Reading between visits: A Woman's War and Leysdown Rose-tinted
A Woman's War – Sheppey Women in WWI
When I was at Rose Street Cottage I picked up a copy of A Woman's War – Sheppey Women in WWI, the publication for the research project that Jo Eden had been involved in. It's a really vital piece of research and showed me a new perspective on that time, so often told through the male perspective. Janys Thornton writes in the introduction they “were keen to learn how their grandmothers had done their bit”. Jo told me how much she'd enjoyed this project and that a group of them went up to Glasgow to share what they'd done as part of a wider academic symposium. We talked about the energy, money and respect that university partnerships can bring to a project but how it dies down when the university moves on. Perhaps there could be a role within the community as a broker between communities and universities to ensure that lasting engagement and legacy can be arranged. I learnt loads reading the book, here are just a few of the notes I took from Jo's section on the Women's Land Army 1912-1919:
- 113,000 women worked full-time in the following 3 roles: agricultural, forager and forester
- Government's board of agriculture tried to change men's prejudices of women working on the land by organising practical demonstrations and competitions throughout the country
- Kent Women's Agricultural Committee in Maidstone ran efficiency tests for women farm workers
- 9,000 women land workers in Kent ploughed with tractors and with horses, pruned apple trees and made butter
- Landswomen Magazine was the official magazine of the women's land army and included training opportunities, inspirational stories and competitions to boost morale.
- Surviving members or spouses / family members of the Women's Land Army can apply for a commemorative badge to acknowledge their service
Check out this song that won first prize in the readers' Land Army song competition in 1918!
Leysdown Rose-tinted
You can view an online copy here: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/22715022/rose-tinted-brochure-swale-borough-council
Jo gave me one of her 2 copies of this publication when I visited her studio. It's an interesting record of an arts-led regeneration vision by Rosa Ainley and muf architecture, which includes a poetic introduction, a run-down of the proposed projects, a text written by Rosa Ainley and a 39-page delivery plan. I've never seen anything like it - its a document made after consultation workshops and before the delivery of projects over 4 years from 2010, it's a document of interest to a number of audiences with different interests, it's a document from the past talking about the future and it's PINK!
It opens with this collection of speech bubbles in response to the question “In your dreams... what does Leysdown look like?”
It kills me to see Whitstable, Southwold and Aldeburgh. As if! Don't believe the hype. How do some places get a reputation for being AMAZING even though they're not but are afforded the ability to be and some places get a reputation for being CRAP even though they're not but aren't afforded the ability to be seen as anything else? IS THIS CLASS WAR?!!????
Next comes an introduction, which lays out the aims of Leysdown Rose-tinted: transforming Leysdown by “making it more itself... unravelling the downward spiral of an under-resourced past... making more of what already exists and showing the same care and delight for the details of the everyday as the unexpected”. This will be achieved by working with local people to explore the past, present and future and subsequently manifesting some of their desires in architectural and art projects in the public realm designed to “instil a sense of purpose, ownership and safety”. It is sublimely written and absolutely beautiful in its aspirations.
The Vision talks of horizons, futures, flights of fancy, double takes (winter and summer, resident to visitor, seaside resort, bird sanctuary) whilst staying rooted in the here and now, and this important line: “while people may want Leysdown to be transformed they don't necessarily want it to be changed”. Later in the delivery plan is a stated focus on “how can arts change your experience of where you live and so how you see your own and the wider world”. ABSOLUTELY!
After some research online, it looks like lots of the projects did actually happen, including ones Jo and I enjoyed together without realising it including the sculpture-bench at Raptor point and the rose garden on the Spinney. There were a few like the library, bird watching promenade and stoop that perhaps were there but I missed. The pictures of the sculpture-bench at Raptor point in this online report (by FrancisKnight! SO VERY ROSE-TINTED!!!!), look a lot different to the weather beaten thing we experienced (but still loved!) http://www.publicartonline.org.uk/downloads/news/LeysdownRose-Tinted.pdf I feel like I might need to do some more digging, which isn't a criticism at all, these projects are complex and take time to understand.
