Category Archives: River projects

Celebration time

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Today was the end of the School Arts Partnership project with the National Trust at Morden Hall Park. I was the lead artist for the whole school year, and today we had an exhibition to celebrate, featuring the lovely paintings the children made in the park in May,

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and the lanterns from the floating lantern festival last November,

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as well as the mosaics we made last term. Then all the children from the two schools involved – Wimbledon Chase Primary and Cricket Green special needs school in Mitcham – wrote their memories of the project on a postcard and tied them to a tree with a ribbon:

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In the evening Wimbledon Chase Primary School organised a special event for parents, also attended by the press and the Mayor of Merton, to mark the end of the project. It was a lovely evening – there was a documentary film, poems and singing, and then I had to sign autographs! A great way to finish the project – thanks to everyone involved.

Letterpress details

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I realised I never showed the finished letterpress poster that I made with Ross and Jon from JMG Studio for the London Voices families at Morden Hall Park – so here are some details, above, including the bees made from Bs, buns and lemonade from Ds and Os, and the ice bridge and boat. And below is the poster in full, showing all the poems the families created in the workshops earlier in the year inspired by the park and the river Wandle.

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Wandle boat race

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The sun sparkled on the water for the boat race today with families from Liberty School – the final session of the London Voices project with the National Trust at Morden Hall Park. We had several heats to determine the overall winner. Sculptor Simon Kent also brought down the oak slabs that he will carve using the families’ designs to create the ‘story boat’ to be installed in the park in July, and we all had a go at carving.

The first voyage

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Today was the first of the National Trust London Voices workshops at Morden Hall Park working with families from Liberty School in Mitcham – and it was also the first voyage of the little test ship on the river Wandle. It was lovely to see so many families who had taken part in last year’s project returning and everyone got stuck right in to making some beautiful boat bases. Regular volunteer at the park Fred, who remembers the famous film star parties of the late 40s and early 50s and was rescued by Margaret Lockwood herself when he fell off a wall, was instrumental in the testing, salvaging the boat with a net before it went too far. However by popular demand there were three tests, and on the third the boat tipped down a weir and disappeared under a bridge – emerging some minutes later to huge cheers. Can’t wait for the boat race at the final session!

Boats small and large

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The National Trust London Voices workshops start again next week with families from Liberty school in Mitcham, with a theme of ‘journeys’. Each family is going to make a boat like this sample I’ve been testing, and they will decorate it with their own family stories ready for a boat race on the Wandle at Morden Hall Park in March. Today I had a meeting at the park with sculptor Simon Kent – he will be creating a huge carved wooden ‘story boat’, and I will be working with him to incorporate some of the families’ work into the design. This project is going to be very exciting!

Wandle Lantern Festival

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Nearly 100 lanterns floated down the Wandle at dusk in Morden Hall Park as a celebration of the term’s work with the School Arts Partntership between Wimbledon Chase Primary, Cricket Green School in Mitcham and the National Trust. The weather was perfect, cold and clear, and in the end the filming of the new Stephen Poliakoff drama at the Snuff Mill didn’t interfere too much, though it was funny to see actors in 1940s clothing wandering about. Delicious pumpkin soup made by the students at Cricket Green warmed everyone up afterwards. Thanks to Erica, John and Zigi for their invaluable help getting the lanterns out of the water again at the end, and to Nick for these photos, and especially to all the children who took part for making such beautiful lanterns.

A Wandle Alphabet

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For the last couple of years I have been trying to collect a whole alphabet from objects found in the river Wandle at the monthly cleanups organised by the Wandle Trust. Some letters emerge fully formed while others require a bit of imagination. What I like about them is the rich patterns and surfaces created by years spent sitting in the mud of the river bed, particularly the rich red rust of the letter R. I’m still searching for the rest of the set.