The unexpected history of Chapel en le Frith

Chapel en le Frith

Tuesday 19th August

storymakers planning

The "Capital of the Peak" has a history quivering with threats, perils, horrible dangers, and fruit trees.

In ancient Chapel's forest,

An apple tree stood by,

A waterfall,

Rushing, splashing over rocks and rapids,

A river full of fish,

A castle by the stream,

Stepping stones breaking waves will

Bring you to that old, guarded door.

An abandoned house at midnight,

With a tombstone standing all alone,

While a skeleton wakes from earth-blanket sleep,

Shaken awake by pyramids in a distant desert

(An alien spaceship passes through, taking snaps and selfies)

Chapel under attack!

With missiles from an unknown enemy and

Dragonfire filling the skies like fireworks

But the Sport Museum is full of trophies now,

And the castle is a haunted ruin,

Deep in a wood

Surrounded by stones and memories.

But on the hill

Below the castle,

Ringed with slabs,

Green with moss,

A deep, dark hole

Descends to the Underworld.

a Castle Knight in progress

revealing a puppet!

The story we begin with changes as puppet characters unfold. The end result is almost completely unpredictable!

dragon design discussions

a Mummy in pieces

a dragon over the town

Many thanks to all our Chapel storymakers, puppets and 

the appreciative audience who laughed at almost all the right bits!

Wonders in Wingerworth

Wingerworth Library

16th August

messy tables are creative tables!

The world that waits behind closed doors, the marvels of a locked library on a Saturday afternoon (*), a place for secrets and mysteries, a time when the Bookshelf Goblins come out to play and the Punctuation Boggarts play FullStop Football between the chairs. But not today, not this day. This day saw stories being told, strange dances danced, a book-trolley dragon, a long-armed boy, a little devil and more....

(a report from Cobweb the Goblin)

our story started with a little devil
out to cause trouble

a brave knight who helped in the rescue

a skeleton boy was trapped down a well
for a hundred years

our first puppet-hug - a thankful Skeleton Boy
and the little devil

Those various goblins seem to have got into the camera and only a few pictures have survived from the adventures of that afternoon - we are hoping more will trickle in!

With many thanks to the storytellers, storymakers and puppeteers of Wingerworth

(* no, of course the library was open but only for workshop people - Cobweb just gets a bit carried away)

Where might adventures start?

peer through a holed stone,
who knows what might be looking back!

Where will your adventure begin?

 

cross the river slowly, step by step, stone by stone

We are hoping you will brew some wild adventures of your own to tell us and after our stone dreams posting, maybe you'd like to think about starting points...

 

is there an old gate to open...

...because old gates are full of promise!

If you are retelling an old story or making up a new one, look around for an intriguing place where the action could start. This might not be the very beginning of the story but this might be where our heroes step out into a strange and wonderful adventure. There might be a rabbithole to fall down, a wardrobe to hide in, or maybe just to go for a walk at a different time reveals something fascinating...go for a walk round your town, village, local park, nearest wildernesse and trollhaunt...start a map

 

a simple path might
lead you away into the wildness

Look, listen and sniff: what do your senses tell you when you go to a new place?
Where are - what are - the exciting places, the secret places, the special places where you live?

 

an old tunnel, an abandoned train,
a dragon's lair, a cavechild's home

What is the risk? Is there an obvious danger, a secret peril or just a mystery….

don't slip, don't fall, who waits in a Derbyshire river?

take a photo, draw a picture, write a paragraph or a poem, share it with us!

perhaps a scarecrow compass
will point the way to adventures

(grown-ups can join in too!)

Photos in this blog:

from the top:

• holed stone at Wycoller Country Park, Trawden (no, it's not in Derbyshire, sorry!)
• stepping stones in Dove dale
• old railway line between Buxton and Bakewell ( 2 pictures)
• not sure where this old gate is!
• skull gate is in Resolis Churchyard on the Black Isle (no, that's not Derbyshire either)
• Dovedale stepping stones again
• scarecrow compasses are secret and their locations may not be revealed
• Wyedale near Cresbrook Mill

July events: Glossop and Ashbourne

  

Prepare to be A-maze-d

Is there a mermaid in Mermaid’s Pool? Who was Hob Hurst? Join our artists Gordon MacLellan, Maria Whatton and Debi Hedderwick for one of two fun filled family days of activities and story weaving based around Derbyshire myths and legends.

Dates and places

Glossop Library 

on 29th July 

10 – 12noon - adventures, drama and characters and puppets to create 

1 – 4pm – help make scenery, create a story then perform it in 

the library. 

No booking needed. Drop in throughout the day. 

Suitable for everyone 

01457 852616 for more information 

Ashbourne Library

on 30th July

10 – 12noon - adventures, drama and characters and puppets to create

1 – 4pm – help make scenery, create a story then perform it in the library.

No booking needed. Drop in throughout the day.

Suitable for everyone

01629 533950 for more information

...and if anyone can identify the venues of the old mazes in our pictures, we will applaud you vigorously!

Stone dreams

Stone dreams

did old gargoyles used to have livelier lives?

As we get set for our cascade of workshops through July and August, we thought it might be fun to start posting some "things to think and do"…ideas you might like to use in creating your own stories, drawing your own pictures, acting out your own plays….

From Medusa's petrifying stare to the White Witch of Narnia's cruel wand to the Weeping Angels from Dr Who, turning people to stone has been a theme in lots of stories.

even if the actual story is quite
straightforward, you could always
tell a different tale!

Sometimes, our Stone People were being punished, were victims of cruel spells or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here in Derbyshire we have the Nine Ladies who were turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday and became the Nine Ladies Stone Circle on Stanton Moor (but who is Stone Number 10?). Then there is Hulac Warren, the giant who was turned to stone for kidnapping a young princess. His rocky body now sits in the middle of the River Wye between Buxton and Ashford, being slowly eroded by years of rushing water.

Turning things round, there is Berlie Doherty's story of Blue John, the boy born of stone who follows a group of children out of a cave under Mam Tor (Blue John, ISBN-10: 0140568727).

"Stone" might just be the doorway
through to a wonderful world

So why not take a walk with some paper and a pencil and look for a statue in your local park, or a face on a wall, a gargoyle on a  church. Draw a picture? Write a story? Take a photo? Take another photo of yourself being that character? Take a film of you being turned to stone? What happened? Bring your ideas with you if you come to one of our workshops - or just tell your story to a friend!

You could even try the spell that delightfully crazy Saxon magician Catweazle* tried, hoping to release a king from his woeful predicament (or that's what Catweazle thought when he found a room full of statues).

Breathe again and melt the stone

Be thou once more flesh and bone

 

you may not need to go far! This elegant lion
watches a friend's front door

* a delightful TV series from the 1970s (ran for two seasons). Books are out of print now but the series are out on DVD - or maybe on Youtube, or something similar

Mythical Mazes

The Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge is an annual initiative inspiring young people to read 6 books during their summer holidays. At the end they receive a medal and certificate. It is run through libraries in conjunction with the Reading Agency. Find out more here

 There are competitions to enter, games to play, suggested books to read, and A Quest for Apollo by Rick Riordan to finish writing....

"Last year's theme was Creepy House with readers earning some spooky smelly stickers during the weeks of the Challenge, (the strange scent of the garlic sticker lingers with me to this day). I was leading workshops in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City libraries creating the creepy houses we would like to visit. Who knows what will appear in this summer's sessions?" Gordon: one of this year's workshop artists

In 2014, the theme is “Mythical Maze” and Derbyshire libraries has been successful in securing Arts Council and National Lottery funding to provide a range of  activities in libraries based around Derbyshire Myths and Legends. Libraries and workshops are already entered in this blog and more information, and exciting reports of the mazes we tread, the labyrinths we explore and the myths and legends we share will be posted here

Is there a mermaid in Mermaids pool? Who was Hob Hurst? 

Come along and learn more about some of these Derbyshire Legends 

and help us to make some new ones 

Hob Hurst? or just some passing boggart?

Images in this post:
Creepy House pop-ups from workshops last summer
a Boggart puppet by Gordon MacLellan

The legends are looming!

The Legends are looming

just getting to a workshop might take you
on strange and wonderful journeys...

In our previous blog entry, we listed a first wave of Derbyshire Myths workshops by library (from Alfreton to Gamesley). Here are the rest. Why not find the workshop nearest you and join us? Or perhaps you could find a workshop in a place you have never visited and make the journey to join us part of your own mythical maze and find some adventures to have on the way that might inspire you during our activities!

Find your library's details here. And you can visit the Derbyshire Summer Reading Challenge (SRC) page here, while the National SRC page is somewhere else, round the sharp corner of this maze, "...over here, turn round and walk backwards for a bit, watch out for the sleeping minotaur, and sure enough, here it is!

Library Date Artist Notes Glossop 29/7/14 All the artists! Special day! Hadfield 19/8/14 Gordon Hayfield 21/8/14 Gordon Holmewood 18/8/14 Maria Ilkeston 20/8/14 Maria Killamarsh 9/8/14 Gordon Long Eaton 5/8/14 All the artists! Special day! Matlock 26/8/14 Maria Melbourne 3/9/14 Maria New Mills 18/8/14 Gordon Old Whittington Tbc Gordon Pinxton 19/8/14 Maria Ripley 20/8/14 Maria Sandiacre 6/8/14 Maria Shirebrook 6/8/14 Debi Somercotes 9/8/14 Maria South Normanton 19/8/14 Maria Staveley 2/8/14 Gordon Swadlincote 3/9/14 Maria Whaley Bridge 21/8/14 Gordon Whitwell 11/8/14 Gordon Wingerworth Tbc Gordon Wirksworth 26/8/14 Maria Shirebrook 6/8/14 Debi Bolsover 6/8/14 Debi

Where two libraries are listed on the same day it's not because we are magical maze-runners (although we might be). There will be a morning session in one library and an afternoon in the other. Check with your library for details of times

We have three artists who will be working in the libraries:

Debi Hedderwick is a dance artist with a keen interest in animating stories through dance and theatre

Maria Whatton is an award-winning storyteller with a love of myths, folk tales and legends which she brings to life through performance

Gordon MacLellan (Creeping Toad) is a storyteller, artist and puppeteer with a keen interest in the environment

Add pause and reflect, who knows what mysteries lie
beneath the waters of still Derbyshire pools?

Individual artists will lead workshops in different libraries and there will be 4 days of grand spectacle and extra-fabulous workshops where all three artists will work together with visitors to create mazes of myths and labyrinths of legends….more details will follow

Rather than swamp everything with all the workshops at once, we'll publish workshops in three stages in this blog.

Workshops

• are free
• are aimed at 8 - 12 year olds and spaces are limited so
• places need booking.
• will either be morning or afternoon: there will be another workshop in a nearby library in the other half of the day