Unearth was organised by Villages in Action and generously supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund award of £58,000.
Unearth, a community exploration of local history through stories, music, images and happenings, is being run in eight Devon villages. It was led in our parish by the Brentor Living Archive Group, who provided stories from the history of our parish and community for the project.
Brentor’s contribution to this exciting rural heritage project culminated on 7th October with a superb multi-media performance sharing the stories and legends of Brentor’s past from pre-history to this century. A team from Villages in Action, including a playwright, two professional actors, a sculptor and a folk musician came together in our Village Hall to present the show.
The set, produced by sculptor Peter Margerum, provided the backdrop to the show and included back-projections of historic images of Brentor and a fantastic wooden tree sculpture. Lucy Bell, who wrote the script, wove the stories discovered into a series of letters and diary entries that presented the lives and loves of people who lived in the parish. Actors Charlie Coldfield and Kirsty Cox gave performances that really moved the audience – one audience member commented that “it made her proud to be living in Brentor”.
The well-known folk musician Jim Causley wrote a series of evocative original songs that celebrated Brentor’s history – who would have thought that there would ever be songs about Burn Lane and everything on sale in the village shop (when we had one)! His sense of humour and musical talent added so much to the evening.
What a shame that less than 50 people came to the performance! And only 30 or so rom Brentor! Those of you who weren’t there missed a one-off evening that delighted, moved and excited, and yes, made us proud to live in Brentor!
Click here to see a video of the show
The first Brentor event in the Unearth Project was an Archive Film Evening at the Village Hall on 29th June. About 50 people enjoyed seeing a number of short films relating to Brentor and the surrounding area, provided by the South West Film and Television Archive.
