As I wrote in an earlier post, for just over 12 months now, I’ve been exploring ideas and working with many different people in and around Dawley, Telford, to begin running events to commemorate and raise awareness of the Cinderloo Uprising of 1821. We’ve come a long way, generated a lot of interest and support, and begun to attract funding to support initial activities.
I’ve helped set up a website for the community organisation Cinderloo1821, which will bring together historical information, contemporary responses, writings and artwork about the 1821 Uprising. We await news of an initial application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant that will support plans for a range of different activities including intergenerational workshops, educational work with schools, walks, heritage skills workshops, local history and family history research.
Meanwhile, I’ve been walking and discovering the immense network of tracks, woodland and history which binds together the various communities across Telford; sometimes with new found friends interested in the project, and sometimes alone. These walks have helped develop various ideas for art projects associated with Cinderloo.
The first of these, the Witnesses project, was inspired by a poem I wrote and read out at the inaugural public meeting of Cinderloo1821, back in February:
Do we have a witness?
Heavy boots pounded along woodland paths
From Dawley, Donnington and Horsehay
Long drawn faces grim and determined
Sharp voices called and with spirits rising
The miners found strength in their ranks
Do we have a witness?
The oak and the ash and the beech
The coppiced and saplings
Saw all that passed by
Some still stand there now
Oh yes the trees know but now they will not tell
Who were the leaders?
Who planned and plotted and schemed?
Or did long months of starving
And back breaking toil
Facing death from rock fall and coal damp
Light a fuse to inspire all into action
On those cinder hills
Where the trees were cut down
To fuel iron furnace and wealth
Only those that fought saw how it unfolded
When yeomanry executed arduous duties
And as men, women and children dispersed
With Tom Palin wounded among them
Was it fear and sorrow or pride and defiance
That continued to burn in their hearts?
Do we have a witness?
The oak and the ash and the beech
Oh yes the trees know but now they will not tell
© Andrew Howe 2018
Much of the history bound up in the old towns was swept away or obscured with the development of the new town of Telford (currently celebrating its 50th year). Yet there is much remaining, and the history of the town is much more than that presented in the Ironbridge Gorge and Coalbrookdale. But perhaps, some of the most interesting, enigmatic features which connect the landscape of today with the historical landscape of 1821 are trees. I was drawn to the notion that some of those, that are now over 200 years old, may have witnessed the events of Cinderloo, for which we now only have newspaper reports to rely on.
I have been in conversation with Shropshire Wildlife Trust, the Small Woods Association and members of Severn Gorge Countryside Trust to trace and map trees which are thought to be over 200 years old. A group of us are also tracing the old miners tracks, many of which still exist and which may have been used by protesters on that day in February 1821.
It would be great if other people wanted to walk these routes for themselves and find their own trees to add to the map. We would also welcome any photographs or other artworks inspired by these trees. Contact me directly or Cinderloo1821.
I have begun making drawings of some of the trees that I have found so far. I am using materials that relate to this landscape and the historical events. So I made my own oak gall ink, using the tannin from acorn galls and ferric sulphate from rusty nails. This ink was used for centuries in historic documents, and has beautiful purply, brown hues, which darken as the ink oxidises.
Beech, The Wrekin, ink on paper, 39cm x 57cm
Iron oxide pigment has a deep rich red colour, evocative of the blood shed and, along with charcoal, symbolic of the iron and coal industries which were at the root of the miners’ protest.
I have also made a couple of drawings using silver ink on dark grey paper. Again suggestive of iron and coal. I’m not so sure about these yet. I liked how the drawing emerges as light reflects from the ink marks, but light conditions need to be considered very carefully since the drawing is near invisible in most situations.
Oak bark, silver ink on paper
Detail of oak bark
I’m also experimenting with mark-making using brushes hand made with sticks, birch twigs and plant fibres. Look out for more drawings as we find more 200 year old trees.
No Time Like the Present 