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Horatio Clare creates sound walk for St Non’s – call out for public contributions

Community Project

Horatio Clare creates new sound walk for St Non's

Members of the public are being invited to contribute to an exciting new project, which aims to celebrate the history, landscape and people of Pembrokeshire’s iconic St Non’s through the medium of sound.

Sitting above the cliffs less than a mile outside St Davids, with views across St Brides Bay and out to Skomer and Grassholm, St Non’s Chapel and Holy Well is where, according to tradition, Non gave birth to David. St Non and St David, the Patron Saint of Wales, influenced the spread of Christianity across the 6th century Celtic world, including in Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany.

This spectacular, historical and wild location will be the jumping off point for award-winning writers/broadcasters Laura Barton and Horatio Clare, who have been commissioned by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority to create a sound walk podcast on the history, people and landscape of St Non’s. Horatio and Laura will be working alongside Pembrokeshire resident consultant producer Graham Da Gama Howells and BBC Sound engineer Andy Fells.

The St Non’s sound walk will be an audio experience driven by the voices and the music of this special place and community. Listeners will learn about springs, saints, chapels, pilgrims, natural history, language, archaeology, farming and land use, modernity, conservation and the wider significance of this place for Welsh identity and European culture. The finished piece will be available as a podcast to be downloaded from anywhere in the world, with the aim of bringing the place, its history and its people to an international audience.

Call out for contributers and opportunity to learn new skills!

Local writers, artists, musicians, archaeologists, environmentalists, surfers, storytellers, walkers, climbers, boaters and fishers are invited to tell their stories. The production team is also offering opportunities for young residents of the area to gain training, development and work experience in broadcasting, audio recording and research. Contact Horatio Clare on horatioclare@hotmail.com

Horatio Clare has been twice shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year, include Running for the Hills (Somerset Maugham Award), A Single Swallow, Down to the Sea in Ships (Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year), Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot (Branford Boase Award), The Light in the Dark, Orison for a Curlew and Something of his Art: Walking to Lubeck with J S Bach. His latest book is Heavy Light: a story of madness, mania and healing. Horatio presents Radio 3’s acclaimed annual Sound Walks series, which have taken listeners along Offa’s Dyke, across Germany in the footsteps of J S Bach, to the Black Forest for Winter Wanderer, along Greenland’s Arctic Circle Trail and most recently to the East Coast for Sunrise Soundwalks.

Laura Barton writes for a variety of publications including The Guardian, The Observer, and The Independent. Her work has often focused on music, gender, and landscape. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 and has made documentaries on subjects ranging from tomboys to confidence, to music and rivers. Notes From a Musical Island, exploring the relationship between music and the British landscape, ran for three series. 

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Archive Community News

On Land’s Edge – new festival for North Pembrokeshire

Community Project

On Land's Edge - new festival for North Pembrokeshire

On Land’s Edge is a very special new festival for North Pembrokeshire, celebrating its unique culture, history, landscape, and the spirit of endeavour that has forged connections to the rest of the world.

24th 25th 26th September 2021

 

Tickets now available! Click here for full exciting programme and to book tickets! 

With the support of Ancient Connections, funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme, the festival will feature new works throughout, a programme of live performance with, Jon Gower, David Pepper,  Ceri Ashe, Jobina Tinnemans, Deb Winter, Lorna Osborn, Mathew Bale, Nia Harries, Mike Lewis, Brian Manton, Geraint Lewis and The Goodwick Brass Band plus a cast of representing the best of local talent.

The 3 day festival will take place in locations around Fishguard and Goodwick celebrating stories embedded in its unique history, landscape, and personal experience. Theatr Gwaun, Fishguard’s community theatre will ‘host’ the festival and offer a warm welcome with hospitality provided in cooperation with local food and beverage producers.

The festival programme will showcase new original material for the spoken word, music, and film and feature guest appearances by creative personalities who have been inspired by this unique part of West Wales.

Full programme details on www.theatrgwaun.com and all social media.

Theatr Gwaun, Fishguard’s community theatre will host the festival, coordinating events that will take place in a several venues including those that can offer hospitality featuring North Pembrokeshire impressive food and beverage producers.

The festival programme will showcase new original material for the spoken word, music, and film and feature guest appearances by established creative personalities who have been inspired by this unique part of West Wales.

Date: March 2020 – March 2021

Project Outputs: Community event and legacy costumes

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Bedwyr Williams selected for cross-border public art project

Following the community consultation, Ancient Connections is delighted to announce that artist Bedwyr Williams working with Contemporary Art Society has been selected to create the new piece of public art titled ‘Do the Little Things’ that will link St Davids with Ferns, Wexford.

 

Bedwyr, who is based in Caernafon, North Wales, has proposed to create a series of giant beehives, three in St Davids Cathedral grounds and three in Ferns (location to be decided). These beautiful structures would be modelled on traditional skeps, and although they would be much larger than a typical beehive, they are functional hives and would house real bee colonies. The artist has proposed that the communities in each location will take over the care for the bees and compare the unique flavour of the honey produced with their neighbours across the Irish Sea through exchange visits.

 

The decision to select Bedwyr from the shortlist of five artists, was made by a cross-border panel of specialists, who unanimously agreed that Bedwyr’s proposal bridged ancient traditions with modern concerns for the environment and biodiversity as well as highlighting the story of friendship between St David and St Aidan. According to legend, St Aidan was mentored by St David, who gave him a gift of bees before Aidan returned to Ireland to found the monastery in Ferns.

 

Bedwyr’s proposal was also the overall favourite with the communities when the scores were averaged out, with a Pembrokeshire voter saying “I like the fact that this is a “living” sculpture, in that it will house live bee colonies. This will provide much needed pollinating insects in both communities and continue the ancient tradition of bee keeping”. And a Wexford voter saying “This project is simplicity itself, I particularly like the idea of the bees collecting the pollen to bring it back to the beehive and being turned into lovely honey. It would be a great idea and it would help to conserve and safeguard our environment”.

Bedwyr says:

“I’m interested in objects that invite communities to become active participants to make the artwork whole. I want people to become fully engaged in the artwork, doing the little things to bring the artwork to life, forgetting themselves and their daily concerns for a few hours. St David’s last words were “Gwnewch y pethau bychain” or “Do the little things.” This ethos has guided the development of my proposal which is founded on the story of St David and St Aidan and steeped in the magic and history of these two intertwined locations”.

Bedwyr will now engage with the communities in both regions to drill down into the detail of how to translate this wonderful concept into a successful venture in practical terms.