Extra dangers from Dronfield

Dronfield Library, 
9th August, part 2

we asked for some help with these blogs and one of Hob Hurst's cousins stepped up (or maybe slithered up, or possibly sidled) to add a goblin-twist to the reporting of the project

This is Cobweb's first report.

message overheard and photos intercepted

"spying through the eyes of portraits that are no longer there, lurking in the secret passage behind the panel the children couldn't find, I watched them writing, drawing, making and mending,
hearing secrets on the wind and from the birds in the trees and the butterflies in the flowers...."

The photos are lovely but he seems to get carried away, thinking his role as a reporter is the same as a dramatic secret agent...

Comments from our puppeteers:

• Very happy with the event and want to follow on the internet and read more
• The girls really enjoyed themselves and would recommend to their friends
• Gabrielle aged 9 – I think this was really good and Gordon was an amazing storyteller and it was a good time to get crafty
• Kate aged 10 – I love art so I really enjoyed it and my goblin is very happy to be alive
• Leanne  - I really enjoyed all the stories we made up with the pictures
• Harriet aged 9 – I enjoyed it all

Thanks again to all our Dronfield artists, puppeteers and storymakers!

Derbyshire Myths and Legends artist: Gordon MacLellan

Dangers in Dronfield

Dronfield Library

9th August 2014

"...it was so horrifying, my camera died..." said the artist

Peveril Castle

They were a quietly determined set of storytellers: drawing, scheming, creating, but when you live in Dronfield, you can never know what might be waiting beyond the Kitchen Woods

From an old house with creaking floorboards, a hole in the roof and bats in the attic, 

Our adventure took us over Pack Horse bridges where beautiful shining creatures swam in the waters beneath, 

To Peveril Castle with its cold, glowing windows, in the Hope Valley, looking for treasure, but warned that if we once went in we might never come out

on down through spooky Kitchen Wood and a single dead tree on a hilltop, 

past caves where curious creatures watched with fire on their heads and beards on their chins,

a moment of respite in the cave-houses of Dronfield, a place to rest and recuperate

before facing the bridge that would bring us home, a bridge with mutant crocodiles waiting hungrily in its shade and a tree...

a tree that if we touched it, its leaves would grasp us like glue and hold us upside down until we withered like dead leaves and died

an easy fate to avoid, we thought, until we discover that the tree is so lopsided,

so toppled and tumbled because it has been brought down by the weight of all the victims hanging on the other side of it.....

(and the goblins have got into this post so that nothing wants to stay justified for long!)

And as if that wasn't enough, there were small goblins hiding in houses

and strange creatures watching us

and our storytellers and puppeteers were probably more dangerous than everything else!

or maybe they were just very involved
in their wonderful ideas...

Derbyshire Myths and Legends artist: Gordon MacLellan
Thanks to all our storytellers and puppeteers