onionbagblog

What does it take to inspire forty or so Wivenhoe locals out to the Loveless Hall on a rather dark and damp Thursday evening to sit around in a circle and introduce themselves to one another?

This question could work on oh so many fronts, but the extra seats needed to accommodate the interested individuals was all the work of Transition Town Wivenhoe.

An informal meeting had been called to talk about the future of the Station Master’s House. This was a public meeting, but the details were deliberately only circulated amongst supporters of the Transition group. Sticking with the sustainability ethos of the group, the plan is for the project to now spread out into the wider community.

But first a little background…

Jo Wheatley opened the series of open space workshops with an enthusiasm that would set the agenda for the following two hours. After a successful summer of taking control of the Station Master’s Garden and growing free fruit ‘n veg for commuters, TTW now has ambitious plans for the empty Station Master’s House.

The ownership of this building remains with Network Rail. Working in partnership with NXEA and Off the Rails, the proposal is for a twenty-five year lease for TTW, and then to open up the space as a local hub that will encourage sustainability within the community.

An initial meeting with Network Rail was held in November. Feedback was positive, with Network Rail recognising that bringing the building back to life can only help to improve public safety.

Having lain empty for two years, there is superficial water damage within. This can easily be fixed. The building has a Grade II listed status and so there is also a heritage angle to consider.

Wivenhoe Town Council and Colchester Borough Council are both broadly supportive. Whisper it softly - *shhh* - this is Cameron’s Big Society making progress at a very local, and thankfully apolitical level.

And so on to the Loveless Hall Thursday night open space sessions.

Ah yes - a little more about this process for dialogue…

Open space is a system of organising and aiding democratic local dialogue. The members of the meeting set the agenda, formulate some questions to be answered and then break out into informal discussion groups, before feeding back at the end. Such a transparent and co-operative form of working was perfect for this particular project.

It was encouraging to see some very familiar Wivenhoe faces, working alongside other locals who genuinely want to make the Station Master’s House a central hub within the town.

Our central question was:

“How can the Station Master’s House make Wivenhoe a more sustainable community?”

Each group member was then given a blank sheet of paper in which to come up with a series of questions to explore further. Working together, we then organised these sub-questions into five broad categories, covering the following points:

1. Community involvement

2. Practical organisation

3. Funding

4. Learning and education

5. Sustainability

And then it was pretty much open space, open house. Five discussion tables were set up, with members encouraged to circulate around the room and offer further ideas. What was evident at this early stage is that Wivenhoe has a tremendous knowledge and skills base to drawn upon, and that there is a definite sense of community. These two elements alone bode well for the future of the building.

I spent most of my time in the community involvement discussion. We found it a challenge to decide how to engage the community, when we weren’t entirely sure as yet what we wanted to engage the community with.

Essentially we were talking about engagement, and how to spread the message. It was agreed that online dialogue has worked incredibly well to draw out forty or so locals to the initial meeting, and this should be built upon.

But then there’s the very relevant question of how to involve Wivenhoe locals who may not be online. This soon became a chicken and egg equation, with plans for the Station Master’s House to include online support.

Our group was enthusiastic about a large scale open source meeting within the town, to try and find a sense of direction. If forty people could come up with ideas and support for five broad category areas, imagine what 400 people might be able to achieve. We also liked the idea of an annual Station Master’s House celebration day to raise awareness of the project.

I then flirted (ooh, get you) with the other discussions, observing the rule of open space that if you have nothing to contribute, then move on.

@asset_transfer is probably the country’s leading expert on opening up spaces for community use, and it is by complete coincidence, and to the immense benefit of Wivenhoe that Anne Marie lives in our community. No surprises that the practical organisation session had an incredibly healthy outlook by the end of the evening.

Funding touched upon different grants that may be available, as well as renting out the space for local groups. The learning and education debate addressed what skills we have to offer in Wivenhoe, and how these can be passed on.

This was the perfect collision of the old meets the new. Many folk have traditional skills, which need to be either passed on, or even to be re-discovered. Add to this the burgeoning online and digital awareness in the town (seriously) and you have a new network in which to transmit old skills. Both sides can learn a lot from one another.

But perhaps the most fascinating conversations of the evening came out of the more holistic theme of sustainability. This became a far wider debate about what it means to be sustainable within Wivenhoe, and at what level do you actually notice any results.

A very simple, but practical idea was to use some of the space in the Station Master’s House as a charity shop. This is something that Wivenhoe lacks, with trips into Colchester to offload any unwanted clothes. Keeping it hyperlocal and raising funds has to be an idea to explore further.

And so two hours after a group of individuals rather nervously sat around in a circle in the Loveless Hall, we concluded with a co-operative group that had started to come up with a very real plan for the future of the Station Master’s House.

It is the next stage that will be even more challenging. Assuming that negotiations with Network Rail are positive, some form of social enterprise needs to be created to help steer the project.

The danger here of course is that a committee style operation somehow loses the bottom up enthusiasm that was evident at the Loveless Hall on Thursday evening.

As I wandered down to The Station (rather appropriately) to collect my thoughts and to, um, booze, I couldn’t but help keep on coming back to what still remains my all time favourite tweet:

“If you want to get something done set up network, slow it down, set up an organisation.”

Many thanks to TTW for such an illuminating evening. Much of the workshops were filmed, and will no doubt surface online in the coming weeks. Cheers to Bob for agreeing to the @audioboo below.

Here’s a sad, but rather inevitable public service announcement on behalf of Off the Rails:

“Off the Rails sadly announces that because of all the white stuff, we have had to postpone the Art Bus. However, we have been assured that there will be an Easter Bunny Bus in the Spring.”

Take it easy out there, folks.

Off the Rails continues to grow, um, off the rails…

The lovely Wivenhoe arts based project that is using the very practical setting of the railway station as its base, has now managed to achieve some sponsorship from the good folk @firstsite. In these days of austerity, especially so within the arts, this is something of a success.

Disclaimer: I pay a paltry figure of £15 per month to @firstsite, which gives me access to the ace @15QueenStreet as a social member. Breakfast clubs, members’ brainstorming sessions and boozing - money well spent, I say…

Local Wivenhoe artist Martha Haversham has been responsible for many of the fine projects currently in place as part of Off the Rails.

Martha adds:

“Firstsite are now sponsoring Words Down the Line and the December edition has hit the ticket hall. January’s edition will be guest edited by Wivenhoe teens, so we’re bracing ourselves.

We have also recruited a young Greek poet and assistant writing curator for the station, who will be exploring a writing exchange with Wivenhoe Railway Station and the University of Athens. We think we could be on-track for a twining with a Greek station so watch this space.”

I *love* the idea of Wivenhoe being twinned and entwined in some mythical Greek poetry. I’m not sure who is in for the bigger culture shock - the Wivenhoe locals or our guest Greek poet.

With the recent wintery Wivenhoe weather making the wait for the mythical 9:07 into Liverpool Street something of a trying experience, the appearance of local art around the station has added some joy to these mid-winter mornings.

Choo choo.

With a big heads up to @MatthewLinley, here’s something rather lovely that you can find down at Wivenhoe Station right now. The Crab and Winkle Gallery is open for your viewing pleasure as you wait for the next train to take you out eastwards and the bright lights of Great Bentley.

Blimey.

As part of the wider Off the Rails arts project, the Crab and Winkle Gallery is a pop up art space in the perfect local location. Named lovingly after the Wivenhoe to Brightlingsea line (last seen around these parts just before the savage Beeching Axe) the idea is to give local artists a public space in which to exhibit.

As the Off the Rails website explains:

“Off the Rails’ have adopted Wivenhoe railway station using National Express’ Adopt a Station voluntary scheme with the assistance of Community Rail Partnerships.

Off the Rails is about celebrating and sharing Wivenhoe’s creative talents by hosting a rolling exhibition of visual art and writing that travels down the line.”

It’s not just visual art either - poetry and prose are also part of the project, with verses being sent up and down the line that connects us with our Colchester friends.

With the railway being responsible for such a historic shift in fortune for the town, Off the Rails is also keen to explore the legacy of the Beeching axe, and the memories of the old Crab and Winkle line that use to run all the way along to Brightlingsea.

A request has been made for any old tickets, timetables and photos, to try and piece together as many physical artifacts as possible in memory of the ghost line that has now given the gallery its name.

Opportunities for Wivenhoe artists to become involved are also explained in more detail on the website. There is an educational value as well, with the Colne Community School and College booked in to take part in future Crab and Winkle Gallery projects.

It’s almost enough to make me get out my old CSE Art (Grade 3, natch) notebook, and take up random paintings of all life that passes by. I think however that the *ahem* artist within is probably more suited to sticking with The Station pub.

Chin chin.