Sutton Grapevine
Stories about Sutton-in-the-Isle, Cambridgeshire, UKWere at Feast Week
We set up our display in St Andrews Church for feast week today. One of the lovley things about setting up in the Church was hearing the Vicar Mark Amey playing the organ in the afternoon, you can hear an excerpt here.
In the evening the Beer Festival began with live Jazz and friendly chat. The exhibit is up till Sunday and we will be around in Sutton on Friday and Saturday – hope to see you there.
What are you growing?
During our stay near Sutton in June I was lucky to be invited, by Roger, to visit one patch of Sutton allotments. He explained to me how the allotments had grown more popular in recent years after a small group had got together and reinvigorated them. Now the number of holders has grown from a handful to over 30. You can read about then on the allotments website. It was fantastic to see Roger’s inspirational allotment, taste some of its just ripened strawberries and see and hear about the huge range of what people are growing. You can hear a list of one allotment holders summer crop on the podcast section of this website with more allotment stories to come… If you are growing things in Sutton send something about it to the grapevine – what else are people growing?
When I first got to know Sutton I had thought it ironic that here on the fens, breadbasket of England, the food from the large farms heads off to the supermarkets and not into the village where, these days, there is no greengrocer anyway. So its been inspiring to meet so many people who grow and share their own in gardens and allotments as well as all the honesty shops where I enjoyed picking up baby beetroot among other things.
Feast Week
We are preparing to head off this week to Sutton-in-the-Isle to exhibit our work on Sutton Grapevine at the annual Sutton Feast. There will be a display in St Andrews Church from Wednesday to Sunday and over Friday and Saturday we will be joining various Feast Events to show people the Grapevine and hopefully inspire them to add their own stories. Having spent a week in Sutton in June we have gathered a huge range of stories and audio which are now being edited and podcast on the Grapevine. We’ve gathered stories through interviews and chance encounters, meetings, attending clubs and groups, visiting events, working with the youth group, organising a BBQ, exploring the local area by bike, foot and car, through an exhibit in the Babylon Gallery Ely and through the website.
This week we will be at
Wed 1st – Fri 3rd July, 7pm – 11pm St Andrews Church (during Beer Festival)
Fri 3rd July, 2pm – 5pm St Andrews Church (free)
Sat 4th July, 10am – 12pm Tithe Sale, St Andrews Church (free)
Sat 4th July, 12pm – 3pm FOSS Annual Summer Fete, Sutton Primary School (free)
Sun 5th July, from 7.15pm St Andrews Church (during Last Night of the Proms)
Come and join us for a day in the Fens.
BBQ at Painters Lane
Kennedy Hunns and her family kindly offered their home and garden to be used to host a BBQ for all the residents of Painters Lane. Unfortunately, it was a busy weekend and quite a number of the Lane residents were unable to join us for the afternoon. But those who were there, had a wealth of stories about Sutton to share, how they came to be in Sutton, how the Lane has changed, life in the village as a commuter, what there is (or isn’t) for young people…
It was a lovely afternoon and luckily it didn’t rain.
Several of the neighbours who were unable to attend left old documents – minutes from General Meetings – St Andrews Guild, Sutton from 1931 up to 1996; old posters / newspaper cuttings from the area; a fossilised shell from one of the gardens; and deeds and legal documents from 1800s.
It was great to see all this information being shared among neighbours – could be the first of many Lane parties…
Behind Closed Doors
A closed-looking Sutton Tandoori, site of the LCC
When I was in Sutton recently I was lucky enough to go for dinner with the Ladies Curry Club. Obviously I can’t tell you all of what went on as the ladies need to preserve their mystery, but I can tell you that they were good enough to let me record their answers to some questions about Sutton. I’ve just uploaded three of these recordings to the podcast section of this website with many more to come. As well as describing how these ladies came to end up living in Sutton, I hope the recordings will give you a little insight into the fabulous experience that is Sutton Ladies Curry night..
Local Food
This picture is of one Sutton seen from one of the huge fields of wheat that surround it, growing in that rich fenland soil. Many of the conversations we have had in Sutton have revolved around local food, how Sutton-in-the-Isle used to be quite self sufficient in food – having grain and bakers, butchers and a slaughterhouse, orchards, fish in the rivers. Many people seldom went to Ely for food as so much was produced and sold in and around the village. Thinking about this I came across Transition Ely initiative, the Ely Food Group and the Ely Food Conference - October 31st 2009 – which will be exploring how people can reconnect with, and regain control of, their food systems:
“Never before have there been such compelling reasons to rethink how we deal with changes to our energy supply and our environment – and we cannot make headway on any of these without addressing the issue of food.
• How can we access more locally produced food?
• How can we intervene, and play a greater role, in our local food system?
• How can we connect with, and support, local food retailers?
• How can we connect with, and support, local farming?
• How might peak oil and climate change impact our local food system?
• What is our vision for the future?
The aim is to create links and initiate projects that will build Ely’s access to locally produced, sustainable food systems.”
Alice
Sutton Grapevine: Youth Group Storyboard
Download A4 | US Letter PDF 500Kb
About : A Diffusion eBook made for participants in the workshop with the Sutton-in-the-Isle Youth Group, where we are making a short video. The group is collaborating to make a video about their recent trip abroad to meet other young people from around the world and exchange stories for their Your Stories project.
The eBook is a record of the first session’s activities, questions and a storyboard sketch. It captures the process of thinking and the questions we asked in the first session, as well providing a notebook for the group to write on, draw over or change as the sessions continue.
Published June 2009
*** a ‘book’ (long edge binding) eBook created using the new Diffusion Generator ***
Aeroplanes and Birds
After meeting the seniors Youth Group last month we all decided to work together on their video for their Your Stories Project. The group recently went to Copenhagen to share stories with a diverse group of young people from several countries.
We have been making low tech animation, including this bit of some excitement on the flight home when an unfortunate bird was caught in the plane engine, to combine with clips from the footage the group shot on the trip.
Aeroplanes and birds dont mix from Proboscis on Vimeo.
Farming to Tandoori
A day of talking to villagers and recording stories of life in Sutton; from ice skating on the Hundered foot Drain down at Sutton Gault to the day the Sutton Tandoori came to town, from milking the cows sat on a one legged stool to duck races, inland tides, kakaking on the river, homebaking and how four years of dedication and careful archaeology revealed an ancient burial urn. Many stories recorded and in the process of editing. Tomorrow morning we are off with the big map to join the Sutton Feast Committe for a ‘market stall’ session outside the One Stop Shop, hope to see you there.
Election Day in Sutton
Orlagh canvassing stories
Orlagh and I spent yesterday afternoon outside Sutton Polling Station at the Pavilion where a constant stream of voters entertained us with stories of Sutton in the past and present. We heard talk of Winston Churchill’s uncle, Clement Freud’s first election to Parliament and rumours of Princess Margaret. There were tales of Sutton schoolteachers and flying blackboard rubbers, of lying at the end of the Mepal airfield runway watching the bombers take off and of elusive landlords.
Our map of Sutton and collected stories
One of the questions we asked was ‘Where do you go in Sutton to meet people?’ The most popular answers were ‘dog walking on the fens’ and ‘the pub’ while the surgery and the bus stop also got mentions. It wasn’t all positive though and several people told us that once your children leave school it can be difficult to meet people and that Sutton can be ‘clique-y’.
There was one moment when two men who stopped by the map to read the stories and tell me about Clement Freud, the old train line and the house they used to live in, discovered that they had been at school together back in the 1940’s! As one of them put it.. “I wouldn’t have recognised you!” For me, it was just great that the Grapevine had restored old connections.
Sutton Gault in the 70s
Maljac has sent us a tweet remembering Sutton Gault in the 70s with this lovley picture of the Post Mistress. Thanks.
Join Proboscis in Sutton, 3- 9 June
The Proboscis team will be in Sutton, going around town gathering and recording stories from 3rd – 9th of June. Please come and join us and add a story to the Grapevine at the venues below:
Thur 4th, Community Room, Sutton School 2-4 pm
Friday 5th, The Glebe 2-4 pm
Sat 6th, outside the One Stop Shop 9-11 am
Mon 8th, Community Room, 2-4.30 pm
Tuesday 9th, Community Room, 2-4.30 pm
You can also email us at stories@suttongrapevine.org to meet up at other times…
See you in Sutton!
Cards filling up at the Babylon Gallery
We started receiving stories about the Fens on the cards we left at the Babylon Gallery…Thank you for sharing!
