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Project Proposal - Natural History
Stream Survey - Natural History
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Local History - Jane Marsden
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Reminiscences - Andrew Pastor
Film - Reflections by Tim Fogg
Stream Survey 2004 (Natural History)
Naming the Stream
EXHIBITION
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Reminiscences - Andrew Pastor
Location: Dorset
Interviewing people from Lewesdon Hill, through Drimpton to Clapton - a journey of less than 5 miles.
The nameless stream is a starting point for the interviews I am recording on a minidisk recorder. Villagers have told tales at length where our stream has a part to play, sometimes a tenuous one, but a part nonetheless. As our stream flows through the heart of the village it’s only to be expected that it flows through our stories too. I have been enjoying spending time in great company, drinking cups of tea (and sometimes something stronger!), listening to memories which often have not been thought about in years.
So far among a variety of topics I have collected memories of floods, eel catching and cooking, sheep washing, amateur ‘bridge building’, childhood expeditions with jam jars and picnics looking for moorhens and mink, working the watermill at Clapton to make flour and animal feed, and swimming at Bricks. Then there has been the recalling of past farming methods before the era of milk quotas. Many villagers have spoken of using the natural resources of the land to thatch ricks, weave hurdles, make wine and jam, and fill the pot to help feed the family. Everything had its season, from field mushrooms, to crab apples, hazelnuts, sloes, and blackberries, from squabs (young pigeons) to tickled trout, rabbit, partridge and pheasant.
I am interested in anything and everything as long as at some point the memories return to the stream and the land alongside it – that is the part of west Dorset that goes from Lewesdon Hill, where the stream rises, to Clapton, just over the county boundary in Somerset, where the stream joins the young River Axe.
At the moment I am very happy to listen, ask questions and collect treasured memories. Only later this year will I start to put them together jigsaw fashion to make a picture to celebrate the life of our community by the banks of our nameless stream.
(March 2004)
Report 2004
Venue: Drimpton
The nameless stream is a starting point for the interviews I am recording on a minidisc recorder. Villagers have told tales at length where our stream has a part to play, sometimes a tenuous one, but a part nonetheless. As our stream flows through the heart of the village it’s only to be expected that it flows through our stories too. I have been enjoying spending time in great company, drinking cups of tea (and sometimes something stronger!), listening to memories which often have not been thought about in years.
 So far among a variety of topics I have collected memories of floods, eel catching and cooking, sheep washing, amateur ‘bridge building’, childhood expeditions with jam jars and picnics looking for moorhens and mink, working the watermill at Clapton to make flour and animal feed, and swimming at Bricks. Then there has been the recalling of past farming methods before the era of milk quotas. Many villagers have spoken of using the natural resources of the land to thatch ricks, weave hurdles, make wine and jam, and fill the pot to help feed the family. Everything had its season, from field mushrooms, to crab apples, hazelnuts, sloes, and blackberries, from squabs (young pigeons) to tickled trout, rabbit, partridge and pheasant.
 I am interested in anything and everything as long as at some point the memories return to the stream and the land alongside it – that is the part of west Dorset that goes from Lewesdon Hill, where the stream rises, to Clapton, just over the county boundary in Somerset, where the stream joins the young River Axe.
If anyone reading this has a story to tell, no matter how small it may seem, I would be delighted to hear from you. Maybe you used to live in Drimpton or nearby. Perhaps you left years ago. It would be grand if you shared your memories with the villagers of today. Please contact me, Andrew Pastor, on 01308 868223.
At the moment I am very happy to listen, ask questions and collect treasured memories. Only later this year will I start to put them together jigsaw fashion to make a picture to celebrate the life of our community by the banks of our nameless stream.
[Note: Some of the childhood memories of younger villagers living in the village today have been used as the backing track of Tim Fogg’s film REFLECTIONS. Click on REFLECTIONS on the homepage to see and hear about Tim’s film.]
AP March 2004
Update January 2005
Over the last few months the focus of my interviews of local people has changed. I have come to realise that the real stories of rural life today were tending to be overlooked. As a result I have been interviewing many different generations of local farming families – from teenagers just starting out their farming careers through to their parents, long term full-time farmers. In this way I am building up a picture of what it work and life are like on small-scale family dairy farms today. Affordable housing is another topic close to the hearts of younger villagers and is an area I intend to develop.
Transcribing continues. It is both time-consuming and rewarding. A few early editorial decisions are made during the transcribing process. It is clear though that the amount of material being collected is far more than any one book will be able to contain. I have given myself until April to continue interviewing and transcribing. At that time I will need to stop and begin the jigsaw-puzzle act of editing and compiling.
I liaise regularly with Jane who is researching local history. Our conversations and information-swaps help us both and often nudge us down different pathways for future research and interviews.
The nameless stream, update April 2006
At the start of the Building Bridges project I had no idea where the stories and memories of valley villagers would lead me. As I interviewed more people it became clear that the farming community deserved their own book. Their contributions became Farming Families which was published in December 2005. The tales told and the memories recalled by other interviewees covered a range of topics, but in each account the nameless stream itself was never far away. A vital sense of belonging to the valley arose in each interview. One may ask if people make places or places make people. The clear answer is ‘yes’; yes to both questions. All the contributors, from the children aged 7 to 9, to the adults of 25 or 85, from those people born and bred locally to people newly arrived, made the point that the community and the strong links that bring people together are at the heart of their love for the valley.
The interviews were all made between 2003 and 2005. People talked about the past, of fun and games and working lives, but they also spoke of contemporary issues; of the need for affordable housing and work opportunities for young people, of hunting with dogs both for and against, of the need for rural amenities, and of incomers.
The villages and hamlets of the valley from Lewesdon Hill to Clapton still have a primary school, two churches, a chapel, two pubs, a shop and a post office. But in living memory we have lost schools, a chapel, pubs, shops, post offices, and petrol stations and more besides. At a time when more and more people want to live in the countryside there are less and less local services and amenities. The present community realises it is it up to us to come together to ensure that the rural community of the future is as happy and as healthy as memories paint the past. The rural children and young people of today deserve it. The interviewees who are the authors of The Nameless Stream make that point clearest of all.
If you would like to know more about the reminiscence strand and both village books, FARMING FAMILIES and THE NAMELESS STREAM, contact me, Andrew Pastor, at 16 Chard Road, Drimpton, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3RF.
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