Last of the lost cats

 

Setting our Lost Cats free

Would it be wonderful to see them

In Pavilion Gardens catching fish?

Would it be wonderful

For them to be free?

We have prowled to the end of our Lost Cats of Buxton project. There have been drawings and beautiful puppets on strings to dance across the museum’s carpets. We released wild cats into Grinlow Woods, and watched worrying Prehistoric Mice taking shape. There were masks and more masks and a giant Scimitar-toothed Cat (a Homotherium – you can visit their memory in Buxton Museum and Art Gallery and find out more, here). In schools, we wrote poems and shaped ancient landscapes, made masks and more masks and released a few mammoths. We danced our cats through the streets of Buxton

 

Now pictures of our wonderful creatures are appearing in The Wild Escape Creature Gallery. Inspired by the Wild Escape initiative, right from the start, Lost Cats set out to encourage people to look at museum collections and use that inspiration to go exploring and get to know their local landscapes better. 

 

Follow this link to visit the Wild World

 

Pictures are coded by 3 word locations.

Some of ours can be found at these locations

·      wet violet roll

·      dark rain gallop

·      dull candles say

·      heavy olives care

·      violet tools knock

·      tall houses yell

·      twenty animals open

 

The animals shown bear no connection to the words that map their places! There are more to follow so this list will get longer

 

We’re going to close these #LostCats posts with two more poems from Burbage Primary School. These poems grew out of words and phrases collected and comments said during workshops at the school

 

BEAR

found in a bear's cave

They come

From dark, gloomy caves,

And the shadows under the trees.

Dangerous,

Strong,

Intimidating apex predators,

But

Sort of cute,

And

Sort of cuddly.

From a distance.

Would it be wonderful to see them

In Pavilion Gardens catching fish?

Would it be wonderful

For them to be free?

 

MICE

Running, running,

Whiskers twitching,

Scampering,

Scuttling,

Following noses

Tracking scents.

Acorn, apple,

Chewy Chestnut and

Wild wheat,

The dark-juice of berries

And precious plums.

There is no escape

The mice are coming.

 

With many thanks to all our artists, makers, maskers, mice and monsters (you can decide who you are) and especial thanks to Babbling Vagabonds, 2 Left Hands (samba - find them on facebook), Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Buxton Our Street, Buxton Civic Association, Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and the Wild Escape for setting us all a’growling in the first place!

 

Schools involved

Earl Sterndale C of E Primary School

Buxton Junior School

Burbage Primary School

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lost Cats came back

the Carnival of Lost Cats

When I look in the windows
I catch the reflection of a mammoth behind me
That is no longer there.

 

The drums played, the bells range, the cats yowled and the mice chittered. And when she was pecking, the scimitar-tooth ate members of the company

The Carnival of Lost Cats dared the rain (it stayed away until we were finished and the mice had scuttled back to their homes in other people’s wellington boots) and the dragon-killing legacy of St George to prowl through Spring Gardens in Buxton on Sunday 23^rd April

 

This was the conclusion of our Lost Cats of Buxton project where we had been celebrating the animals that once lived here. We had concentrated on the big cats for no good reason beyond ‘they’re very exciting” – cave lions, scimitar-tooths (Homotherium) and lynx whose fossils can be seen in Buxton Museum. Being a generous bunch, we were quite happy when bears, mammoths and wild horses cantered into the mix as well. Part of the Wild Escape initiative, Lost Cats set out to encourage people to look at museum collections and use that inspiration to go exploring and get to know their local landscapes better. In our case this meant you might meet revived big cats prowling through Grinlow Woods on the edge of town. 

 

Funded largely by the Buxton Our Streets project, we brought the memory of our cats to Spring Gardens, prowling along the street, staring hungrily into shop windows and reflecting on change.  We talked about loss and extinction and the way our world is changing now: another challenge to look at the world around us and think about what was, what is and what might be

 

Rather than rambling on, let’s share a couple of poems that grew from collections of thoughts, images and conversations at Burbage Primary School….

 

With many thanks to all our artists, makers, maskers, mice and monsters (you can decide who you are) and especial thanks to Babbling Vagabonds, 2 Left Hands (samba - find them on facebook: TwoLeftHands or Twitter: @twolefthands3), Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Buxton Our Street, Buxton Civic Association, Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and the Wild Escape for setting us all a’growling in the first place!

 

Schools involved

Earl Sterndale C of E Primary School

Buxton Junior School

Burbage Primary School

 

LOST CATS POEMS FROM BURBAGE PRIMARY SCHOOL

 

1. THE LOST CATS

With huge teeth and evil smiles,

Fierce and strong and dangerous,

They only hunt,

They don’t get hunted.

 

Lynx and lion and scimitar-tooth.

What would we do if we saw them,

Running across the school field?

What would we do if we heard them?

Growling through Grinlow Woods.

What would we do if they saw us,

Those silent assassins?

 

Looking good,

They would bring action to Buxton

And excitement to all our lives.

 

Lying in the shade,

Cool and prehistoric,

If they came back to the streets of our town,

It would be an honour.

 

 

2. OTHER ANIMALS

the hyenas have gone as well

Otters,

Playing in the river.

Bears,

Catching fish in Pavilion Gardens.

Wild horses,

Drinking from the river.

Mammoths, 

Walking silently, swinging tusks and trunks,

Elephant giants with wide tusks

That wouldn’t fit through our garden gate.

Bison running past,

Thundering through Burbage

Wolves howling on Bishop’s Lane,

There are so many animals we have lost.

 

Extinct,

I have never seen them before.

I could never see them now,

In Spring Gardens,

In Pavilion Gardens

On the peak of Kinder Scout,

But when I walk past the shops,

When I look in the windows

I catch the reflection of a mammoth behind me

That is no longer there.

 

 

Carnival of Big Cats

 Carnival of the Cats

Sunday 23^rd April  

The cats are coming!

Meeting time: 14:00

Meeting place: at the Iceland end of Spring Gardens: look for us on the pedestrian area near the Sylvan Car Park, SK17 6BY

End time: probably about 15:00

 

follow the scimitar-tooth!

In a celebration of the Lost Animals of Derbyshire, we’re bringing our Big Cats to Spring Gardens.

Over the last 4 months ( look at this blog for lost of Lost Cats posts), people have been exploring the animals that lived here once. We’ve concentrated on the predators: Cave Lions, Scimitar-toothed Cats, Lynx, Wolf and Cave Bear, but others have wandered through. There have been pop-up mammoths and wild horses. There is a swarm of invented prehistoric mice out there somewhere

 

Now, we’re bringing them back: walking our animals along Spring Gardens,  before settling on the lawns of The Slopes and watching visitors admiring our town (and not eating ANYONE)

(Please note, we’ve switched the end of the Parade from Pavilion Gardens to The Slopes)

 

Join us for a wander, a prowl and perhaps a growl

 

Bring: 

• 
  
  yourself
• anything you have made with us in one of these workshops
• or your own Lost cats/big cat wonders
• a picnic to nibble on The Slopes
• a Lost Cat inspired cake if you want: maybe a Cat Cake or a cake that looks like a mouse or that a mouse has just nibbled

Keep track of any updates, extra mice and occasional purrs on our social media:

Look for

Babbling Vagabonds

Buxton Our Street

Creeping Toad

 On social media

Find out more:

check out Buxton Museum and Art Gallery both on line and in the flesh (just across Terrace Road from The Slopes) for information on the animals that lived here once! If you visit the museum you can see a cave lion's leg bones and a Homotherium's scimitar teeth!

Lost Cats has been a Creeping Toad project organised for Our Street, Buxton, to encourage people to look at our town and reflect on change and promise. Our Cats are also part of the Wild Escape initiative connecting museum collections with the wider world around us. Other partners include Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and Buxton Civic Association

forget George and the Dragons, we’ve got Big Cats