The Pavement Art of Stratford upon Avon

The Pavement Art of Stratford upon Avon

Have you come across the street art in Stratford on Avon? It is an absolutely fabulous piece of art work and worthy of exploring. When I first spotted parts of it several years ago I was intrigued as to what it was, other than random phrases, some not in English, words, sounds and occasional footprints, carved (actually ,it was sandblasted) into the pavement around the area of Henley Street, Shakespeare's birthplace and trust.

Ignoring the usual tourist stuff in that area I set off to discover more and soon realised that these were all events witnessed by the artist and recorded into the stone at the spot they occurred. What a brilliant idea. As the artwork meanders through this part of town, you can image what may have been taking place at the time that the artist was watching, a type of voyeur's record.

The observer catches the frivolous, the amusing and the unremarkable but when you trace it you get the feeling that you are witnessing it yourself; the stray comment next to a cash point, the command to “stay there”, the trail of bird’s footprints wandering arbitrary along among the pedestrians, the possible rebuke to a child; you can never know for sure what was taking place at that moment but it certainly inspires the imagination and I am keen to discover more when I am next in Stratford.

When you are in Stratford next and in the Henley Street area of the town, spare a moment to look down at the pavement between the café chairs and the tourist’s feet and you may find yourself looking in on something that happened at a particular time at the very spot years before – on Saturday 18th March to be precise.

'Saturday 18th March' by Janet Hodgson
  For more information: http://www.insitearts.com/projects/stratforduponavon/

An Alpaca Day Out

Alpapca Day, Dunchurch

Open day at Toft Alpaca Farm and Studio, Dunchurch

Yesterday was an Open Day at Toft Alpacas and a chance to get up close to these lovely, placid animals.  There are 250 alpacas and one Llama at Toft’s, which also has a shop and a studio where they hold workshops in a variety of alpaca-related crafts.

For open day, the workshops and tours were free and included wet felting, crochet, knitting and talks on how the alpaca’s fibre is used.  Some events needed to be booked and a ‘booking booth’ had been set up in the studio while outside bails of straw made some effective seating.  Drinks, cakes and scones with jam and cream were available and there was a good crowd attending throughout the day.

Unlike the llama, which is used as a pack animal in Peru, the alpaca is a herd animal, bred at Tofts for their fine fibre; they also sell them on – they make good guard animals apparently, as well as being used at petting farms and for stud. 

For me, the highlight was Halter Training, which involved taking an alpaca for a walk around an obstacle course. The staff have an interesting way of herding them using a length of rope; the alpacas interpret the horizontal rope as a solid object and naturally walk away from it towards their pens without any bother or need for a sheep dog. The obstacle course was not too grueling and our alpaca seemed happy to be led around with his friends in a slow procession between fences, over tubes and around buckets.  The session ended with a very informative talk on the introduction of the alpaca to the UK and their characteristics which was enormously interesting.

The farm tour was slightly blighted by this year’s usual showers but took us out to see some of the farm’s fields and more alpaca, including cria, (baby alpacas), with their mothers. The tour included lovely views of Draycote water and the surrounding Warwickshire countryside despite the greying clouds.

The alpaca are sheared annually, leaving a tuft on the top of their head for cuteness, and the resulting fibre that contains hardly any oils only needs one wash during its processing.  Unfortunately, alpacas don’t produce vast quantities of their best ‘wool’ which accounts for its cost but after carding and spinning the resulting yarn is very fine and silky. The shop has a range of items for sale as well as craft kits and patterns.

Tofts are open six days a week and run workshops and tours. There is a wealth of information about alpacas plus Tofts and events and on their web site: www.toft-alpacas.co.uk  and their shop and studio website: www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk

 Tofts Alpacas – Dunchurch, North Warwickshire, nr Rugby. CV22 6NR

Explore the Abbey ruins, Kenilworth

Explore the Abbey ruins, Kenilworth

Good fun can be had searching for the ruins of the 12^th century St Mary’s Abbey, in the Abbey Fields, Kenilworth, close to St Nicholas’ Church; a sort of archaeological hide and seek.

Plaques have been placed around the ruins indicating whereabouts in the abbey you are standing and what that part of the ruin would have been used for, such as the storerooms, the cloisters or the chancel.  The plaques also show which parts of the ruins are visible above ground and gives those gifted with good imagination an impression of what the abbey would have looked like.   

 At the entrances to the fields and outside the barn, which is still standing and houses a small museum, are informative boards including a drawing of the Abbey as it may have looked.  Some parts of the ruins are easy to work out, such as the barn and the gatehouse, while others are only patterns of remaining walls or steps but they are still interesting to discover. You can find the plaques on the ruin walls and set into the grass but they take some finding as they are scattered across the whole site.  The plan indicates all of the parts of the abbey, from which you can calculate how many plaques there are approximately where they will be. Once you have found a couple you can work out the clues to the next , and to make it more of a challenge, there is a mistake if you can spot it - but I will leave that for you to discover for yourselves.

 The barn museum opens on Sunday afternoons during the summer months and is staffed by local volunteers, who can provide more information about the Abbey of St Mary.

Thanks to the Kenilworth History and Archaeology Society for their work