Category Archives: All Our Stories

All Our Stories – Building Bridges At The 2013 Children’s Gala

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Key Attraction - Punch & Judy

Key Attraction – Punch & Judy

Parkinson’s Park built a bridge from the past to the future on Sunday, as the first Children’s Gala to be held there in 20 odd years brought out the sunshine, the crowds and the generosity of many organizations and people.

The purpose of the Gala was to revive a Guiseley tradition that has left generations of locals with happy childhood memories.  And, in fact, one visitor on Sunday came along on a ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ quest, after finding out a great  grandmother came from Guiseley.

Crompton Parkinson’s started the annual Gala in Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Reviving the Annual Guiseley Children’s Gala

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Children's Gala InvitationCrompton Parkinson’s held their first Children’s Gala in 1949 in the Park.   This became an annual event,  much loved and looked forward to by the children of staff, and local children lucky enough to be have tickets.   The last gala was held sometime in the 1990’s (does anyone remember the exact year?) .   The Friends of Parkinson’s Park are pleased to announce that in 2013, the Gala will be brought back to life – kindly funded by the Leeds Outer North West Area Committee, and Comic Relief Community Cash. Continue reading →

All Our Stories – 80’s Boyhood in Parkinson’s Park

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Barbara Winfield and Adam Perry working on the Audio File

Barbara Winfield and Adam Perry working on the Audio File

One of the next stages in the All Our Stories project is to record some oral history of the Park,  and the part it has played in people’s lives.  To help us do this ‘correctly’, Adam Perry came along from the Media Trust to teach us about ethical practices (don’t let people liable others by letting skeletons out of cupboards), good interview techniques (try not to interrupt the interview with mmmm, mmmm, and ‘yes’ type noises), and then how to edit the recording and turn it into a digital file for storage.

Adam has had lots of experience with Yorkshire Television, and on the radio of interviewing, and sound recording,  and showed us how something that looks relatively easy,  is actually an artform.

For homework,  we have prepared our first All Our Stories digital audio,  which is an edited recording of Mark Kirkby and Paul Tomlinson,  telling us about their boyhood experiences in Parkinson’s Park in the 1980’s.

We will be asking more people to take part in this exercise over the coming months, and the stories are to be lodged with the British Library or the Science Museum.  Please let us know if you would like to be included.

All Our Stories – Bugs in May

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Andrew Grayson with his surveying equipment

Andrew Grayson with his surveying equipment

For the All Our Stories project we are looking at the natural, geological and cultural history of the Park.   Joanna Brooks is running the ecological project and in May asked Andrew Grayson, an experienced entomologist, and member of the Yorkshire Naturalist Union,  to survey the park for invertebrates.

Andrew came along on 22nd May 2013, and surveyed the Park between 12.25 and 14.40, on  a dryish but slightly breezy day, with temperatures varying between 12°C and 16°C.  The weather at the start was not ideal for insects, but a little later, Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Ploughing Through Time

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Magnetometer reading showing the underlying features of the Park

Magnetometer reading showing the underlying features of the Park

The GSB Prospection geophysics team of Jimmy Adcock and Finn Pope Carter,  have now finished in Parkinson’s Park, and we are delighted with the results – so far.  We were most concerned that they would come back empty-handed and tell us there was nothing; but in the event they were more than impressed themselves at the wealth of interest the park has.

Barbara Winfield, Jimmy Adcock and Finn Pope-Carter

Barbara Winfield, Jimmy Adcock and Finn Pope-Carter

There is very strong evidence of medieval Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Geophysics Survey Takes Place This Week

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Clapper Brow

Clapper Brow

The geophysics survey of the Park takes place this week, 24th – 26th July, between 9am and 5pm,  to establish if there is any archaeology that can help us tell the story of this area.   We are particularly concentrating on the area of Clapper Brow, which could have been a farmed rabbit warren in the past; and the area on Great Brow, near Hillside, which may have been used in the Kelcliffe tannery process.   We also know that there used to be a building near the top copse which may have had a pump. Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Expression Through Creative Photography

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Pictures should tell a story

The Bottom – Pictures should tell a story

Light, light, light,  “if you only remember one thing from this course; that’s it”  said Derek Richards to FOPP members yesterday.    How fast, or slow, the light is picked up by the camera, what sort of light you are shooting in,  where is the light and the shadow for interest: an overcast day can produce much more interesting photographs than a sunny one.   A small tip was to think carefully about light if you were shooting groups with black and fair-skinned people, otherwise you would either get dark silhouettes or light ghosts.  So,  let there be some light – certainly a number of members were a little bit more enlightened about how their cameras actually worked, and what all the dials and buttons were for. Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Tracking The Past

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Trying to find the site of a building above the Tan House.

Trying to find the site of a building above the Tan House.

Part of the success of the geophysics survey at the end of July will come from knowing what might be found – this is where the paper archive research has a vital part to play.    Barbara has therefore been to Aireborough Historical Society to study transcriptions of the Manor Court Rolls for Kelcliffe in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century:  following which,  she went to West Yorkshire Archives to check the originals, as the variable Early Modern  spelling means mistakes are easy made; Barbara did find several mistakes.

Manor Court Rolls were the recorded minutes of the regular meetings held by local people to deal with the day-to-day running of a town or village.  The Court set the local rules and bylaws, dealt with dispute and fines, organized the local infrastructure and agreed community planning and agricultural phasing eg the crop rotation on the common lands.   Manor Court Rolls are a mine of trivial detail that when pieced together can give a fascinating picture of local life.  The only issue for the ones covering Kelcliffe and the Park, is that there are large gaps, Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Time Team’s Geophysics Company To Survey the Park

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data-overhead-photoAs part of the HLF,  All Our Stories project, we are pleased to announce that we have asked CFA Archaeology Ltd, from Cleckheaton to be our archaeologist on the project, and do a geophysical survey of the Park to establish what archaeology there might be to help us put together the history of the Park.  CFA is a professional cultural heritage consulting organization.

The survey will take place between the 24th – 26th July, 9am to 5pm, during the Festival of British Archaeology 13th – 28th July (there are lots of other events mentioned on the site from all over Yorkshire and the UK),  It will be carried out by GSB Prospection, Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Film Premier of “Parkinson’s Park – A New Chapter”

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David Myers, filming on location in 2012

David Myers, filming on location in 2012

Between the start of the Park’s regeneration in November 2011, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June 2012,  David Myers, local filmmaker and ex Crompton Parkinson employee, filmed the revival of the Park and its place in the social life of the area.  This was the sequel, to his tear jerker production which showed the demise of the factory in 2005.

In driving rain, or dazzling shine,  brass-monkey cold or the occasional spot of golden light, wind and noisy airplanes,  David was out shooting frames of the changes that were being made.  The result is an hour length film,  recording many local people, helpers and events in the Park.    It features the felling of the great sycamore, and a dawn chorus in May; the careful craftwork of the Peter the hedge layer, and the splendid sword of the Queen’s representative;  together with Continue reading →