We have recently had the pleasure of meeting Helen from the Cornwall Rural Education and Skills Trust (CREST) and begun exploring how we might collaborate. CREST is an exciting new organisation that advocates and celebrates ancient rural crafts that use the natural landscape materials of Cornwall and facilitates the passing on of heritage skills. This chimes well with Storylines work and our passion for capturing stories from the past to encourage an exploration of our relationship with the land into the future.
Roger and his hedging story
A lot of CREST’s work to date has been around the rural craft of Cornish Hedging. This led to us spending time with Roger, who grew up farming around Sancreed where he learnt to hedge at a young age and later had a run competing in Cornish hedging competitions. After a fascinating oral history with Roger, we’re now looking at hedges in a whole new light! Working with Roger, we are now in the process of producing a digital story for CREST to share some of Roger’s hedging story.
CREST Open Day
At CREST’s recent Open Day we had the opportunity to connect with other hedgers and those interested in the land, as well as talk more about our collaboration with artist Anna Pope and the Withy Lore project. Learning about our rural past, a time when people’s lives were entwined with the seasons and nature, provides so many learning opportunities as we move forward into an uncertain future.
We’re looking forward to seeing how CREST’s work develops and sharing Roger’s story soon!
