The Gems Story - A Tale of Lions, Tigers and...Wizards!
Last month, we reported that over 1000 archive Gems have now been identified as part of the ‘A Story Shared’ project. As the search continues, we’d like to share some wonderful encounters we’ve had along the way…
Legends of the Edge
One of the many unique Gems uncovered at the archive was an audio cassette of Chris ‘Joe’ Beard’s The Legends of The Edge - a ‘folk Gothic fantasia’ inspired by the ‘lives, loves, myths and legends of The Edge of Alderley.’ We had to know more about the origins of this recording, so we made contact with Joe through Malcolm Robinson at Tamworth Folk Club (Malcolm served as narrator during recent live shows).
Joe’s childhood home in Higher Poynton served as inspiration for his multimedia live performances of Legends. It had “a spectacular view across the fields for over four miles to the promontory known as Alderley Edge.” Joe recalls that one Halloween night in the early 1980s during a Piccadilly Radio broadcast of Legends, police were forced to “disperse around 15 to 20 thousand people off The Edge - an unsurpassed and unexpected number!”
Joe has now donated to the archive a video recording of a recent show at Alderley Edge parish church, as well as copies of images projected onscreen during early performances, and digital versions of his original artwork inspired by the legends of Alderley.
Pleserdaith i’r Zoo yn Gaer
After selecting clips from the films provided by the North West Film Archive, we then make contact with the original donors to request permission to use them in the project. One of these, A Visit to Chester Zoo in the Sixties, was filmed by Richard Ashton Williams of Salford and depicts an outing to Chester made by the Pendleton Welsh Presbyterian Calvinist Methodist Chapel.
Gwen, Richard’s daughter, recalls that “the annual Sunday School Pleasure Trip every summer was a day we looked forward to…in the film it’s apparent that Chester Zoo was vastly different in the sixties. Just a wire netting between us and the lions and tigers…you could almost touch the animals. You could certainly smell them.”
It was clear that, following our telephone conversation, the Gems project had piqued Gwen’s interest - so much so that she became a Gems volunteer! For the past 12 months, Gwen has been researching and writing narratives which will accompany Gems on our new website.
Just two examples of unexpected outcomes of stories shared!
By Paul Frith, Collections Information Improvement Officer
