Events – Page 17 – Radical Stroud

Rodborough, Sunday June 11th

A year ago we wandered through the sculptures
And hidden gardens of Rodborough,
Depressed and stupefied after the referendum result,
Lowering clouds gathering over the Severn,
Proving that the notion of a pathetic fallacy is not a fallacy –
But this year, the sun shone on the sculptures,
The flowers were particularly and pleasantly fragrant,
The tea and cake taken in the church graveyard,
Tasted sweetly of the resurrection of Labour,
And the party in the Prince Albert
Showed Stroud at its inclusive best:
A complete cross section of society,
In a happy harmony of delight,
A heaven where ambrosia and nectar were shared equally,
By friends, families and strangers,
And where everyone was a comrade:
David Drew and family laid on a spread
To thank all supporters and workers,
People spoke of past elections and struggles,
David’s seven general election results
Were attached to the beer pumps
In a panoply across the bar,
The front door of the pub was garlanded
With a red and white banner:
‘Thank You’,
The chimney breast was covered with the banner
Of the Stroud Constituency Labour Party,
Lottie and Miles served tea and cake,
David ran a tab at the bar,
People spoke of their Thursday tears of joy,
David spoke of his commitment to the manifesto,
Everyone stood to applaud him –
But John Bloxsom reminded us
That there is another election ahead:
So while we celebrate in the carefree present moment,
We know that we prepare for the future:
But time is an illusion on a sun splashed Stroud afternoon,
For this is a new dawn –
This truly is a new dawn.

Bakanalia Border Morris by Deborah Roberts

Credit to Deborah Roberts for the above photos.

Credit to Bob Fry for the above photo.

Thirty Something Local Historic Reasons to Vote for David Drew

Thirty Local Historic Reasons to Vote for David Drew and Keep the Tories Out

Remember:

Thirty Local Historic Reasons to Vote for David Drew and Keep the Tories Out

Remember:

1. The Diggers and their Slimbridge Civil War community and those who supported them in Stroud and the Five Valleys
2. The Parliamentarians imprisoned in Painswick Church
3. The growers of Nicotiana Rustica who defied both King and Cromwell
4. Those who took direct action for a ‘moral economy’ against high food prices in Stroud and the Five Valleys
5. Those cloth-workers who took direct action against low wages and long hours in Stroud and the Five Valleys
6. Those who opposed slavery
7. Those who took direct action against the game laws
8. Those who opposed enclosure
9. Those who took direct action against turnpike tolls
10. Those who were transported
11. Those who supported Chartist demands for democracy
12. Those who were forced to emigrate
13. Those who opposed the workhouse
14. Those who opposed the exploitation of children
15. Those who supported the legalization of trade unions
16. Those who supported the cooperative movement
17. Those who, like William Morris, were alert early to environmental degradation
18. Those who opposed imperial aggrandizement
19. Those who opposed wars of aggrandizement
20. Those who supported votes for women
21. Those who supported free education, pensions and healthcare
22. Those who supported the General Strike
23. Those who opposed fascism
24. Those who suffered and made the ultimate sacrifice in two world wars
25. Those who voted for a Welfare State and a planned economy
26. Those who opposed racism
27. Those who supported the Equal Pay Act
28. Those who opposed sexism
29. Those who opposed apartheid
30. Those who opposed Thatcherism n all its guises
31. Those who supported gay rights

Not Bad for a Village Team

Tranmere –
The name suggests a crossing of the waters,
A ferry across the Mersey,
A crossing of the River Rubicon,
Or for us, the River Thames –
On the 9.55 Football Poets Special,
Speeding through the Golden Valley,
Past Swindon’s railway works,
The Vale of the White Horse,
Then on through Sonning Cutting,
Sequestered Berkshire,
Suburban Middlesex,
Old Oak Common,
To Paddington.

We sat in an overcrowded carriage:
Richard, now ready, having scoured Stroud,
And all villages and hamlets of the Five Valleys,
Until at last finally securing an FGR scarf,
Chewing on his bacon and egg sandwich,
But worried that he’d left the gas ring on,
Stuart, with a stone in his shoe from his yesterday walk,
Seeing it as a pilgrim’s scruple,
The retention of which would be necessary for victory,
For only the scrupulous would be triumphant,
After enduring self-flagellation,
Crispin, now ready, after tirelessly badgering
Wembley Stadium about his treasured, magic drum –
More of that later.

But there we were,
At Wembley,
Like a village gawping at the big city,
Just 3,500 souls,
Thirteen charabancs only
(Six from FGR, 4 from Stroud, 3 from Stonehouse),
Like some Laurie Lee
Cider with Rosie day out revisited,
A Last Supper of the Season,
While the massed ranks from Birkenhead and Liverpool
Numbered 15,000 and fifty coaches,
Confident of victory,
Against this rustic outfit.

But Crispin had a plan –
Crispin Thomas, like Oscar,
The clairaudient in The Tin Drum,
Worried that Wembley would ban his drum:
‘the day will come …
oh how I pray
for my white drum’,

Eventually receiving this email from Wembley Stadium:

Hello Crispin,

I hope you are well. This isn’t a problem and the staff are aware of you and your drum.
Please make your way to the accessible entrance at the turnstile and they will check the drum and they will let you in.
Many thanks,

Crispin, now ready,
Crispin,
Now revelling in his clairaudient condition,
Obtaining a ‘singing end’ for FGR,
Joining ranks with the other FGR drummer,
To wave his arms in the air to draw the FGR crowd
From their numbered, specified seats,
And so amplify the support, noise and chants,
With supporters standing en masse behind the goal,
Despite the tickets stating in bold:
Persistent standing is not allowed.

But we were allowed,
Because all fans behaved themselves responsibly –
But many thanks to Wembley’s staff for their dispensation,
For this concentrated noise
Gave succour to the team on the pitch
Throughout the whole ninety minutes:
The support was continuous.

And at the end,
After all the chants of
‘On our way, on our way,
To the football league we’re on our way’,
And,
‘Not bad for a village team,
Not bad for a village team’,
The man from the Met. came up to Crispin,
Congratulated him on his drumming,
Congratulated FGR’s three and a half thousand
For outshouting Tranmere,
Adding,
‘I had a tear in my eye at the end.
I was so pleased for you.’

Not bad for a village team,
A team at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere.

Save The Sub-Rooms!

‘In short, sir, you have it in a nutshell.
Where would Stroud be without it?’

We live in such divided times that anything that unites us is to be admired,
And just as a nation can be divided, so a town can be divided in so many ways:
Hefts can build up based on social class, or ethnicity, or politics, or education,
Or for so many whatever varied reasons,
As people find and accentuate commonality,
And whilst Stroud and the Five Valleys is not exactly ‘Town and Gown’,
It can feel a bit like Disraeli’s Two Nations at times:

‘Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets.’

Thanks to Deborah Roberts for the above Photo.
www.deborahroberts.biz

Thanks to Mark Hewlett for the above Photo.

—

‘In short, sir, you have it in a nutshell.
Where would Stroud be without it?’

‘You speak of Brexiteer and Remainer?’

‘No, sir.
I speak of people who shop at the Farmers’ Market and not at Iceland
and those who shop at Iceland and not at the Farmers’ Market.
They sometimes pass each other as though the other were invisible.’

‘And is there nowhere, madam, where these differing people meet?
Where the invisible is made manifest?’

‘The Subscription Rooms, sir, for there you find all manner of amusements that appeal to everyone in Stroud.
It is one of the few places that unite rather than divide,
One of the few places where every one can meet, eat and drink together,
Sing together, dance together, listen together, learn together,
Watch together, gaze together,
Walk up and downstairs together,
Find out where to go and how to get there together.
And it is the only place where you can buy a ticket for a National Express bus.’

‘These Subscription Rooms sound an admirable place, madam.
A place where all differing sections of a community can meet.
A place that brings unity and sharing of experience and purpose.
A place that brings a sense of belonging
And strengthening of bonds across a variety of people
Who otherwise might not share much social intercourse.
And the only place where one can obtain a permit for the turnpike toll house.’

‘In short, sir.
You have it in a nutshell.
Where would Stroud be without it?’

Below Photos by James Bee.

People's Republic of Stroud flag on the Subscription Rooms

Painswick Beacon and Botany Bay

Thanks to Deborah Roberts for the above Photo.
www.deborahroberts.biz

—

The solstice is a time for wonder and the imagination,
But sometimes you need facts, figures and measurements:
Lines of latitude and longitude – maritime chronometers too,
Were needed for New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land,
For those weavers, cloth-workers, hatters, labourers and servants,
Transported as convicts, far distant from their Painswick homes,
On ships such as the Emma Eugenia, Florentia, Lady Ridley,
Duncan, Gilmore, Persian, Lord Hungerford, Bengal Merchant;
People such as Ann Alder, Henry Beard and Samuel Beard,
John Birt, Isaac Estcourt, James Green, William Haines, Charles Cook;
And at winter solstice-tide, we gathered at Painswick Beacon,
Latitude 51°48’27″N and longitude 2°11’44″W; 283m / 928ft.,
SO 86836 12076, ready for sunrise at 8.14, on the 22nd of December,
A dozen of us, to welcome the mid-winter dawn,
Close by an Iron Age hill fort,
The ghosts of our prehistory all around the scarp,
(At a beacon: ‘from the Saxon’,
Meaning a sign, portent, light, lighthouse,
A source of light or inspiration),
Welcoming the first lengthening day of the season,
As it spread its light and inspiration
Over the Malverns, the Cotswolds, the sinuous River Severn,
Over a landscape etched with names and signs and portents
Such as Ongers, Kimsbury, Paradise,
Spoonbed Hill, Kites Hill, Popes Wood, Saltridge Hill, Cud Hill,
Holcombe, Brentlands, Podgewell, Bacchus –
Distant memories for our exiled Painswick ancestors,
Their ghosts gathered to witness farewell
To the longest day of the year,
Near Botany Bay,
33.9930° S, 151.1753° E …
But today,
We reunited them with their landscape,
And their history,
With a toast to their memory and to the sun:
Painswick Beacon, Botany Bay,
New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land,
Mid-winter and mid-summer conjoined,
With solstitial imagination,
A lighthouse of time and space.

Nailsworth Shoddy

I often walk the cycle track at the bottom of Rodborough Hill,
The old Midland Railway spur from Dudbridge into Stroud,
And I often cycle the track on to Nailsworth through Woodchester,
Musing on the springs and watercourses, the ancient holloways,
The Roman villa, medieval ridge and furrow, the woollen mills,
The occasional mill chimney, still rising high into the Stroudwater sky,
And I have often walked the surrounds of Avening, Minch and Amberley,
Recreating the 1916 tragedy of Dorothy Beard and Archibald Knee,
A young woman and a young new recruit,
Drowning together in a millpond.

In short, my head is usually lost in the clouds of the past,
Where I am entranced rather than perturbed by novelty –
Unlike Scrooge, I see few phantoms that repel –
Until last night, when just before our show
Trenchcoats for Goalposts,
At the Comrades’ Club,
In Nailsworth,
Jon Seagrave mentioned a local radio history programme
About that local branch line and the First World War,
Did I know that? …

(Dictionary definition interruption:
Shoddy
Adjective:
Badly made or done.
‘We’re not paying good money for shoddy goods.’
Synonyms:
Poor-quality, inferior, second-rate, third-rate, low-grade, cheap, cheapjack, tawdry rubbishy, trashy, gimcrack, jerry-built, crude,

Lacking moral principle, sordid,

‘A shoddy misuse of the honours system.’

Noun:
An inferior quality yarn or fabric made from the shredded fibre of waste woolen cloth or clippings.)

Did I know that? …
In the First World War, the uniforms of dead soldiers
Were brought from the front, across the Channel, along the railway lines
Of southern England, and so to the Nailsworth branch line,
Where bloodstained and able to tell who knows what tale
Of carnage, confusion and pain,
This timetabled railway conveyor belt
Would deliver its constant supplies to keep alive
The endless supply of shoddy;

Jon said, just before we went on stage,
‘In my innocence I thought the soldiers would have had the dignity of a burial in their uniform, rather than be stripped bare of honour.’

I am sure there was a heartfelt justification for this:
The submarine warfare in the Atlantic,
The destruction of British merchant shipping
The consequent shortages of 1917,
The drowning of our seamen,
The need for cloth to provide uniforms
As the armed forces grew with Kitchener’ appeal,
And then with conscription after 1916,

But there was still something shocking in this tale for me,
Something that I took with me on stage,
That made me mention Robert Graves’ Good-bye to All That
For the first time to an audience in this production:
I think Graves’ image of the Western Front as a ‘sausage machine’
Subliminally affected me –
I thought of his words:
‘It was fed with live men, churned out corpses,
and remained firmly screwed in place’,
As I sang the first verse of ‘Goodbyee’ at the finale…

And what of Lloyd George, Minister for Munitions?
Secretary of State for War, Prime Minister:
‘The Man who won the War’,
Keeping the front lines fed with men and shells,
Keeping the Nailsworth branch line busy with dead men’s uniforms
(‘Finding an arm or a leg still inside wasn’t that uncommon’),
Keeping the Nailsworth mills busy with the production of shoddy,
The production of shoddy for yet more uniforms,
In a Catch 22 search for the perfect uniform:
Made from an infinitely regressive shoddy,
‘Dulce et Decorum est
Pro Patria Mori,
Lloyd George – ‘The man who won the war’,
Friend of ‘the hard-faced men who did well out of the War’,
Flogging them peerages, knighthoods, medals:
The Order of the British Empire
Was conveniently and coincidentally coined in 1917,
Keeping himself in power and profit with the
‘Sale of Honours Scandal’ …

Shoddy
Noun:
An inferior quality yarn or fabric made from the shredded fibre of waste woolen cloth or clippings.

Adjective:
Badly made or done

Synonym:
Lacking moral principle, sordid,

‘A shoddy misuse of the honours system.’

Unbelievable
Adjective:
Unlikely

Synonyms:
Amazing, surprising, astonishing, revelation, shocking, thunderbolt, startling, staggering, turn-up for the book
‘That a part of some poor fellow should end up in the (relative) tranquility
of a Cotswold valley, far from the carnage.’

Sixty People Gathering

Above Photos by Deborah Roberts.
www.deborahroberts.biz

Sixty people gathering
In the welcoming woodland of Stroud Brewery,
Watching the preview of Day of Hope,
Listening to tales of weavers’ riots
And Chartist dreams;
Quaffing Chartist porter
While Paul Southcott sang us songs
Of the world we have lost …
Resting by a sun warm red brick bridge,
Walking past the last leafed sessile oaks,
Red berried hedges and apple bobbed branches,
Watching navvies on their way to Sapperton …
On past lock gates to Bowbridge:
Alongside Brunel’s main line,
The Great Western viaducts,
The River Frome and ruined mills,
To Wallbridge and the Midland Railway –
And so to the Bell at Selsley:
To gaze at November’s late afternoon light
Gilding Rodborough Common,
Seeing John Frost up there on Good Friday 1839:
Toasting him with more porter,
With songs of poachers and talk of Jenner and Colonel Berkeley,
Hearing Janet Biard tell us of the serpentine lines
Of Chartist supporters and sightseers,
Making their way to Selsley Common
From all over Stroudwater’s hills and valleys,
Along lanes, holloways and tracks of prehistory,
Back on Whitsuntide, May 21st 1839.
We climbed with their ghosts,
To join in the huzzas for the six points
And the hisses for Lord John Russell,
Silhouetted against a sun splashed orange sunset,
The Severn a silver line gleaming in the distance,
Hearing how the common would have been a white scarp land
Of limestone quarries and heaped blocks of Cotswold stone
Back on that famous Selsley day,
Hearing of the Pre-Raphaelite wonders of Selsley Church –
Until Paul gathered us in an old sheltered hollow,
For one final communal twilight song,
Until we wended our way back to the present,
In the gathering gloom of this last November Saturday:
A Day of Hope and a Day of Remembrance.

Watch on Facebook

So here is the link to a bit of Day of Hope which we prepared for yesterday’s walk. This is not a finished item and some bits a bit rushed but gives a feel of the overall project.

A fine day of songs, speeches and good ale. Well done to you and your co-conspirators. The finale was elemental and timeless with the backdrop of sky and river and the cold just beginning to bite.

Martin Carslake

Selsley

Commemorative Walk Saturday 26th

The team at Stroud Brewery were thrilled to have another excuse to brew something special, this time to commemorate the great efforts of the chartists. We have produced a small batch of smoked porter aged in oak barrels. Come along and see if this beer gets your vote…

Saturday November 26th 1pm Stroud Brewery: A Chartist Walk with a Porter

This Saturday coming will see the launch of Stroud Brewery’s new porter: Chartist. This has been brewed to remember the 1839 Chartist meeting on Selsley Hill, and the forthcoming 2017 film Day of Hope. There will be a performative walk to mark the occasion.

The Chartist movement has been largely forgotten in British history. Its aims were to ensure votes for all, especially the working classes. “At a time when everyone’s votes count with the EU referendum and the American election, it is important to remember the struggles of the Chartists to secure that everyone has the right to vote”, said writer and director of Day of Hope, John Bassett. “It is estimated that 5,000 people gathered on Selsley Common, but even one petition 6 miles long did not sway Parliament into give voting rights to the working classes. The 26th November event will be a fun lively way to celebrate this.”

Walkers should arrive at 1 pm for a short preview of the film, some performance, and an official toast to the porter.
We will then leave the Brewery at 1.30, wend our way along the canal to Wallbridge; thence along the old railway line to Dudbridge. We will then climb up to the Bell for more porter and thence to the top of Selsley Hill.
The walk will be interspersed with performance, bringing local and national Chartists to life in the landscape, as well as their six points. Walkers will make their own way back to wherever they wish to go: that’s the Chartists’ seventh point. We should be finished on Selsley by 4pm.
This should be a walk to remember.

Echo Chambers – Archibald and Dorothy

Echo Chamber: Voices of Conscience – a sound and photography exhibition marking 100 years of conscientious objection – owes its inspirational existence to Fiona Meadley, Dom Thomas and Ruth Davey. The exhibition includes information submitted by living relatives of Conscientious Objectors from WW1: it was a privilege to contribute to this history, with our performance of the story of Dorothy and Archibald.
The link: https://radicalstroud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Archie-And-Dorothy.m4a takes you to a recording made of Dorothy and Archibald , featuring the voices of Rachel Simpson and Stuart Butler, as they read the words of Alice Butler and Stuart, during the Stroud Book Festival in November 2016.

Archibald and Dorothy

by Stuart and Alice Butler | Read by Rachel Simpson and Stuart Butler

Dear Stuart
And thank you and Rachel for your engaging performances.
I estimate we had about 200 visitors over the weekend, and they donated £178 to stroud refugee aid. And the event was extensively covered on bbc radio Gloucestershire on Remembrance Sunday. I will forward you a news clip broadcast at 9 am. It brought in many visitors, and Sunday was our busiest day.

I’ve made a 60 second video clip with the radio broadcast about echo chamber and posted it on YouTube. You are welcome to use it in your blog.
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h-GXDu3EFgw

Regards
Fiona

Stuart
Thanks for yesterday. Really enjoyed your input. Was great to have such a moving local story. Here are a few pics. If you use, please credit as follows:
Photos by Ruth Davey – www.look-again.org. If anyone else wants to use them, please let me know and ask them to contact me on 07789 958895
Thanks
Ruth

Saturday November 26th 1pm Stroud Brewery: A Chartist Walk with a Porter

A performative walk starting at Stroud Brewery to christen the new Chartist porter. The walk will commence at the Brewery, with explanation, contextualisation and performance; then wend its way along the canal to Wallbridge and then along the old railway line to Dudbridge. We will then climb up to the Bell for more porter and thence to the top of Selsley Hill. The walk will be interspersed with performance, bringing the local and national Chartists to life in the landscape. Walkers make their own way back to wherever they wish to go: that’s the Chartists’ seventh point. We should be finished on Selsley by 4pm.