is a collaborative project that explores Basildon’s past and present with a focus on nature and heritage within the borough. Basildon Borough History,
, its volunteers and local people have been suggesting pieces of built heritage to be celebrated and remembered within the Borough. These images have been used to create a panorama depicting an alternative skyline of Basildon from a chronological perspective.
This
lenticular screen, which was launched today, allows two contrasting images to appear to change and move as you walk past the screen, creating an optical illusion. The lenticular screen is located at the back entrance of the cinema in Basildon, which acts as second entrance for visitors arriving by car or foot. This area is currently the car park off Great Oaks, near The Basildon Post Office Depot.
Students from ten local primary schools including Ryedene, Lee Chapel, Millhouse, Fairhouse, Pionner, Janet Duke, Noak Bridge, Great Berry, Northlands and Ghyllgrove School have all been exploring the importance of local nature through leaf rubbings and identification. The nature panorama depicts key green spaces around the borough with each leaf inserted (over 2,000) having been made by a different child.
Accompanying the lenticular screen is a series of QR codes which intend to animate the screen, from an audio history tour spoken by local people, a nature map showing where each schools leaves can be found and more.
Richard Feldwick, Churchwarden for St Catherine's Wickford, was interviewed for the project and St Catherine's features in the panorama.
Other recent projects with a heritage focus include
The BasildON Creative People & Places programme which is built on multiple
projects that aim to engage across all of our communities. These were inspired by a range of unique cultural activities that were developed and assessed before putting in the application for funding to
Arts Council England. Alongside this, extensive community discussions were undertaken to ensure the activity is what local people want to see!
‘Young Pioneers’ is a series of youth-led creative activities, developed through our creative skills development programme for 16-25 year olds, funded and supported by ReGeneration:2013, a Creative Estuary project. Supported by industry experts, the young pioneers have developed their own project that uses creativity to drive change in their local areas. Halls Corner Film: Made in collaboration with local filmmaker Maz Murray, Halls Corner Film explores Wickford’s past and present through intergenerational storytelling between Young Pioneer Em and her family.
Watch the film here!Field Artists is a creative exploration project set in the Basildon Borough. Artists embed themselves within a community within 5 areas of the borough, and co-create work in response to the connection they create. The Field Artists residencies support artists investigating what is happening within 5 areas of Basildon Borough - Wickford, Laindon, Billericay, Pitsea and Vange, and Basildon itself. This artist led process will enable better understanding of communities and residents, and aims to produce a series of public art pieces across the Borough alongside a digitally held archive of the residencies.
Syd Moore is an acclaimed novelist and short-story writer whose work focusses on the historic witch hunts in Essex. Her first book, The Drowning Pool (HarperCollins, 2011) looked at the legend of Sarah Moore, a notorious sea witch, in Moore’s home town of Leigh-on-Sea. The bestselling Witch Hunt (HarperCollins, 2012) investigated the hysteria of 1645–47 inflamed by the notorious Witchfinder General. Moore continues to explore the witch hunts of Essex in her current series The Essex Witch Museum Mysteries (Strange Magic, Strange Sight, Strange Fascination, Strange Tombs) published by OneWorld. The Strange Days of Christmas (OneWorld, 2019) is her first short-story collection. Prior to writing, Moore was a lecturer, worked extensively in the publishing industry and presented Channel 4’s book programme, Pulp. She was the founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine, and co-creator of Superstrumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes. Moore was also the Assistant Curator of ABBA: Super Troupers The Exhibition that launched at the O2 in December 2019 and co-curated This is What an Essex Girl Looks Like at the Beecroft Gallery, as part of her work with the Essex Girls Liberation Front. Having founded the ‘Front’ she spearheaded the campaign to have the definition of ‘Essex Girl’ removed from the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary. And was successful.
For the Field Artists project, she has contributed an
essay about Wickford which includes mention of
St Mary's Runwell and the Running Well. In the piece, she concludes: "Wickford has its issues and, like other places, could do with some investment in the community to become whole again. But its soul is expansive, unique, eclectic, ancient and generous too. And of course, a town’s soul is its people. Wickfordians should feel very proud." Also on the site is a short
film capturing Madame Curiosité’s Pub Quiz Caper live at The Railway Club in Wickford, an interactive performance piece scripted and performed by Moore.
For more on St Mary's Church and the Running Well, see my poem
'Runwell' by clicking
here.
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