Community Mapping - 100 Stories

We are inviting local people and communities to identify and celebrate 100 Stories gathered in response to the different Landscape Character Areas within the Land of the Fanns area.

Do you have a favourite memory, story or personal connection to a space or place in the Land of the Fanns area?

If so, come and share it in an informal and friendly story writing workshop with Ali Pretty, Artistic Director of renowned arts organisation, Kinetika, on:

• Story Writing workshop - Great Warley Church Hall - opposite St Mary the Virgin, Great Warley
• Friday 29th November 2019
• 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.

The workshop will take place in the warmth of the Church Hall but we will have the opportunity to see the beautiful Arts and Craft and Art Nouveau interior of the Grade I listed Church building.

Kinetika is a Purfleet based arts organisation and we are working with Land of the Fanns to deliver a Community Mapping project.

What next?

Once you’ve written your story or captured your memory, follow up with a fun and friendly Drawing Workshop to illustrate it.

The drawing workshop is professionally led by Kinetika artist Jo Beal, who will help you illustrate your story in a simplified and bold way, so that it is suitable to work as a design for a silk flag. No previous drawing experience is necessary. The drawing workshop is on:

• Illustrate Your Story workshop - Great Warley Church Hall - opposite St Mary the Virgin, Great Warley
• Wednesday 4th December 2019
• 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.

Jo will provide pencils, pens and paper. We aren’t using paint in these workshops. Bring some water and snacks as not all locations have refreshments available.

In 2020:

In March and April 2020 there will be creative workshops in film-making and participants will turn the drawings in to 100 silk flags using Kinetika’s batik process. The flags and the sharing of stories will form part of the celebratory Walking Arts Festival planned for May/June 2020.

We are collecting stories online too – so please spread the word and ask your friends and families to share their stories. Click here to download a Call Out for Stories and a Story Form for you to write you story on and/or come to our workshop at Langdon Hills.

Background Information

The Land of the Fanns Landscape Partnership Scheme aims to restore and reconnect the natural and historic landscape within the area, whilst building understanding and attachment among local people to enjoy and celebrate its special character.

The Land of the Fanns Landscape Partnership Scheme is based on the East London and west Essex border covering parts of four Local Authority areas - London Borough of Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Thurrock Council and Brentwood Council. The partnership also includes Thames Chase Trust, Forestry Commission, Essex County Council, Thames Estuary Partnership and Thames 21.

Themes

These are the overarching themes of the project and we will group our top 100 stories to reflect them and the 11 Landscape Character Areas.

1. The Land of the Fanns is an intricate landscape, full of surprises and hidden gems that rewards exploring.
2. It is a crossroad landscape, situated along the Thames, a place where people have always travelled into, through and away from. Journeys.
3. The Land of the Fanns is about the shifting relationship between land and water.
4. Land of the Fanns is famous for trade, commerce and industry – Human intervention on the Land – People and projects.

Landscape Character Areas

1. Havering Wooded Hills
2. Langdon Hills and Farmland
3. Rainham, Aveley and West Thurrock Marshes
4. Mardyke
5. Dagenham Corridor
6. Belhus Lowland Quarry Farmland
7. Ingrebourne Valley
8. Brentwood Wooded Hills
9. Orsett Lowland Hills
10. Thurrock Reclaimed Fen
11. West Thurrock Quarry Landscape