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feature - Chalk Stream Lullaby
feature
Chalk Stream Lullaby
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I do not know much about gods, but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god, sullen untamed and intractable’ This phrase is taken from T.S.Eliot at the beginning of the rolling and wonderful, Dry Salvages, in the Four Quartets. It is said he was inspired to write it by some rocks with a beacon on the NE coast of America at Cape Ann Massachusetts.
Even though short and hidden the river Mel has its own beauty and as Eric Schumacher wrote many years ago ‘Small is Beautiful’. There are vistas, meanders, pools and changes. Different depths of water, reeds, grebes’ coots, the heron that lives there and the white egret which has taken up residence as well as the dart of some kingfishers. According to Tristran Goode’s anthropological book How to Read Water it is a healthy river its flow shows no sluggishness even at low water. It passes under small stone bridges, through weirs, creates ponds at mills and was clearly once lived around and on and was at the centre of village life. Just about wide enough to float a canoe, it can be swung across … and it joins the River Rhee (a tributary of the Cam) just outside Meldreth.
The Mel is a classic English chalk stream and I have walked it in all weathers. In summer, it can be low intractable and in winter it can indeed be sullen, especially just below the A10 when it becomes full of crisp packets, plastic bottles and other things which just happen to be dumped from cars. It is only the painstaking work of the River Mel Restoration volunteers who have slowly removed this from the river there and so increased its clarity and flow. It links my village Meldreth with the next village Melbourn and is a well‑worn route, crossing fields and through woodlands used by dog walkers, runners, and children on their way to Melbourn Village College. For me the river Mel close to my home has always been a consolation, a healing force, and a surprise, in that it is different every day. It inspired a short sequence of poems which are published in my last collection The Blue Hour (Shoestring Press 2017) These poems have in turn led to a collaboration with the film maker James Murray White, who has made many short films about art and communities in Great Britain, and as far away as Mongolia and Israel.
Due to our shared interest in people and places the film will not only include poetry although it is part of it. Since the project began we have filmed and interviewed many local people who have stories to tell about their connection to the river both in Melbourn and Meldreth. We have taken Year Six from Meldreth Primary for a day along the river in Meldreth from Flambards Bridge to the church field where they explored, looked closely at wild things and on the way back made their own films with lightning speed on the schools iPads as they walked. The results are hugely varied and clever. Short campaigns to conserve the environment, visual meditations, ghost stories about Topcliffe Mill, close ups of bunches of flowers and water, many different approaches.
In the autumn, we plan to hold a one‑day event to share the stories given to us so far and as well as Gallery poets and Writers we wish to invite anyone who has an interest in the project on that day October 12th at The Hub in Melbourn (watch out for publicity nearer the time). We also hope to be able to share with you our new web site which will include most of the material we have filmed so far.
In early March, we are arranging a concert from acoustic musicians Penni Mclaren Walker and Bryan Causton who will play and reinterpret some of the folk songs collected by
Vaughan Williams when he lived in Meldreth and collected tunes and lyrics from this area, including a couple which became classics. Watch out for dates times and place co‑ordinated by the Hub in Melbourn.
And the film itself? You are invited to the first showing when it is finished! It has been possible to make this due to the generous support of many local and not so local friends through crowd funding, Melbourn and Meldreth Parishes solar fund Schemes and South Cambridgeshire community chest fund. We hope to include all aspects of the project: history stories, poems, music and poetry. This will be next year.
Since January James and I have been granted many permissions to visit all parts of the river, its source, the water meadows, and confluence where it meets the river Rhee. The chalk water is clear as a bell in these places. The river reliant on the local aquifer and naturally occurring springs and it continues through Stockbridge Meadows, Dolphin Lane, Sheene Mill and Manor, Melbourn playing fields, the woods in Meldreth … disappearing out across the fields towards Malton on its short length. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. Here is one of the poems from the sequence. Crossings
The chalk stream claims its territory in a scrap book of feathers, watermarked weeds, pressed petals, insect’s wings. No fords, only tiny stone bridges or firm wooden crossings that would take a horse, a herd of sheep, as was once. Behind the church, there’s willow shelter on the banks, picture perfect. Sanctuary as if it was still an ancient way full of travelling ghosts. One minute long grass, the next chalk flat. And it is as if nothing ever changes and crossing is easy between banks. Through the gate forward and back forward and back. But this is the nature of crossings, a leaving, a letting go a threshold.
There were others here before.
BUT Please feel free to write your own and come and join us on October 12th at the Hub or if you are interested in becoming involved you can contact me through my web site contact page. clarecrossman.net. At this address there is more information about me and a blog about the film we are making.
To find out more about James’ films here is a link to his website: http://vimeo.com/user392575 Clare Crossman
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