Doncopolitan Issue 31

Issue 31

September 2018

FREE TO A GOOD HOME

WE're not A magazine, We're a movement!

Contributors

Contents

Writers:

Design Team:

Rachel Horne

Warren Draper

Mick Lanaghan

Rachel Horne

Warren Draper

Sam Cooper

Katy Turner

Editorial Rachel Horne

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Doncograms

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We're Not A Magazine, We're A Movement Rachel Horne

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All Round To Roundhouse Rail An interview with Paul Merton

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Greenjacker

Editors:

DEPAF

Rachel Horne

Michéle Beck

Warren Draper

Our Headgears, Our Heritage Mick Lanagham

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Editorial Team:

Detourism Warren Draper

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Cavy Corner Katy Turner

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Pull-Out ‘Future Biker’ Poster SPZero76

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One And All To Culture Crawl

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Spice Yorkshire

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#DoncoTags

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Poets For The People

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Emma Gullon Danny McMillan

Craig Hallam Photography:

Steve Bates

Warren Draper

Sam Cooper

James Pierce

Abby Jackson

Jo Powell

Danny McMillan

John Fuller

Linda Jones

Rachel Horne

Cameron Bell

Rod Jackson

Max Thompson

Artwork: SPZero76 Illustration: Al Heighton

Proud to be Independent

Disclaimer

The Doncopolitan aims to provide a truly

The opinions expressed in each feature and article in the Doncopolitan are the opinions of

independent voice for Doncaster. To ensure maximum

their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Doncopolitan.

freedom the magazine is produced and distributed by

The editors and production team of the Doncopolitan accept no responsibility for the

a small team of dedicated individuals and production

opinions expressed.

costs are met through advertising sales. If you want to

horne &draper Everyday Audacity.

fight for Donny independence then why not write for us or donate much needed time, money or equipment?

Interested? Then call us on +44 (0) 7846 439982 or

Conceived and created by

horne&draper art - design - publishing www.horneanddraper.com

email: doncopolitan@gmail.com

Cover Art: SPZero76 ©2018 Inside Cover: “Culture Crawl mural on Broxholme Lane, painted by SPZero76” by Warren Draper

2018

Articles and images marked with a are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

EDITORIAL Rachel Horne This has been Doncaster’s most spicy, hot and cultured summer since records began. World Cup madness took over, Steampunks partied hard at the mansion house, the Hairy Bikers brought thousands to the market and all the butchers sold out of meat.

Pride saw the town adorned with rainbows as 18,000 hit the streets to declare #loveIsLove. I got a chance to put glitter on a bewildered man's beard; an unsuspecting bystander at the the March of Unity. He didn’t know it was Pride this year. Lets hope he joins in the fun in 2019.

This summer, I worked with DMBC to curate Doncaster’s first Culture Crawl event, this included working with local businesses such as 247 Property to bring Spzero76 back to Doncaster to paint an unloved wall at the bottom of Netherhall Road in DN1. SPZero76’s artwork is featured across the pages of the magazine, including the original sketch as this month’s centrefold which is titled Motorcycle Emptiness. If you’d like to watch the artist in action, he’s back later this month.

Our London-based subscriber, Sandra Turnbull, linked me up with legendary comedian Paul Merton. Paul visited Roundhouse Rail, a unique hidden gem off Wheatley Hall Road with his good friend Bob. See page 10 for my interview which unpacks the fascinating world of garden rail, while making plans to build a public garden minuter rail attraction somewhere in the town centre which Paul has promised to come back to Doncaster to open.

Elsewhere, Warren Draper discusses DeTourism, the idea of exploring your home town (or South Yorkshire) as though you are visiting it for the very first time. Every flight we take outside of the UK will undo a year of positive ecological activities. Read Warren’s guide to Donco DeTourism on page 18; get out of your car, get on your feet and start recording what you see.

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On page 20 Katy Turner, who works at DMBC supporting the voluntary and faith sector, visited the charity Cavy Corner to find out how this small roots organisation is saving the lives of guinea pigs from around the borough, while publishing the UK’s first Guinea Pig magazine.

Ex miner, Mick Lanaghan shares a brilliant new project aimed at creating a heritage centre at Hatfield from the remains of the UK’s second-to-last colliery. See plans created by architect Colin Hawood on pages 16.

On page 24, I interview Hannah Shekle of Dreambakes to get a local business's perspective on Culture Crawl.

We couldn’t publish a post summer issue without getting Spicy. See page 28 for an introduction to a new project taking place at Doncopolitan this October; Spice Yorkshire, a project that intends to explore the complex reasons behind Spice use in Doncaster from the people experiencing it first hand.

If you want to get involved in Spice Yorkshire, Culture Crawl, or any of the projects featured in Doncopolitan please don’t hesitate to get in touch: doncopolitan@gmail.com

ABOUT This magazine aims to provide an independent voice for Doncaster.

We will big up anything which has the potential to add to Doncaster’s metropolitan appeal and strengthen the local economy. We’ll celebrate Doncaster’s culture, arts, style, music, people, fashion, lifestyle, architecture and even its coal-black underbelly.

To remain as independent as possible this magazine is completely self-funded, relying on advertising and generous donations to stay afloat. If you would like to advertise with us, or if you’d like to support our endeavours through subscriptions or donations then please get in touch.

Likewise, if you’re a local artist, musician, writer, photographer, fashionista, socialite or social commentator, and have something to contribute to this magazine, please get in touch.

Online: w w w.d o nco p o l i ta n.co m d o nco p o l i ta n@g m a i l .co m Write to us: Doncopolitan Studio Copley Road Project 83 Copley Road Doncaster DN1 2QP info@doncopolitan.com Social Media: Twitter: @D o nco p o l i ta nM a g #DoncopolitanMag Instagram: @D o n co p o l it a n #Doncogram Facebook: facebook.com/doncopolitan YouTube: youtube.com/user/ Doncopolitan Don’t forget to join our free weekly listings guide by visiting: doncopolitan.com

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#Doncograms 1. “St Leger" by Al Heighton ©2018 2. “Culture Crawl @ Josie's" by Warren Draper ©2018 3. “SPZero76 in DN1” by James Pierce ©2018 4. “Ted Hughes Foxy Girls” Jo Powell ©2018 5. “Artwork by Kosy” courtesy of Rachel Horne ©2013

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we're not a maga

we're a movem Rachel Horne This year’s summer has been hot and long.

It’s seen Doncaster hit the national and international news during the World Cup, watching hundreds of people pile onto Silver Street while a man dressed as St George mounted a bus stop.

We’ve also been hitting the national news with the controversial subject, spice. A friend and ex-pat who visited Doncaster from Spain recently stated: “everyone that visits from the UK says Doncaster’s got a bad spice problem.”

I live and work in DN1, on the front line of austerity Britain where you can’t deny the impact of cuts to vital services.

I see people working harder, with bigger problems to solve on ever smaller budgets. People who are beat down by that system, wanting to escape it all.

This is why spice is Britain’s perfect austerity drug, and the reason people are using spice to self-medicate. That’s why people use drugs: to feel better, to take away the pain.

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Many people's lives have unravelled with the ongoing cuts to both benefits and services.

Unemployment, Bedroom Tax, Universal Credit, combined with the loss of a whole range of drug, alcohol, and mental health support services, are wreaking havoc in our communities. But people aren’t exactly piling out onto the streets to fight for more beat police or better health services.

What has been happening en masse, is social media users photographing and publicly shaming people, making it seem like our town is overrun with semi-comatose drug users. Sadly, this does nothing to actually solve the problem, it only puts people off visiting the town centre, negatively affects local businesses and dehumanises people.

If you speak to individuals working in public services you quickly realise how hard people are working trying to solve this issue. At any one time, the Complex Lives Team within DMBC are supporting around 100 people; if you look at social media you’d think those numbers were much higher. There are literally thousands of people discussing

gazine,

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Spice online, focusing a lot of negativity towards a small number of people.

This got me thinking: what can we do to try and change the dynamics in the town centre? Earlier this year, I innovated a project for Doncaster called Culture Crawl (see page 24) to address the fact that less people are going out during the week. I wanted to do this for the local independent businesses that support Doncopolitan and are fighting hard to offer the residents of Doncaster what they want, a thriving retail centre.

Sadly, if everyone keeps getting in their cars and driving to retail parks, they are doing nothing to help these family businesses, the life blood of the town that make Doncaster a unique place to live. We’ve said it many times in Doncopolitan: every £1 spent with a local business is worth £1.76 in the local economy. When we look at places like Leeds and Sheffield and wish that was here, remember the residents of those cities choose to spend their money locally. They also understand the importance of supporting local artisans, makers and creatives.

When the local independents, creatives and residents join forces, this is where true regeneration happens.

For example, when the owner of 247 Properties approached me in regards to creating an artwork on the side of his building near Doncopolitan HQ, I was only too happy to make this happen.

We took a pretty unloved wall on the end of Netherhall and asked SPZero76 (originally Donny born, now based in Bristol) if he’d be up for painting Doncaster again. It’s currently one of his best in the world and he’s got pieces in Iceland, South Korea and New York.

Thanks to local Councillor Dave Shaw, who helped to drum up money for paint and a cherry picker, we pulled this off with a low cost and no fuss.

We just made it happen. One of my favourite parts about being the Creative Producer behind this and Culture Crawl, was seeing the lads you might usually find slumped in a doorway asking for change, smiling and chatting with SPZero76, thanking him for doing something to improve the local area.

Culture Crawl achieved our goals of supporting our local businesses, such as Dreambakes, The Greenhouse Eatery and Vamos Street Food. They sold out of everything they had and The Lockwood had their best Tuesday night on record.

We also got to make the pages of this magazine spill out across Doncaster and prove that people will come out and do care about their town.

Culture is intrinsically linked to the regeneration of Doncaster. It’s not complicated, it’s just about celebrating who we are as a town. We’ve been banging on about it for long enough, and we need you to throw your time and your Donny Dollars this way because We’re Not a Magazine, We’re A Movement.

You decide whether you want to be the one dragging it down or lifting it up.

End Our movement for positive change is open to everyone. If you're interested in becoming part of something special then please get in touch: doncopolitan@gmail.com

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CUltuRE CRaWL DONCASTER’S ALTERNATIVE NIGHT OUT

OCT. 30, 2018 @ 5PM ONWARDS ACROSS DN1 JOIN US AND DISCOVER DONCASTER’S BEST ARTISTS & VENUES

all round to roundhouse rail Rachel Horne interviews Paul Merton Having been a punter for a few years at New Bodies Gym off Wheatley Hall Road, I’d heard about the model train workshop located nearby. The juxtaposition between bodybuilders and bare knuckle fighters nestled next to the world of miniature rail had always fascinated me.

Last month, London based subscriber Sandra Turnbull contacted us in relation to a potential interview with her friend; comedian, writer and actor Paul Merton, who had recently visited Roundhouse

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Illustrations: Al Heighton ©2018

Engineering Co Ltd located in the Church Hill Industrial Estate. This was a massive deal for me. Paul Merton was a big fixture in my childhood and watching Have I Got News For You on a Friday night was a special event, having been brought-up in a household affected by politics and newspaper headlines. I always liked Paul. I always felt he was on our side.

If, like me, you are new to the world of miniature rail, perhaps you’ll be thinking of Hornby toy train sets in your

neighbour's attic or the small trains that are common in seaside towns. Helping you conquer a lengthy march down the pier and rest your aching legs.

Roundhouse was founded in 1982 and manufactures over 600 garden locomotives per year. Prices range from £600 - £3000. They employ a technical team of over 20 staff handcrafting every aspect of the locomotives in Doncaster, keeping the spirit of our industrial past alive.

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Paul, how the heck did you end up at Roundhouse Engineering? It’s a hidden gem for many Doncasterians..

My friend Bob has a pretty large garden and owns a model live replica rail set that runs on actual steam. I had a train set when I was a boy, a kinda standard train set you get for Christmas. On the front of the box there was a magnificent painting of the Flying Scotsman coming out of a hill with all the lushness and greenery but when you get it out of the box, it didn’t look anything like the image on the front.

That was always a bit disappointing for me. Indoor rail is very static, you can only work with what you’ve got but Bob’s garden is really impressive. It’s more like the real thing. They run on distilled water and butane gas, like a scaled down replica of existing trains.

Would you say it’s quite a creative hobby?

It’s quite an extraordinary hobby and very engrossing. Collectors like Bob design their trains to compliment their gardens. Some even put small cameras on the front of the trains and film them in motion. They hold their value too and are collectors items. They just need to be well looked after.

How was the visit?

Roundhouse were really kind to give us a tour of the factory. I used to work for the Department of Employment years ago when I first left school and I visited a few factories, you don’t always see happy people but everybody at Roundhouse seemed happy, the job satisfaction is very clear, because you are making incredibly beautiful objects. It was actually a joy to see people very happy in what they were doing. Also, Roundhouse is the world's leading manufacturers of what they do, they are known across the world.

spanned 74 miles across the Highlands of Scotland. During the 19th Century it wasn’t possible to reach the Highlands by train as the terrain was too difficult to build the tracks on. I think this will have helped to build the popularity of the Garden Rail. A lot of people haven’t experienced it, they might be familiar with what people have in their loft, but they don’t realise these models run on real steam. They are very nostalgic. I think that’s some of the appeal of it.

Did Roundhouse show you and Bob the coal fired trains? I was quite impressed with that, Doncaster doesn’t have any pits left but we’re still building trains that run on the coal...

Bob’s actually looking into buying a train that will run from coal, it’s bought in a kit form which you can assemble.

It’s actually welsh coal, it comes in tiny pieces a bit like granulated sugar, and you get a little shovel to build the fire.

My uncle Jim actually used to do that job on the old steam trains. Apparently it was hard graft but he loved it and only left because he didn’t like the hours.

I imagine it was a very hard job, especially for the crews that worked them. It’s nostalgic for people to look back.

These days we can get to London from Doncaster in 1 hour 20 mins and with High Speed Rail it’s going to cut that down even further.

This is long before the motor car. You could go by horse, of course, but it would take you 2 weeks to do 300 miles.

To leave Edinburgh and arrive in London must have felt like the equivalent of flying to the moon.

In Doncaster we don’t take our rail heritage that seriously. Sadly, the National Rail Museum is based in York. Our new Cultural Centre opens in 2020 and will have a life size replica of the Flying Scotsman. That’s good news. After visiting Roundhouse, I was thinking it would be amazing to have a beautiful garden rail track as a public artwork in the town centre somewhere?

A place where children could learn about steam engines. Most local kids will have never seen a live locomotive.

I think something like that could be pretty impressive and not too costly to pull off. Children will be fascinated by them, I’m sure, and in Doncaster you’ve got the world's experts as your consultants.

Are you planning on visiting Doncaster again with Bob? Well, I’d love too. In fact, I’ll come and open your garden railway when you have the official opening.

End If you think we should help create a Garden Rail track in Doncaster, please show your support by emailing: doncopolitan@gmail .com

The first Edinburgh to London train service was around 1860 and took 10 hours. It would have seemed like a miracle to travel that journey in a day.

It’s impressive to have such a success niche business here in Doncaster, especially in such an economic decline.

Yes, they seem to be doing really well, in fact Channel 4 produced a TV Show recently with a Roundhouse engine.

They created a miniature railway that

Photography: Rachel Horne ©2018

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ThePoetry Ted Festival Hughes 7th - 9th Sept 2018 Mexborough

Moor mother from Philadelphia usa

Kate fox - breaking beats - Mike garry and much more

To book tickets and for more info please visit

www.tedhughesproject.com #Tedfest18 @thetedhughesproject @TedHughesSW

September 30th. 2018

11am - 4pm Bentley Urban Farm Workshops - Talks - Food Stalls - Music - Good Vibes - TICKETS £5/2.50

our headgears, our heritage Mick Lanaghan Hatfield Main is the last colliery in the Doncaster Coalfield, finally closed in 2015. At its height, it employed 3,500 workers from the villages of Stainforth, Dunscroft, Hatfield, Thorne, and Moorends. By the time of its final closure that number could be counted on one hand. The socio-economic cost of having a coal producing mine without employment in those communities has resulted in no input from the Coalfields Regeneration Scheme since in the early 1990s, resulting in the economic deprivation of the area.

On learning of the immediate closure of Hatfield Main and filling of the shafts, a local miners' heritage group moved to gain protected status for the last headgears in the Doncaster coalfield, and was successful in 2015. The site also has two winding houses, an engine room, and fan housings that are still intact and, in early 2018, a formal trust body was initiated to build a plan for the site.

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Firstly, we aim to provide a miners' memorial garden at the end of the old pit lane included in the proposals for the colliery use.

It’s a well known fact that the mines of Britain didn’t just produce coal; a rich seam of poets, artists, writers along with comedians, singers and songwriters became a by-product of the mining communities. With this in mind, a large part of the trust’s proposals will include affordable artisan workshops and studios in the disused winding houses and engine room, harnessing solar and underground sources of heat and electricity, inclusion of a local radio station and recording studio, along with proposals for a virtual reality underground experience. The old fan housing will hopefully become a gallery to exhibit artworks, including art from the mining communities of Doncaster and other coalfields of Britain, while the area’s surrounding country park will hopefully become a

Images: courtesy of Save Hatfield Main Headgears ©2018

heritage centre including a wedding venue and community facilities aimed at generating a sustainable future. Finally, it’s hoped that both headgears can be repaired and lit so that they can be seen from all major transport routes to the east of Doncaster, becoming a lasting memorial to our coal mining heritage.

It isn’t the aim of the Trust to seek any funding from the taxpayers of Doncaster, instead seeking funding from grants and crowd-funding.

Please find us on Facebook at Save Hatfield Main Headgears and Just Giving Hatfield Main where we are currently raising the initial funds for a feasibility study along with initial structural surveys that are required to open other grant funding sources.

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detourism Warren Draper From campaigning to ‘Save The Whale’ as a schoolchild, to living on the frontline of ecological resistance as a 90’s road protester, to my forthcoming ‘Born To Rewild’ project (details to come in a future Doncopolitan), I have spent most of my life involved with ecological activism and protection of the wild. As we live through climate chaos and the human-driven sixth mass-extinction event, this feels like a losing battle, but I refuse to stop fighting. As an ecological activist, I do not drive a car (I am a militant pedestrian who walks whenever possible… thankfully this is still more possible in Donny than most towns) and I live by a strict no-fly policy (a single air journey can undo a year’s worth of positive ecological activities). This means that I hardly ever leave Yorkshire, let alone these shores. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to walk Patagonia, or swim the coast of Linapacan Island but, for me, it is enough to know that such wonders exist and, let’s be honest, very few vistas are improved by the presence of a middle-aged white dude. I am not, geographically speaking, well-travelled, but I have been lucky enough in my life to have been taken on journeys filled with wonder, magic, knowledge and mystery; mostly without ever leaving South Yorkshire. I am lucky enough to have walked with psychogeographers.

Psychogeography was originally defined in 1955 by the Situationist philosopher, Guy Debord as: "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the

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geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." As you can see, they like their flowery words these psychogeographers. A half century later, Joseph Hart would put things more clearly, saying that psychogeography gives us: "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities... just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape."

Debord was a founding member of Situationist International (SI). As intellectuals treading new ground, the SI often had to develop new terminology for their work. But sometimes complicated language can obscure the simplest of ideas.

Academics do, of course, require a deep and diverse vocabulary to fully explore concepts, but once their theories are developed they also need to use everyday words if they want beautiful ideas to flourish in the everyday world.

For instance, the following is from Will Self, perhaps the UK’s greatest modern psychogeographer: “I’ve taken to long-distance walking as a means of dissolving the mechanised matrix which compresses the space-time continuum, and decouples humans from physical geography.”

I love both Will Self and Private Eye (the quote is from Private Eye: Media Balls 2005), but all this statement really says

is that walking reconnects us with the physical, everyday world, breaks down our dependency on technology and slows down time to a more natural, human pace. And that is a wonderfully simple and liberating idea.

Psychogeography not only offers us a deeper understanding of the urban environment we inhabit, it helps us to understand that it is completely within our power to re-imagine and reshape that environment. Small wonder that one of the most well-known texts of the SI is entitled The Revolution of Everyday Life (Raoul Vaneigem, 1967). This and other key SI writings, such as The Society of the Spectacle (Guy Dubord, 1967), are important works for anyone seeking to live their lives with greater immediacy and freedom. But, thanks to the aforementioned flowery language, they are not always the easiest texts to digest. Luckily for a non-intellectual like me, the ideas and theories of the SI were translated into everyday language by a wonderful artist, publisher and filmmaker named Larry Law. Larry created the Spectacular Times series of pamphlets which introduced a bunch of South Yorkshire misfits to the ideas of the SI and inadvertently created a little-known spoof political art movement. One of Larry’s pamphlets is called Revolutionary Self Theory: A Beginner’s Manual. It begins: Tired of waiting for authentic community, love and adventure...

Tired of waiting for the end of money and forced work...

Tired of looking for new pastimes to pass the time...

Tired of waiting for a lush, rich existence... Tired of waiting for a situation in which you can realise all your desires...

Tired of waiting for the end of all authorities, alienations, ideologies and moralities... ...then we think you’ll find what follows to be quite handy.

We were tired of being skint, nonworking, working class kids. And we found the pamphlet very handy indeed. Within weeks of discovering Revolutionary Self Theory we had founded the tongue-ever-so-slightly-incheek ‘SeLF’ - the Self Liberation Front.

When we weren’t living on road protest camps or organizing Reclaim The Streets (RTS) parties, the SeLF would dedicate time to the psychogeographical exploration of South Yorkshire towns.

We would explore the everyday world with the intensity and fascination of Marco Polo visiting China and the kingdom of Kublai Khan, only being the 90s our artistic output was a little less ambitious. Rather than creating world-famous books, our journeys were documented in ‘zines’ - self-published photocopied magazines which we left in record shops and/or posted out to

people. It was naïve, it was fun but, most importantly, it was liberating.

We came to believe, as the slogan goes, that another world is possible.

As any long-term Doncopolitan reader will already have guessed, my fellow Doncolites and I still believe this.

Almost everything we do, from Bentley Urban Farm to Culture Crawl, is about building a better, brighter, braver Doncaster.

Psychogeography is nothing if not playful. Instead of taking a city break why not take a break in your own city?

(OK, it’s an historic market town, but it has the creative potential of a city) The following activity is inspired by the writings of Robert MacFarlane: Donco DeTourism: Get yourself a map of Doncaster or a copy of the Doncaster AtoZ. Place a circular object – such as a glass, a tin, a lid or a mug – anywhere on the map (or a randomly selected page of the AtoZ) and draw round its edge.

Pick up your map and head out into the area of Doncaster which you selected.

Follow, as closely as possible, the line of the circle you have drawn. Using one or several mediums of your choice – photography, drawing, painting, poetry, music, video, song, prose, sculpture, banter, etc. – document your journey as you come full circle to the point where you started. Make note of the sounds, smells, visions and textures of your journey. Be a slave to serendipity. If your

circle takes you to the forgotten, the forbidden or the fantastic, do not give into your fears. Walk boldly. You will find that a clipboard and a high-vis can be passports to practically anywhere.

Take note of the literal writing on the wall (and the road, and the pavement); signs, graffiti, warnings, welcomes and the ghosts of long-forgotten advertisements. When you are done you might immediately create an artwork to celebrate your journey, or you may delve deeper into the archives and folklore of the places you visited along the way; building a history of which your journey is just one small point in time. You might even spend time redesigning the urban environment you visited in order to present an alternative vision of the future. Whatever you choose to do, do it with heart. And once your work is done, we humbly invite you to drop it into Doncopolitan so that we can create a psychogeographical archive of our town.

Walkers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but those extra pounds you gained by driving everywhere.

End In loving memory of Larry, Noel & Mozaz, fellow (psychogeographical) travellers one and all.

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cavy corner Katy Turner I have to admit, when someone told me that we have a specialist sanctuary solely for guinea pigs right here in Doncaster, I thought that it must be an urban myth. Under further investigation, it turned out to be 100% true. It transpires that Cavy Corner is an organisation purely dedicated to rescuing, caring for and re-homing little piggies (or cavies, which is the Latin name for guinea pig). Now, because Cavy Corner is a registered charity and because I have the best job in the Council, I got to pay them a little visit under the guise of work. I proceeded to spend a glorious afternoon chatting to Sue Tate, the founder of this wonderful initiative, and had my eyes truly opened to the underground guinea pig subculture taking place in our borough!

For example, did you know that Guinea Pig Magazine, the UK’s first (and only) publication dedicated to our furry friends is produced and edited here in Donny? Neither did I!

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Photography: courtesy of Cavy Corner ©2018

Anyway, the story goes that, in 2008, Sue and her partner Winston began Cavy Corner after becoming aware of vast numbers of guinea pigs being mistreated and the lack of provision within traditional animal shelters to nurse them and find them a loving home. They started out with just two guineas, Clover and GP, but fast forward almost a decade and the charity is nearing its 10th anniversary having rescued and cared for thousands of guineas of every breed and variety.

Sue and Winston’s dedication to their brood is clear to see and absolutely heart-warming. They can instantly recount the unique personality, background and medical history of each individual guinea. This is immediately apparent from Cavy Corner’s social media, which is a delightful showcase of the guineas’ daily adventures: there is the cuddly Kevin Tuesday, so named because Sue posts pictures and videos

of him every Tuesday without fail which has been known to cause public outcry on the rare occasion where she hasn’t got around to it; then there's the eyecatching skinny pigs, a hairless breed of guinea who look like mini hippos with a few whiskers on their noses; and a whole host of adorable guinea couples who make up the rest of the family (guineas are incredibly social creatures who get lonely if they don’t have a mate sob, sob!)

Cavy Corner’s philosophy is centred upon giving these lovely animals the best lives they can possibly have.

However, this requires constant hard work, a military routine of cage cleaning, feeding, cleaning water bottles, nail clipping, grooming and trips to the vet. The organisation also does lots of educational and outreach work, in the form of workshops with schools, events in the community, home visits, therapy visits to care homes

and they even run a specialist ‘Guinea Helpline’ which receives calls and enquiries from across the world.

The really special thing about Cavy Corner is that it is run entirely by a team of dedicated volunteers and has no paid staff whatsoever. Everyone who contributes their time does so out of their sheer love for guinea pigs.

The charity also relies strongly on fundraising to ensure that the guineas get the year-round VIP treatment they have become accustomed to (keeping Kevin Tuesday well-stocked with strawberries, for a start).

On the way home, as I reflected upon my visit, I thought about how wonderful it is that the charity is turning an issue as negative as animal cruelty and abandonment into something so positive, fun and full of joy. Sue told me that every day she feels blessed because the guinea pigs have led her

to meet so many wonderful people. For me, this really sums up the caring and compassionate community of guinea pig lovers that Cavy Corner has helped to unite. When he visited, Ed Miliband commented that “Cavy Corner is a credit to Doncaster”. I really couldn’t agree more.

So, if like me, you have been inspired

by Cavy Corner’s remarkable and utterly unique story, there are a number of small things you can do to help sustain the valuable work they are doing: 1. Become a regular volunteer – no experience needed and they are able to cater for all ages and abilities. The only requirement is to be a guinea pig lover!

2. Attend fundraising events like this one with your family and friends:

the contest! - Sunday 21st October, 124pm at Armthorpe Community Centre, Church Street, DN3 3AG. 3. Make a small donation of items like kitchen towels (which Cavy Corner uses at an alarming rate) or items for tombolas/raffles that can be used to raise funds.

4. Check out the Cavy Corner website and follow the Facebook Page to become acquainted with all the Cavy characters and spread the guinea love!

End c avy co r ne r.o r g fa c e b o o k .co m /c avy co r ne r /

Small and Fury Fun Pet Show – Enter your guinea pig, rabbit or hamster into

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© SPZero76

come one and all to culture crawl Rachel Horne talks to Dreambakes about Doncaster's exciting new cultural event.

Firstly, as a local business, why did you want to get behind Culture Crawl?

We wanted to get behind it because Doncaster has an amazing arts and culture scene that doesn't get enough recognition.

People always say things like 'oh I wish we had events like xxxx in Doncaster' but never do anything to help plan them or talk about them. THIS is the sort of event Doncaster needs in order to change perceptions and show we are a flourishing town.

Wowsa, thank you for getting our vision.

It is frustrating when I read comments online, people want Doncaster to be like Leeds or Sheffield, then don't offer support. Putting on Culture Crawl was a massive risk, we were scared people wouldn't get it or turn out, but we created a solid marketing campaign, largely in print (YES, PRINT’S NOT DEAD).

This included 10,000 flyers, 1000 Maps, and people came out in droves. Can I ask what the vibe was like at Dream Bakes on the night?

Doncopolitan and other independent entrepreneurs are really trying hard to introduce new and alternative events to Doncaster which I think a) is a big risk for those involved and b) will hopefully help people believe in the town and start buying and investing in it.

The vibe was amazing. We had a big queue at the Vamanos truck that we hosted outside, and people were coming in to enjoy their food and then have

24

Photography: Rod Jackson ©2018

dessert. There was a real buzz and vibrancy in the air. People were chatting, laughing, just generally enjoying themselves and being incredibly positive.

Also, it's nice to celebrate Doncaster as a place, rather than just doing a copycat event that's worked in, say, Leeds or Sheffield. Honestly, you guys did an amazing job.

Thanks mate, I’ll pay ya bribe laters.

The thing I liked about the Culture Crawl was that it wasn't focused on drinking; that wasn't a motivation for people to come out. So, people were out for it because of the event in itself, because they were genuinely interested in the arts. I dare say some people just had tacos and left, but the majority I asked were out to look at the event. Just shows you what can happen if people actually take action with their ideas.

Yeah, I wasn't 100% sure about it being on a Tuesday but it totally makes sense if you wanted it to be proven that it was just for the event.

I thought the route was really good and had a great mix of things to look at and do as well.

Like there wasn't an overlap so there was a reason to come to each venue.

Did you manage to check-out the venues?

No, I was working until half nine. From what people have said they were great!

There didn't seem to be a 'favourite', but it was great to see other businesses getting behind the event. It felt like a real breath of fresh air I could practically see the blood, sweat and tears you guys had all put in!

It was hard graft but certainly worth it.

I just wanted to bring more people into town than the Coca Cola truck did in Christmas 2016. It’s been bugging me, that. Did you guys sell out of cake?

We did yes, we sold all the cake I had made just for the event and almost all the cake for the following day.

It was also a goal to do this event on a night when no-one would be in town to prove that we can get people out.

End Follow up dates on Culture Crawl on our website: doncopolitan.com/culturecrawl Get the date for the next Culture Crawl in your diary: Tuesday 30th October, 5pm.

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SPICE YORKSHIRE

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If you have been reading through local media reports and social media posts over the last few months you might be avoiding visiting your local town centre for fear of it being a dangerous place filled with staggering zombie-like figures who lurch threateningly around our shopping precincts, occasionally stopping to urinate or defecate in public before sprawling out comatose on the floor or benches.

The reality is, of course, somewhat different. Like many places across the UK, the use of ‘Spice’ has become part of life for some in our communities.

The people using Spice, or synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists as these drugs should be more correctly known, are often some of the most vulnerable, marginalised people in our communities. The drug has become associated with people who are homeless or sleeping rough, people in and out of the prison system and people with mental health issues. Many people now using Spice have been using substances problematically for many years, sometimes decades. For many of them there will be a history of sexual or physical abuse or other trauma.

Yet what we have seen over the last few months is a vilification of this highly visible group. To see this on social media isn’t surprising, to see our local media outlets perpetuating stigma against this group by using terms like ‘Spice zombies’, and talking about our town centres being ‘overrun’ has been profoundly disturbing. This kind of reporting has fuelled the call for vigilante action and attacks against people who use drugs have become commonplace, often shared on social media pages.

Undoubtedly, there are issues with Spice and people using the drug do sometimes behave antisocially. Many people in our communities find this highly visible, but very small percentage of our population, intimidating and threatening. What is often missing in the discussion around Spice is consideration of the impact of austerity and drug policy. Since 2010, the cuts to public services have left many of the services that could offer support buckling under the pressure. Drug treatment services have had budgets reduced by approximately 26%, and staffing in prisons has been reduced to a fraction of what it was. Mental health and homeless services are overstretched and will not work with people actively using drugs. Add to this

Spice, a drug that is incredibly cheap, highly potent, and which appears to be highly addictive, being used by a population with multiple and complex needs, and you have the perfect storm.

What we have also seen over the last few years is a serious knowledge deficit about Spice among people in drug treatment, mental health and associated services. At Spice Yorkshire we want to work to challenge the stigma against people using Spice, we want to give people using the drug a voice, and we want to ensure that the people who work with Spice users have the necessary skills and training.

The stigma against people using Spice, and around addiction in general, is deeply rooted in our communities but often goes unaddressed. Other than the excellent article published in the Sheffield Star, where drug workers and commissioners spoke about these issues, drug services in Doncaster, Rotherham & Barnsley have remained silent. This may be down to local politics or fears over funding and contracts. We feel strongly that there needs to be a counter-narrative developed that seeks to understand Spice use and challenge the public consensus. We are reminded of a quote from the UK Drug Policy Commission: “If we are serious about recovery, we need to be serious about tackling stigma.”

Our first event will be as part of the Culture Crawl in Doncaster where we will be exhibiting photography & artwork made by local residents who are using Spice. Through this, we hope to humanise their experiences and give these people a voice.

End If you would like to get involved with Spice Yorks please email: s p i ceyo r k s @ g m a i l . c o m

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#facesoffrenchgate

Photography: Warren Draper

30

2018

To mark the 50th Anniversary of the building of the Frenchgate shopping centre, Doncopolitan are partnering with Frenchgate to create an exhibition to celebrate the people who made the last half century possible. Faces Of Frenchgate will capture the faces, and document the stories, of the beautiful humans who make Frenchgate such a vibrant place to visit. If you would like to take advantage of this unique opportunity to have your portrait taken, or if you would like to share your Frenchgate story (like the guy who remembers his dad taking him to the Arndale to buy a ferret!), then please get in touch: doncopolitan@gmail.com or 07846 439982.

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#greenjackER

THE BIG MEAN SCREEN MACHINE (and how to defeat it)

by Greenjacker

I worked a wide variety of jobs before taking the plunge

The truth is that most of the people who moan about the

to become one of Doncaster’s first urban farmers (there’s

weather have left their centrally heated home to drive their

still only a few of us, so pop down to Bentley Urban Farm if

heated car to work where they’ll spend the next 8 hours

you want to be part of the first wave). The one thing each

sitting in a heated office. Anyone who walks to work knows

workplace had in common was almost exactly the same early

that the body will acclimatise within 10 minutes or so.

morning conversations.

Surprisingly, using your body warms us up! Yes, there are times when we need a little extra help, but, as the Norwegians

“Traffic’s a nightmare again.”

say: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.”

“Yeah, I’d be tempted to hop on my bike if it weren’t for the

As for moaning about the traffic, if you’re driving, you are

rubbish English weather.”

the traffic. To be honest, this inability to recognise our own complicity in the problems we face is hardly surprising. It is

“Yeah, cold again isn’t it?”

a symptom of our growing disconnection from the physical world. It is very hard to connect with anything when we

“Freezing. Its like bloomin’ Siberia out there. And the TV said it

spend our lives peering through screens. Whether it be the

is going to rain later.”

windows of our houses, cars or offices, or the screens of our TVs, computers, phones and tablets, we seem to live most of

“Really? Again? I’ll check mi phone… Oh, yeah. It has pictures

our lives with a layer of glass between ourselves and the real

of rain clouds on my app. Says a 60% chance of showers at

world. In fact, we are less likely to believe that something is

2pm. Can’t wait for my holiday to Spain in six weeks, they get

‘real’ if we haven’t seen it on a screen. Tragically, in this post-

proper weather.”

truth age, we’re also likely to believe something just because it does appear on a screen.

“Bit hot though?”

We have abandoned the vital for the virtual, but it hasn’t “Yeah,”… try your hardest not to picture Peter Kay on reading

even made us happy. Anxiety levels are rising due to lack

the next line… “Different heat though, isn’t it?!?”

of ‘likes’ from people who we’ve never even met and we’re made jealous by a constant stream of pictures of people

A lot of Doncopolitan readers will hear conversations like

more beautiful than ourselves in places more wonderful than

this during their own working day, but how true are such

where we are, even though we know full well that the photos

statements? Anyone who spends any real time outside in

are filtered and that they’re taken at a carefully selected

Doncaster will tell you that weather is rarely truly unbearable.

angle which shows the only uncrowded spot on the entire

We’ve talked about Doncaster’s favourable micro-climate

beach and conveniently ignores the nearby toxic waste dump

many times in Doncopolitan. Weather forecasts are rarely

and street beggars . In fact, our rose-tinted screens make it

local enough to give an accurate picture and most of the

much easier for us to ignore things like pollution, poverty,

time when rain is forecast for the general area the rain

climate change, extinction and war, even though mobile

clouds actually tend to pass us over, preferring to dump their

phone production itself has exasperated many of these

load on Sheffield or Leeds. Believe it or not, thanks to our

problems.

geography, we don’t get that many rainy days. Go outside if you don’t believe me, the odds are against you getting wet,

I was unhappy, too, not so very long ago. I had a ‘good’ job

and at least you have this copy of Doncopolitan to cover your

and some of the best screens money can buy, but it was never

head if it does happen to rain.

enough. One of my Facebook ‘friends’ was a diving instructor in Dubai who always seemed to be at amazing parties; my life seemed dull and listless in comparison. Why couldn’t I have

32

his perfect life? I was much smarter than him at school. And within weeks of me having the latest smartphone or tablet, something faster, cleverer and shinier would come along. My once powerful phone would become ever more brick-like and embarrassing as I waited for my contract to end. But then I started working the land.

Growing things changes your perspective. Firstly you spend most of your life outdoors, with no barrier between you and the real world. Physically, you begin to feel better. Partly due to the injection of vitamin D, but mainly because you somehow feel expanded as you realise that you are an integral part of the whole; a small aspect of a constantly changing landscape. Because you’re growing things, especially if you’re growing organically, you also focus more on the needs of life, rather than lifestyle. A healthy environment makes healthy plants. You become more observant, more focused on the here and now and you work to Mother Nature’s calendar. We develop an ‘ecological mindset’, which is almost the opposite to the screen mindset.

It might be nice to catch up with what my actual friends are doing now and then, but some random photo of a cat or a few extra ‘likes’ ain’t gonna make my tomatoes any sweeter.

I feel physically and mentally healthier for reconnecting with the real world. But don’t take my word for it. Take yourself a ‘Vacation from the Virtual’. This is a bit like a ‘Digital Detox’ with a healthy, tasty bonus. Come off of social media for a month. On day one plant yourself a radish. When you get the urge to check your phone, check your radish instead. After all, the little guy’s life depends on you giving it attention now and then. Watch it develop. Within days of planting the seed you’ll see the first leaves. These will be replaced a week or so later by the ‘true leaves’. Photographing this development will kerb your urge to photograph yourself for your feed and, talking of ‘feed’, by the end of the month you will have a delicious radish. Which is more than Facebook ever gave you.

If you get good at growing radishes, come down and grow more stuff at Bentley Urban Farm. We guarantee not to have good Wi-Fi.

Photography: Warren Draper

2018

33

#artscene DONCASTER EMERGING AND PROFESSIONAL ART FAIR 21 Market Place, Doncaster DN1 1NE & 7 Market Road, Doncaster DN1 1LS

by DEPAF

# The Doncaster Emerging and

The difference lies in the fact that the

The Choice of venue for the first edition

Professional Art Fair (DEPAF) takes place

public have the opportunity to meet

of Doncaster Art Fair was facilitated by

on 16th September in Doncaster town

the artists themselves, helping to foster

Jackie Bailey, of The Masons Arms and

centre at the Magdalen Sports Bar (21

better understanding between the

The Magdalen; whose welcoming gesture

Market Place, DN1 1NE) and No.7 The

artists, the buyers and the artworks.

will see 30 artists exhibit their work

Rum Rooms (7 Market Road, DN1 1LS),

in various corners of both premises.

both venues located in the marketplace.

Doncaster art fair has been founded by

Jackie says: “Our establishments have

Admission is free.

award-winning artist Chinwe Russell,

long been in support of the arts as can

who says: "Doncaster is a fabulous

be evidenced by the number of original

With over 30 emerging and professional

town. The area is rich in a wide range of

artworks present on our walls. We are

visual artists exhibiting 200 original

practising visual artists, ranging from

proud to be sponsors of the Doncaster

artworks, there will be a wide variety

those who have been practising for years

Art Fair.”

of art on display, including paintings,

down to those who are just starting out

mixed media, illustrations, sculpture,

on their journey. I believe that artists

To find out more about the fair visit:

design, creative fashion, drawing,

these days should think of themselves

doncasterar tfair.com

printmaking, ceramics, photography,

as business people and should think

limited edition prints, and more. The art

of imaginative ways and venues to

Get in touch via:

fair is aimed at the general art-loving

promote their work. Exhibiting at the

contact@doncasterar tfair.com

public, businesses and galleries.

Doncaster art fair is a very good start.

07572 668 922

The aim of this show is to help these

34

Doncaster art fair aims to celebrate and

artists to tap into audiences that would

Doncaster Art Fair plans to hold other

promote the works of visual artists in

not necessarily be available to them

events throughout the year. If you are a

the region and beyond. This unique art

and encourage them in their journey.

visual artist and you want to take part

fair gives the art loving public, galleries

Art is also an important instrument in

in any of the Doncaster art fairs, please

and businesses the opportunity

bringing international recognition to a

register on www.doncaterartfair.com

to browse and buy art direct from

town and our aim is to eventually attract

the artists over conversations and

international artists and buyers to

appreciation of the works available for

Doncaster thereby enriching the profile

sale.

of the town.”

Artwork by exhibiting artist Helen Fisher.

35

#PINT CLUB THREE HORSE SHOES St.Mary's Bridge, Doncaster DN5 9AG Murphy’s Stout - £3.25

#

This pub has always been a mystery to me. When I pop into

Plough, alongside two ciders which I personally can’t stomach.

the town centre for a drink the idea of walking over the north

I can only presume this is due to attending house parties in

bridge feels just a little too far to walk when pub hopping. So,

my youth with too much Strongbow. I settled in the end for a

until deciding to review this pub I have never actually entered

Murphy’s Stout weighing in at £3.25. I was excited to try it.

the premises in my life. The only idea I had prior to my venture inside this boozer was from driving past and seeing the terribly

Waddling back over to my seat, I opened my laptop and

painful sign on the exterior which reads “three horse shoes”

started typing frantically about my visit so far. My last review

in Comic Sans font. I may sound a tad snobbish but the sign

was also a stout, so initially I was a little hesitant to begin

has put me off for some time. I decided to put this behind me,

writing about this but after I took my first mouthful I knew

hopped on my bike and rode round.

I needed to put this into writing. It was like an alcoholic chocolate milkshake meets John Smith’s. It was so smooth and

Chaining my bike outside, I was greeted gracefully by a local

creamy as it went down with the subtle aroma from the head

having a beer on the bench out front. I entered the venue

hitting my nostrils. The aftertaste was luscious, very dark with

with a smile already across my face. The bar is split into two

undertones of chocolate. All this and in it’s own branded glass.

sides, one with 4 taps, the other with 3 hand pulls and 6 taps;

I couldn’t help but treat myself to a second. Usually, too much

a vast range to choose from, there is something for everybody.

of a drink like this would leave me feeling heavy and sluggish

However, it does mean that to see everything on offer you must

for a while but this stout was different, it was effortlessly

alternate between the two sides. A minor inconvenience in the

beautiful.

grand scheme of things but, nonetheless, it makes purchasing a drink on your first time rather awkward. Of course, it’s nothing

My stay at the Three Horse Shoes was a wonderful one. I

that can be helped due to the pub's layout.

was treated with the utmost respect despite being a clear newcomer; welcomed, served and departing with a smile.

I chose to sit on the left side of the pub, where the walls are

I would highly recommend this pub, the walk from town is

filled with beer stamps of the past and a vast array of football

definitely worth it and I will continue to do so in the future.

scarves hang from the ceiling. A projector is set up just above

The only negatives I draw from this is the unfortunate bar

the fireplace and a TV above the entrance. I can still feel the

layout and the signage out front which deterred me for a

tension in here from last weekend’s game; it is definitely a pub

while. However, I will 100% be back for more.

to watch the football in. As I sat on the left side of the pub, the locals appeared to have propped themselves up on the bar

I would give this trip a strong 8/10

stools on the right side, with a comfortable view of the whole pub and visible access to more pumps and hand pulls.

Danny McMillan

Now for my drink of choice. After circling the bar, squeezing between the locals to see what was on offer, I noticed that the hand pulls were not in my favour this time. There was the Acorn Brewery Barnsley Bitter, which I reviewed recently in Little

Pint Club Pint Club is a Facebook group dedicated to lads (‘pintmen’) sharing pictures of and reviewing pints whether they are good or bad. The idea is to create one gigantic online pub in which men can interact with others through a mutual interest: pints. This review of The Three Horse Shoes is one of a series of articles for Pint Club. If this appeals to you and you see yourself as a bit of a pint connoisseur, then feel free to get on board by joining our Facebook group: @pintclub

36

Photography: courtesy of The Three Horse Shoes ©2018

#doncolistings THEATRE LISTINGS

by Emma Gullon

#

The Last Seam @ CAST, Waterdale DN1 3BU Wednesday 19th - Saturday 22nd September, 7.45pm (matinee 22nd 2.30pm) £12.50/£10.50

Othello @ CAST, Waterdale DN1 3BU Tuesday 2nd - Saturday 6th October 7.30pm (Thursday & Saturday 2.30pm.) £19/£10

Following its sell-out read through in 2017, The Last Seam returns to CAST as a completed performance.

Following a triumphant London run and acclaimed tour, English Touring Theatre present a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Othello.

Written by Garry Lyons (Heartbeat, The Bill, Casualty) this gripping play brings to life the voices and stories of those affected by the 2015 closure of Hatfield Colliery.

Full of humour and heartache, this sad, historic moment for England’s last deep seam mine is now brought vividly to life on stage.

The Last Seam is a combination of local history and talent that must be seen so as to never be forgotten.

Book your tickets: castindoncaster.com 01302 303 959 or visit the box office.

38

Set in modern day Venice, newly married Muslim general Othello finds himself under yet more strain when he is tasked to defeat an invading Turkish fleet, on top of his struggle to fit into a society where discrimination is rife. His toxic friendship with Iago is set to push him over the edge, and he finds himself turning against everything that’s close to him.

A co-production with Oxford Playhouse & Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, Richard Twyman’s version of Othello still holds the original themes of racial tension, love and the consequences of jealousy.

Book your tickets: castindoncaster.com 01302 303 959 or visit the box office.

Tinned Goods @ The Doncaster Little Theatre 1 King Street, off East Laith Gate DN1 1JD Wednesday 12th- Friday 14th September 7.30pm. £10/£8 The miners’ strike is also taking centre stage at Little Theatre with Fiona Whitelaw’s drama Tinned Goods.

Set in 1984, four months into the strike, we see the full emotional toil of the strike, especially in the wake of Orgreave. Best friends Sue and Rachel haven’t spoken since the beginning of the strike. Susan’s relationship with her husband and daughter is also under threat in the fight against Margaret Thatcher, but for very different reasons.

Tinned Goods is a true-to-life play that represents all the trials and tribulations that the miners’ strike brought with it, a period in history that changed England forever.

Book your tickets: doncasterlittletheatre.co.uk 01302 340 422 or visit the box office.

The Dresser @ The Doncaster Little Theatre 1 King Street, off East Laith Gate, DN1 1JD Thursday 11th October - Saturday 13th October. £10/£8 A classic piece of theatre comes to Doncaster with Richard Harwood’s The Dresser, a tragic drama set in the heart of the theatre world.

Set in 1940, it’s almost time for curtain up for King Lear, but ‘Sir’ is seriously ill, and the role is draining enough as it is. The long-suffering dresser is put to the task of making sure that the aged star is well enough to get onstage and still be able to stand upright. A challenge, it seems, that may be impossible.

The Dresser is a classic, heart-warming but terribly tragic story on and off the stage, and highlights the apparent fact that ‘the show must go on’.

Book your tickets: doncasterlittletheatre.co.uk 01302 340 422 or visit the box office.

39

Sunday 23rd September

A fun family day out at the farm!

Feed the Animals

As a working farm, our animal trail allows children to get up close with many farm animals, even pet & feed some of the them.

Suitable for children up to 10 years old.

Indoor and Outdoor Play

We have outdoor play equipment, a mini maze and bale pyramid plus an indoor soft play area, suitable for children up to 8yrs old with a large covered sandpit.

OPEN EVERY DAY Term Time: 10am-4pm Summer Holiday: 10am-5pm ADMISSION Adults £1 Children (3-12 yrs) £5 Toddlers (1 & 2 yrs) £3 Under 1 year old free!

ON-LINE TICKETS Please see website for more information.

Tea Room

Fresh, ground coffee, pots of tea, specialty teas and a selection of cold drinks.

Freshly prepared lunch options for all ages, plus a range of homemade cakes, biscuits & buns.

Bawtry Road, Hatfield Woodhouse, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN7 6DS W: www.bostonpark.com T: 01302 844818

poetsfor thepeople The Ted Hughes Festival (South Yorkshire) welcomes its fourth and most diverse festival to date this September.

Bridging the gap between hip-hop culture and poetry by incorporating the raw message from the mean streets of Philadelphia, and ‘blowing it up’ on the mean streets of Mexborough. A former mining and market town surrounded by ex-mining villages.

Taking place at a local Business Centre, the old Grammar School where poet Ted Hughes studied, the overarching project aims to celebrate the fact that Mexborough was Hughes’ home from 1938-1951, his formative years as a poet in the town.

Commemorating Hughes’ time in the town, the project also seeks to develop art and creativity in his name.

Each year the project produces the annual Ted Hughes Poetry Festival (this year 7th - 9th of September) programming high quality poets and performers with both established and rising reputations. The festival program also includes visual arts, children’s activities and a distinctive strand of poetry walks.

Festival Creative Director Michele Beck states: “Mexborough is in the lowest 10% of deprivation nationally and suffers from unemployment, low-wages, a high crime rate, anti-social behaviour, substance misuse issues, limited cultural opportunities and a culture of low aspiration. The festival's ethos is to develop a more positive sense of identity arising from the town’s connection with a figure of the stature of Ted Hughes and opportunities for active involvement as audience members, participants, or artists. No one else is telling this story or capitalising on Hughess' links to Mexborough. In this context, it is important that the festival continues to grow in quality, scale and range”.

42

Photography: courtesy of The Ted Hughes Festival

In the recent Brexit vote (Mexborough was heavily Pro-Brexit) a polarisation has subsequently developed within the community. The festival organisers are seeking to diversify the festival, to contribute to wider community cohesion and to challenge parochialism.

In partnership with a local organisation ‘Breaking Beats' who work extensively with young people in Doncaster, teaching spray painting, music production and beatboxing, the organisers are fusing Hughes’ heritage with urban art forms. Some of the young adults engaged with the project have a lack of self-confidence and have had little or no engagement with the literature world.

The festival aims to support grassroots creative talent including a 16 year old rap artist, Fionn McCloskey from Sheffield and Hive Young Writers, who are all under 25 and from across the region.

hospitals, children’s homes, youth clubs and local pubs. He’s passionate about taking live poetry to the places it wouldn’t normally reach and to people who wouldn’t normally listen to it. His performances are passionate swirling rhythms of thoughts and emotions converted into monologues of quick fire words.

Supporting Mike Garry is Kate Fox, a stand-up poet. Her second comedy series was broadcast on Radio 4 last June. She has been Poet in Residence for the Great North Run, Glastonbury Festival and Saturday Live on Radio 4. She has been commissioned by the Yorkshire Festival, Hull 2017 and several literature festivals. She recently successfully completed her PhD on class, gender and Northern English regional identity in stand-up performance, having held a full-time studentship in the Performance and Cultural Industries School at the University of Leeds.

This year the festival’s line-up includes impressive headliners whose moral fabric and work align with the projects aims. Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) is an internationally touring musician, poet, visual artist, and workshop facilitator from Philadelphia. She’s performed at numerous festivals, colleges, galleries, and museums. Her debut album, Fetish Bones, was named one of the top experimental albums of the year

by Pitchfork as well as one of the best albums of the year by The Wire magazine.

Michele Beck sums up the importance of this year's festival contributors:

Other headlining poets include Manchester based Mike Garry who has won admiration far and wide and his collaboration with New Order in New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2014, which received five-star reviews. His poetry is regularly heard on BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 4, BBC Breakfast, Match of the Day, Sky TV and his work with Manchester United & Nike has elevated Mike’s poetry to an international audience.

He has read his poems in prisons, young offenders institutions, mental health

The Ted Hughes Festival (South Yorkshire) runs from the 7th to the 9th of September, 2018 with a range of exciting and diverse events taking place in and around Mexborough. For full details please visit:

“This poetry is real, it’s raw - it harbours from the soul of people who have known hardship and struggle - who have a social conscious and who wish to express themselves for the benefit of others. We are at a crucial and exciting time in poetry, the traditional elitist poetry can’t reach these people. This is a movement and it’s an important one”.

End

tedhughesproject.com

Top: Moor Mother, Bottom Left: Mike Garry, Bottom Right: Kate Fox

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©2018