Workshops at St James' School, Millom

Earlier this month we held the first in a series of three workshops with year 3 pupils from St. James' Primary School in Millom. During a visit to the nearby Millom Folk Museum, the children were asked to choose one area of the museum and to use their imaginations to document sounds produced by objects from the collection, ranging from farming machinery, and iron ore mining tools to the sound of a grocer's till. This was followed by a classroom session introducing the concept of soundscapes and sharing our findings in a recorded discussion. Further workshops will take place in September and will involve the children recreating the sounds of local industry using contact microphones and spoken word, with the results to be included as part of the completed tour.

The Tour's HQ

During the festival the head sets and maps for the Tour will be hired out from the bus shelter in the middle of the beautiful Georgian Square. It's an attractive building, made from the local slate and painted a calming blue inside, however it is somewhat defunct as a shelter as the bus stops at the other side of the square and if you were to shelter from the wild Cumbria weather in it, you would need to run across and hope to stop the bus in time. For this reason, we have decided to make use of this sad but inviting building and turn in into the centre of activity during the festival. It already has a great map on the side of it with information about the nature reserves and local walks. From here you can hire out the head sets and maps, talk to the artists and the various members of the community who participated in the project.