle Hill, Houstone, Hoh, Tun, Maidenbower, Tithe Farm. Some of these names can still be found but some are lost in the landscape but remain in people’s memories.
Artist statement - DROVING.
Theme of artwork EARTH. Emphasis PLACE NAMING.
Sketch concept for Droving
Drove Roads
Buckinghamshire is riddled with old roads. Some driven by cattle droving, others by footsteps and many by simply by people following a sensible route - whether it be over the dry raised chalk ridges rather than the wetlands that surround it or by tunnels through trees. These “desire lines” link us to the past showing that people moving through the landscape have followed the same routes for many centuries. Often these are routes to market and the troughs created in the land by cattle hooves create these “holloways”. When cattle came to a slope, their hooves chewed the ground up as they tried to slow down or gain purchase.
The disturbed soil was washed away by rain and over years the road sank to the bedrock. These have become mythical and magical and looking for these routes connect us to the landscape and the past. Many of these routes, such as the Icknield Way are well know and well used today as they have always been. These are routes that carry people to places but also provide meeting places. Some clues to these are where paths meet, and people speak. You may find inns and turnpikes. Hedges too, tell their story and many comprise hawthorn and according to the most popular theory, one new species arrives in a hedge every century, which makes them easy to date. Most interesting of all are the hedges that were originally forest. In land that had never previously been farmed, the villagers would fell the trees and hollow out a few acres of forest, leaving a band of woodland around it to form the hedge. And when a gap appears or a country road takes a 900 turn, that gap may well lead you on to an old droveway. Roads link villages or population centres, but drove roads tended to avoid them unless there was a large market there.
Once there was an inn on average every four miles on busy routes. The smaller ones have disappeared altogether; nearly all the larger ones are now farms or private houses. The pubs that still survive are mostly on the turnpikes (now A-roads) which replaced the old routes in the 18th century. The others lost their customers because they tended to be built in the middle of nowhere: drovers liked to avoid contact with local herds. Most drovers’ inns seem to be large and rambling, near a crossroads and with plenty of outbuildings. Landlords charged a lot for grass, but welcomed the manure dropped by the beasts so much that they were known to offer the men an extra breakfast free of charge in the hope of more contributions.
The lead drover constantly needed to scan the country ahead: to spot rustlers and highwaymen, to mark the next brook or the next inn, to gauge whether the inn was full by how well-trodden the grass ahead appeared. He could also be seen by local farmers who might offer a good price for some of his herd. If he could sell his stock or buy fresh animals for a good price, he would. England used to be a boggier place 200 years ago than it is today, and a beast could easily lose a plate (shoe) as it pulled its foot out of the mud. So low ground was to be avoided.
Thanks to www.localdroveroads.co.uk
Artist statement - OVER ONE, OVER TWO.
Theme of artwork BLUEWATERS WAY. Emphasis NATURALISTIC AND PLAYFUL.
OVER ONE OVER TWO
The aim of this artwork is to pay homage to the straw plaiting that was once popular throughout Central Bedfordshire and gave rise to Luton Town’s football team being named the “Hatters”. The seven-end plait was the staple product of the British industry. It was also known as Dunstable plait or Luton plait. Made from whole straw. The long ends along the edge are the speel ends that have not yet been cut off. By plaiting with short lengths frequent joining was necessary. Plaiters In Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire were praised for the regularity of their joins.
A sequence of even joining produced a strong plait that was valued by the hat manufacturers. Plaiting straw to make hats and bonnets has been carried out in the UK for centuries but in the nineteenth century it became a major local cottage industry supplying the hat factories of Luton. In the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire the main female employment was straw plaiting in the home. Why Luton became the centre of the straw hat industry is not known for sure. Some say it is because the soil of the Chilterns grew a suitable straw. The imagery for the artwork will be drawn from straw plaits, in particular the Dunstable Plait. The seven-end plait was the staple product of the British industry. Made from whole straw. The long ends along the edge are the speel ends that have not yet been cut off. By plaiting with short lengths frequent joining was necessary.
Plaiters In Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire were praised for the regularity of their joins. A sequence of even joining produced a strong plait that was valued by the hat manufacturers. The Dunstable Plait There was a rhyme that they recited to remember the sequence of the plaiting: Over one, under two: Pull it tight, and that will do.
There are motifs that lend themselves beautifully to being fabricated out of steel that can replicate the intricicies of straw plaiting. These motifs can also help to keep alive such an important part of the area’s history. The Dunstable Plait would be the main motif, along with the rhyme for making it. Added to this would be some of the social history of hat making an dstraw plaiting. Response to the Bluewaters Way There is a requirement for the artwork to link to the Bluewaters Way and the following statement from the Arts Strategy describes this consideration: “to provide an extension of Bluewaters Wood. The trail provides opportunities for natural artistic installations”. Our response to this is to focus on the natural element of STRAW. We have represented it using wrought iron elements that weave in and out of the main figures. The people • Place • Thing are: People - these figures are taken from theDunstable History Group website showing local ladies plaiting straw. Place - Straw and in particular the Dunstable Plait. Thing - Harvest Mice weave in and out of the figures providing playful motifs.
Artist Statement - COME ALONG THE OLD ROAD.
Theme of artwork BLUEWATERS WAY. Emphasis NATURALISTIC AND PLAYFUL.
COME ALONG THE OLD ROAD
Buckinghamshire is riddled with old roads. Some driven by cattle droving, others by footsteps and many by simply by people following a sensible route - whether it be over the dry raised chalk ridges rather than the wetlands that surround it or by tunnels through trees. These “desire lines” link us to the past showing that people moving through the landscape have followed the same routes for many centuries. Often these are routes to market and the troughs created in the land by cattle hooves create these “holloways”. When cattle came to a slope, their hooves chewed the ground up as they tried to slow down or gain purchase. The disturbed soil was washed away by rain and over years the road sank to the bedrock.
These have become mythical and magical and looking for these routes connect us to the landscape and the past. Many of these routes, such as the Icknield Way are well know and well used today as they have always been. These are routes that carry people to places but also provide meeting places. Some clues to these are where paths meet, and people speak. You may find inns and turnpikes. Hedges too, tell their story and many comprise hawthorn and according to the most popular theory, one new species arrives in a hedge every century, which makes them easy to date.
Most interesting of all are the hedges that were originally forest. In land that had never previously been farmed, the villagers would fell the trees and hollow out a few acres of forest, leaving a band of woodland around it to form the hedge. And when a gap appears or a country road takes a 900 turn, that gap may well lead you on to an old droveway. Roads link villages or population centres, but drove roads tended to avoid them unless there was a large market there.
A meeting Our story that is central to our artwork centres around a chance meeing along an old drove road. “Having rambled to the junction of the two roads upon Chalk Hill on the sultry morning of July 24th 1797, I rested until a boy, trudging & singing at a great rate, came up to me. ‘Come along the old road, Sir,’ said he, ‘it is a mortal sight nearer, and I suppose you are thinking which to take.’ “I found my companion a most famous little chatterer, not much above three feet high and 15 years of age. He told me he had been to Smithfield with some sheep; that he went every week and had 30 miles to walk before night. His frock [smock] was completely bound up and tied across his shoulders. Turnpike tickets were stuck in his hatband, noticing the number of sheep he had paid for, and the lash of his whip was twisted round the handle, which he converted into a walking-stick. “I soon found so small a being was a character of no small consequence upon the road; and he told me any... cart would give him a lift for nothing. He was familiar with everyone we passed...” Thanks to The following letter, which I have abridged, appeared in The Gentleman’s Magazine. The writer called himself “A. Rambler” and his greeting was to “Mr Urban”. My thanks to Chris McCann for finding it.
Thanks to www.localdroveroads.co.uk