onionbagblog

Image copyright: Matt Keeling.

To Jardine Bistro! …as Bank Holiday Monday flickered a fading light to try and hold back the return of the working week. There is always something rather civilised and relaxed about walking through the doors on the Belle Vue Road corner. Work woes needed calming, with the clock counting down for twelve hours ahead.

@AnnaJCowen and I had picked the perfect evening for a friendly atmosphere and last tug away on the fag end of the Wivenhoe weekend. Local artist Matt Keeling was launching his splendid A Walk Through Wivenhoe exhibition, which can be viewed at Jardine until October 4th.

I know Matt through Sunny Colc circles and the creative hub @15QueenStreet. We’ve spoken about his work before, but purely in a professional capacity for both of us.

This was the perfect chance to corner Matt (quite literally) and ask him to open up about his very unique perspective on what can become something of a traditional and cliché view of the artistic Wivenhoe landscape.

I still find it hard to define precisely the work that Matt creates. I’ll take a stab by suggesting that it is recognisable local landmarks that are then given a new dose of life with a contemporary feel.

Even publishing the images online below doesn’t do justice to the colour clashes and striking balance that Matt is able to give to the local scenes with his hybrid of the old meets the new. You really do need to witness his work first hand.

Much like Matt’s appearance at Art on the Railings earlier in the summer, A Walk Through Wivenhoe has already been well received. Sales are healthy - two more were added on Monday evening…

These monthly Jardine viewings are really working out rather well. The bistro is usually closed on a Monday evening. It shows the commitment from Cristian and his staff to offer something a little more to the local community than the fine coffee and food.

You can catch a Walk Through Wivenhoe at Jardine until 4th October. It is best viewed when you need a work pick me up, and a wake up call away from some of the more picture postcard scenes of Wivenhoe. The start of the working day would be ideal…

All images copyright: Matt Keeling.

To the William Loveless Hall! …late afternoon on Sunday for a back to the future wander around John Stewart’s most excellent Wivenhoe Memories exhibition. I firmly believe in connecting the past with the present, in order to see where future perspectives may lie.

This philosophy may sound like some Third Way political twaddle rhetoric, but for me it means looking around you, seeing what is left from the past, and then thinking of ways to move forward and preserve all that is good from what has gone before.

I never did get to fulfil those Third Way political twaddle ambitions…

But anyway - Wivenhoe Memories:

Many folk around the town will be familiar with John and the amazing local artefacts that he managed to amass as a Wivenhoe labour of love. This love also extends to many private collectors, who recognise the importance of John’s desire to share these memories each year at the Loveless Hall.

All four sides of the Loveless Hall were lovingly filled with original photographs, maps, deeds and even items of clothing. The badminton court was also taken up with personal scrapbooks and reading material, all related to Wivenhoe local matters.

Many themes and strands started to emerge as I made my way around each display board. Booze figured highly. You could fill the Loveless Hall twice over with tales of Wivenhoe’s long lost boozers.

An old image of The Station, dated 1863, showed how remarkably the scene looking up Station Road remains as true today as it was almost one hundred and fifty years ago.

An image of Wivenhoe Station revealed a covered platform for folk waiting for the Clacton train. Further down the line and photographs of the old iron bridge linking across to Brightlingsea over Alresford Creek were also on display.

A couple of pillars either side of the Creek and the rickety rackety old railway hut are all that remain at the mouth of the Creek today. Weather torn and looking further battered by each winter; it would be a sad loss from the local historical landscape if these were ever to disappear.

Residential housing then featured as I wandered down the Loveless Hall. My hyperlocal historical nerdiness nearly gave way to a punch of the air, upon seeing for the first time a photograph of The Nook on the corner of Belle Vue and Park Road.

My inaugural Wiv Chat conversation with the charming Peter Green touched upon this. He had the old and wise historical ears and eyes; I was but the new boy on the block. Both of us however remarked on how it is strange that a photo of the house that gave way to the Dene Park estate appears not to be in the public domain.

Not so now - I only hope that Peter managed to get himself along to Wivenhoe Memories at some stage over the course of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Speaking of the old boys, and it was lovely to hear the elder gents and ladies of the town talking at the Loveless Hall throughout the weekend. Folk are getting on, and probably don’t get out as much now as they use to. Jon Stewart’s exhibition is also serving as a social focal point in which to meet up and share in their local memories.

It was hard to not to hear what they were talking about as I slowly made my way around Wivenhoe Memories. This is exactly the sort of people that I need to be linking up with for Wiv Chat. It felt intrusive on Sunday however to break into the old boy chat. Great to hear all the old stories, all the same.

An image of the Wivenhoe Regatta from 1905 also fascinated me. I recognised that sense of silliness, a lack of pretension and all round feeling of making a fool of yourself down at the front. It could almost have been the Wivenhoe Regatta of 2011.

One thought which I dwelled upon during my wanderings is exactly what is my personal favourite period from contemporary history? Wivenhoe Memories covered in great details life in the town over the past two hundred years.

I have long been attracted towards the tradition of the Edwardian period, both in terms of style - and the substance of what must have felt like a major new political and economic period that was fast approaching.

But then *my* personal history of the 1970′s and 80′s is equally engaging. This period was also covered in the exhibition. Memories are not yet so booze addled that the two decades when I was growing up are blanked out. There is a sense that you can almost reach back and touch this period, such is the deepness of your experience and recollection.

But I wasn’t in Wivenhoe during the 1970′s and ’80s - I was falling in and out of love with a football team, falling in and out of love with the current girlfriend of the week and then immersing myself in music.

What Wivenhoe Memories was able to do was to match up my own memories of the period with what was happening at the time around the town that I now call home. Shaking buckets for the miners in the Old Market Square in ’84? Yep, that was being done around these North Essex estuary wilds as well.

Various team photos from Wivenhoe sport over the different generations proved the point of how the history of a town can be told through sport. Many of the surnames remained the same, even two or three different generations down the line.

An original Sunday Times feature from 1938 was pinned up against a wall, reading:

“By Essex Waters - the Charm of Wivenhoe.”

Describing the town as:

“…typical of the charm of many quaint and drowsy [!] waterside villages.”

Some things never change.

Substantial documents were available to freely flick through. The Sainty family tree traced back ten generations of local folk, starting with Philip, b. 1754, and then providing a modern link with Rosemary Ann, b. 1970 in Colchester.

But the find of the afternoon for me was a personal photo album tucked away in one corner. It looked nothing special - I have similar items up in the loft, showing family holidays and new football kits being worn in the garden.

I almost didn’t pause to flick through, such was the splendour of the other exhibits lining the wall. Something triggered away on my mind though to have a brief browse. I’m lucky that I did as it provided me with my own Wivenhoe Memories personal gold for the afternoon.

On the inside cover was scribbled: Wivenhoe Arts Club, 1966 - 84. Jeannie Coverley had very kindly offered up for sharing her very personal photos of the farewell party that signified the end of the old Arts Club back in 1984.

I recognised many of the faces that were partying hard in the old Rectory - including one very prominent local Councillor, who seemed rather tired and emotional. Fine work, Madam.

In an age where taking a digital photo is as throwaway as eating a packet of crisps, I wonder what Wivenhoe Memories in fifty years time will be like? Still analogue based in a walk around Loveless Hall? Or maybe augmented reality as you sit at home and engage with whatever online medium of the day that is the preferred social tool of all the cool kids?

I hope not.

I hope I’m able to walk (or sit) in the Loveless Hall and reflect on them good old days of May Fair 2011, getting slightly tired and emotional at the Regatta and how we use to be able to cycle along the Trail and out towards Colchester.

Many, many thanks to John for giving up his whole Bank Holiday weekend to put on the exhibition. The past was connected; the future is… there to be made.

Third Way political twaddle ahoy!

Serving Brightlingsea, Wivenhoe and Nearby Villages, another fortnight passes and whaddya know - it’s only a personal delivery of the esteemed Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe Chronicle.

Hurrah!

I often worry about those mystical Nearby Villages. I often worry about Brightlingsea, but for completely different reasons. It’s a fine job that the Chronicle does in covering a news patch (get you) that stretches out from the University all the way across to the coast.

Caught up in-between of course are those Nearby Village. Some may say the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. That’s the high price to pay for living in Alresford, Comrades.

But anyway - applying a BIG BLACK MARKER to all the Brightlingsea and Nearby Villages news pieces [as ever - start yer own hyperlocal blog] and what are we left with within the Wivenhoe news beat?

Um…?

Not a great deal for this fortnight, folks. Wivenhoe has been closed this weekend. That’s what Latitude does for a small estuary fishing town. But flicking through the newsprint pages, and those hyperlocal Wivenhoe news stories are there to be treasured, much in the same way as finding a reduced price loaf of harvest grain up at the Co-op.

I’ve been a hungry man of late - both for local gossip and harvest grain.

Sailing into town this weekend (see what I have done there?) is of course the Wivenhoe Regatta. Scoop Scarpenter recognises this with the snappy p.3 headline of:

The Wivenhoe Regatta

Tell It Like It Is, my good man.

“The Wivenhoe Regatta will start this year on the evening of Friday 22nd July with a pram race in the lower part of the town, and with main maritime and quayside activities on Saturday 23rd July.

Pram racing will start at 7:15pm outside The Station pub and will finish at the Black Buoy, with “mother and baby” having to drink half a pint of beer at all the pubs in lower Wivenhoe.”

Cripes.

I hope we’re not including The Legion, the Colne Social Club, the Sailing Club… etc.

“High tide is at 6pm and the maritime activities commence at 4pm. These will include a raft race, several rowing races and barge and smack races.”

And *possibly* some bonkers bloke still trying to work out how best to paddle his bloody kayak.

Blimey.

If you’re relying upon more traditional transport on Regatta day, then take the p.4 advice of Scoop, when he informs us:

The 74 Isn’t the Same Anymore

Tell It Like… blah blah blah…

“Recently the 74 bus route between Colchester and Clacton underwent a time saving alteration. It now runs along Rectory Road, Wivenhoe and misses out The Avenue and Belle Vue Road.”

It also leaves plenty of passengers, both elderly and young, somewhat stranded. Donctha just love this time saving progress?

But wait! What’s this?

Just as you start to organise a hike across half of the town in order to meet your loved one (s) off the No. 74 from Clacton (Kiss Me Quick, Comrades) and Scoop rather helpfully adds:

“However, it’s not quite as simple as that. On Sundays and during the evening after 7pm it will continue to run on the old route along The Avenue and Belle Vue Road.

Talk about a Magical Mystery Tour. I wonder what our friends from Nearby Villages make of it all?

The BEST headline in The Chronicle this fortnight of course goes to:

Wivenhoe Beavers Bury a Time Capsule

*straight face, Jase. straight face*

“As part of the activities nationally to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Beavers Scouts, an organisation for boys and girls 6 to 8 years of age [ah - I see...] the 1st Wivenhoe Beavers marked the event recently by burying a time capsule locally.”

And jolly smart and smiling the little chaps and chappesses look in the photo call as well.

“Contained in the capsule were various items including letters from the children about facilities and items they have now, but were not available for youngsters of their age 25 years ago.”

Like the 74 bus?

Whoops.

But for all the bad jokes, it’s better to leave it to the (semi) professional big boys and girls:

Comedy Time at Wivenhoe

I think you know what’s coming, chuckle friends…

“The next meeting of Wivenhoe’s very own comedy club, the Wivenhoe Funny Farm, will be held on Thursday 21st July [um, day of publishing for this blog post...]

The line-up will include previews from this year’s Edinburgh Festival with performances by Kevin Shepherd and Catie Wilkins. As usual the club night will be held in Wivenhoe Town Cricket Club’s pavilion, Rectory Road. Doors open at 7pm for an 8pm start.”

Splendid.

On a similar theme:

An Afternoon of Live Music, muses upon:

“An afternoon of live music and fun for all the family will be provided at Wivenhoe Town Cricket Club on Sunday 24th July. The event will run from 1pm to 6pm and music will be provided by the bands Bouncing Off Concrete and Praying Mantis.

“Tickets are strictly limited, no sales on the gate. They can be purchased at the Horse and Groom pub or at the cricket club on match days.”

Anything else to add? Alresford? Elmstead Market? Little Bentley?

So near, yet so far.

Different world, Comrades. Different World.

Rumours of the demise of the esteemed organ of truth and justice that is The Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe Chronicle are as premature as rumours of the demise of my king size courgette.

Sure, it took a bit of a battering the other day (courgette, not the Chronicle) but both still stand proud and mighty; both equally respected as they are eagerly awaited once a fortnight.

Recent conversations around the town have led to some doubt about the future of The Chronicle. Wivenhoe is built upon rumour and assumptions. If you were to dig a big hole at the foot of Black Buoy Hill, you’d find buried away some of the many myths that have been doing the rounds over the centuries, usually after an afternoon spent boozing away.

Is there a Roman bath along Bath Street? Is Bowie the *shhh* secret headliner for May Fair? Has the Chronicle chronicled local life around these parts for the very last time?

Two out of three ‘aint bad, my lovelies…

And so with a rusty squeak of the old letterbox, and a cheerful smile from Scoop as he wanders off into some magical Wivenhoe kingdom for dreamers and journos: it’s only the May 2011 edition of The Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe Chronicle.

Hurrah!

As is now customary on m’blog, I don’t give a blind man’s buff about those buggers down the road at Brightlingsea. Nice enough folk ‘n all that, but as ever, start yer own b****y hyperlocal blog, Comrades.

And so a turning of the grubby newsprint, and we’re straight in with all the local news and scandal that is fit to print about Wivenhoe. How about starting with The Local Election Results?

Oh Lordy.

Except there wasn’t any seismic change in the local political landscape in the May elections that have just passed. Smiling Councillor Steve Ford continues to smile away down at the Quay, doing his #workingforwivenhoe red flag waving. His Comrade in the Colchester coalition (cripes) - the young man about town Councillor Mark Cory - kept his LibDem seat up at the Cross.

Wivenhoe Town Council meanwhile is left with two spanners short of a full toolbox, with two new Councillors needed for co-option to complete the full quota of thirteen.

Scoop reports:

“At Wivenhoe, Steve Ford, Labour, comfortably retained the town’s Quay ward, securing 1,279 votes, more than double that of his nearest rival, the Conservative candidate Mercedes Mussard [ACE name.]

Waving the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, Scoop adds:

“It was an exceptionally good achievement by this particularly active Labour candidate, once described by the Deputy Prime Minister Harriet Harman during one of her visits as being one of the hardest working local councillors in the region.”

Hear, hear (to the hardest working, and not in praise of the fragrant Hattie. Phew.)

But don’t just look at little Wivenhoe; nope - move up the map and towards the bigger picture of the Cross. The Chronicle reports:

“Across much of the country there were dismal results for the Liberal Democrats, but in the Wivenhoe Cross ward, Mark Cory, the young 23 year old candidate [easy, ladies] helped to stem the tide against his party, retaining the seat with the support of 673 votes.”

It of course helped the cause of the “young” Cllr Cory (what is this - a Grace Brothers sitcom?) that the #workingforwivenhoe red flag flying comrades pretty much deserted the locals during the campaign, concentrating on the campus instead.

Whoops.

To complete the local political picture, the Chronicle lead concludes:

“There was no election for places on Wivenhoe Town Council as only ten candidates stood for the thirteen available seats.”

It was actually eleven candidates, but then that simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play probably got lost down a back seat at The Greyhound.

Passing over all the Brightlingsea puff, and then on p.2 we come across:

Art and Poetry in the Trenches.

Walk it like you talk it, Comrades:

“A one day course entitled Art and Poetry in the Trenches, presented by Graham Slimming and Colin Padgett, will be run by the WEA in Wivenhoe next month. This course will be held on 11th June at the Congregational Hall, from 10:30am to 4pm.”

Janice Allen on 824470 secures you a booking.

My eyes were momentarily fixed upon the big blueness that is the advert for Brightlingsea Open Air Swimming Pool as the p.3 pin up. I am historically a man suited to an outdoor aquatic lifestyle. Fifteen summers have been spent swimming in unheated lidos.

I spent one spring afternoon walking past the Brightlingsea Open-Air Pool / oversized duck pond, and thought, nah - that’s no pool, my friends: that’s a large hole in the ground with a bit of a drainage situation.

There’s Plenty of Entertainment at the May Fair [*cough* Bowie] is the p.4 headline. It’s pretty much a run through of the May Fair Committee press release, covering the fact that a rather ace line up including Ady Johnson (see) local lad Lou Terry (MUST see) Cav OK (pals) and Housework (hardest working band in, um, Sunny Colch) will all be helping you to get tired and emotional at the KGV, come Bank Holiday Monday.

Pages 10 and 11 cover a couple of lovely, lovely local stories, which although haven’t been picked up the nationals, they certainly represent the charm and quality in which the Chronicle is so respected for locally.

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People… is all about the Hearing Day Centre which runs a weekly hearing clinic at the lovely Wivenhoe Eyecare. The target of £5,000 has just been reached to help sponsor a hearing dog:

“The centre has been raising funds over several years for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, through donations from its clients, and larger events such as golf days.”

Meanwhile, Deans’ Nursery and Garden Centre Celebrates Fifty Years of Trading pretty much Tells It Like It Is in the headline for a story with a very proud local Wivenhoe history:

“In the late 1950s two young brothers, having just completed a horticultural course at the Writtle Agricultural College near Chelmsford, started to grow outdoor tomatoes in Wivenhoe. The brothers, Anthony and Steve Dean, son of the Wivenhoe GP, the late Dr William Dean, ran this modest enterprise behind the old cemetery just off Belle View Road.”

The business is now based on the Harwich Road at Great Bromley. It is managed by Sarah Dean, the granddaughter of Dr Dean. It may be a puff piece of advertorial, but it’s a lovely read in The Chronicle, rightfully celebrating half a century of trading from a local business.

An Afternoon Upstairs with Martin Newell on p.12 once again tells you all you need to know. With locally baked cakes being promised upstairs at The Greyhound on the afternoon of 11th June, tickets are selling like… hot cakes. Seriously - get yourself down to the Bookshop for a £4 bargain.

Wivenhoe’s Funny Farm for this Thursday (26th) gets a plug on p.15.

“Headliner is the outrageous Californian comic Scott Capurro, familiar to watchers of 8 out of 10 cats. MC will be Wivenhoe’s very own [and most splendid] Hazel Humphreys. The show starts at the Cricket Club at 8pm with £6 on the door.”

And finally…

Mrs. Ackroyd at the Wivenhoe Folk Club.

Cripes.

“On 2nd June, Wivenhoe Folk Club are hosting Mrs. Ackroyd as their main guests. Mrs. Ackroyd is a band, not a person.”

Blimey.

It is this type of bonkers news in brief that separates the wheat from the chaff, and also separates the exceedingly splendid Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe Chronicle from some of the crap that gets pushed our way via the nationals.

The Chronicle may be in rude health, but that’s a fine position in which to preach from.

The Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe Chronicle is distributed free amongst local households. Additional copies are 25p from local newsagents.

I’ve been hearing great personal feedback from the passing artists that have been exhibiting at Jardine over the past few months. Sure, it’s nice to sit back and sip your cappuccino as you stare at some of the stunning artwork on the walls. But even artists need to eat.

Pictures have been purchased, no doubt leading to a celebratory meal at the old Park Hotel itself [um, are we still allowed to say that?]

Anyway - another month, another (semi) private viewing as the latest artistic type turns up on the corner of the High Street and Belle Vue Road. Essex man Marcus Krackowizer will be exhibiting at Jardine throughout May and June.

His exhibition will proudly be on show under the title of The Dimension of Stillness:

“His contemporary impressionist style makes extensive use of palette knives, which he favours for the speed and impulse required to work the canvas.

The result is a striking and vibrant collection of oil paintings, often capturing a fleeting moment in time in busy cityscapes.

Although the dreamy light and warm colours display a very positive view of the world, they also hint at a touch of loneliness, a sort of isolation in the otherwise constant buzz of a city.”

Gawd know what he will make of Wivenhoe…

A polite email to the very good @JoJoColchester should gain you an invite for the evening of the 9th May, between 7:30 and 9:30 pm. The kitchen will be closed, but the bar will be open.