Wednesday 30 June 2021

The town beneath the sea

 

Stories under the Sea

Littleborough Arts Festival

Sunday 27th June

 


100 years from now, or 200, or 500. The Ice Caps have melted and the rising seas swallowed Liverpool, and Manchester, and Preston, Blackburn and Rochdale. People fled from the remorseless sea, finding crowded refuge in the hills of Lancashire and Derbyshire and the mountains of North Wales. But when the waves came to Littleborough, the people there found that they loved their homes, their towns, their families and their friends too much to leave. They stayed. They adapted. They changed…

 

 


This was where we started. Encouraging people to think about how the world changes, about climate change and consequences, we’ve been collecting the Stories Under The Sea as part of this year’s Littleborough Arts Festival. More events will follow but last Sunday saw the first stories from beside the waves take shape. We heard of shoppingtrolley submarines and mermaids on motorbikes. There were starfish and crabs and lobsters. In these distant days, seagulls nest in the spires of the churches and seaweed replaces grass in underwater gardens. There are new pets: dogfish, catfish and rabbitfish. There were seal-pigs and cow-sharks. People built double-decker-bus boats and dining-table rafts. As the generations move on, we find mermaids and fin-boys. At last, the Monster of Hollingworth Lake can wake and stretch and swim free again. Littleborough changes but its people remain and its story continues

 


 

 

Over the next few weeks those stories will be worked over and shaken about a bit so that when we all meet again in august – where there will be a trail of watery art-pieces through Hare Hill Park, the stories that I tell will include stories washed in by the tides of June

 


Make your own undersea book

On Sunday, we were making concertina books: these are very easy to make and just need a sheet of A4 paper, a piece of card for a cover and bits and pieces you’ve probably got at home. You can find instructions for making one here: Concertina book

 

You can download the book cover and useful pictures we were using here. These lovely pictures are by Alice Smith


Next events: follow the Festival on facebook: @littleboroughartsfestival 


 



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