The fantastic Cinderloo Remembered exhibition opened for the last time at the Coalbrookdale Gallery next to the Museum of Iron, on Saturday 5th March 2022. It brought together much of the work we have done over the last 4-5 years, which has been led or delivered by more than 50 different artists, historians and activists. It featured paintings, drawings, collage, prints, sculpture and film from 11 artists, school project work, archive materials loaned from Ironbridge Gorge Museums, the illustrated Cinderloo story, maps, family history, banners, poetry, zines, research and hundreds of photographs. There were also displays featuring the Touch Telford project, a people’s history of Telford.
Other events in 2022:
- Shadows in the dust– using the images and sounds captured by Andy McKeown for the project we held a project showcase at the Orbit community cinema on 9th May
- Completion of the renaming and marking of the ‘Cinderloo Bridge’ at Central Park in conjunction with Telford and Wrekin Council’s refurbishment of the Silken Way
- Sharing of Family History research with Shropshire Family History Society
- Publication of Andrew Naylor’s “Slag-spotters Guide”
- Continuation of the walks and talks planned with partners
No further events are planned for Cinderloo 1821
Previous Events
Thanks to Andrew Naylor and Robert Petty for arranging a mini-Cinderloo exhibition at the Coalbrookdale Free Little Gallery in the bus shelter opposite the Community Centre.
Bear Witness film showing and art workshops, Sunday 20th October 2019, Wellington Library
Following a preview showing of the new short film Bear Witness by Jill Impey and Andrew Howe at the Festival of Imagination in Ironbridge, there was an official launch of the film at the Wellington Arts Festival. After a discussion and refreshments, participants took part in fun activities to create collaborative artworks and song taking inspiration from the film:
Mapping Art Workshop: with artists Amanda Hillier, Andrew Howe and Jill Impey exploring ideas in collage, simple printmaking and creative writing.
Song writing: singer/songwriter Kate Allan pooled ideas to compose and perform a new song on themes related to Cinderloo and Dawley’s untold history.
Mapping Art Workshops
Artist/designer Amanda Hillier is creating an interactive illustrated map of the route that the protesters followed in 1821 through the communities of what is now Telford. Together with artist Andrew Howe they have held several workshops with different community groups including public events at the Wakes in Oakengates (with artist/zine-creator Jean McEwan) and at Southwater Library.
This project is funded with support from the Wrekin Housing Trust.
Walks
13th July 2019, walk with the Miners Walk project
We teamed up with the Louise Bremner and the St George’s Community group from the Miner’s Walk project to explore the mining heritage of St Georges, Priorslee, Dark Lane and Oakengates and see how it related to the events of the Cinderloo Uprising of 1821.
23rd March 2019, walk with the Battlefields Trust.
We were delighted to welcome members from one of our project supporters, the Battlefields Trust, who are working with us to research the battle of Cinderloo. This was a 6km walk from the close to the site of the Cinderloo Riot in Old Park around the edges of Telford town centre finding signs from its historic past.
Cinderloo New Year Dérive* – Sunday 30th December 2018
First of a sequence of walks planned throughout 2019 by Cinderloo 1821 exploring the route that the protesters took in 1821. See our news post for a report on a great day.
This walk broadly followed the Dawley Heritage Trail – details of the route can be found here. The walk finished up at the Elephant and Castle, where after a reading of the Riot Act and a bayonet charge by yeoman Anthony Fielding, some of the participants made quick little A5 collages and short pieces of writing capturing thoughts from the walk. Andrew Howe collated these responses into a zine or booklet.
The dérive is a way of understanding and developing the theory of psychogeography, defined as the “specific effects of the geographical environment (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”
Saturday 11th August 2018, Telford, Cadman and Cinderloo Guided History Walk
Around 30 people enjoyed a circular walk identifying local points of historical interest including Malinslee Church (Thomas Telford), Old Park Ironworks & brickworks (Thomas Botfield), the site of the Cinderloo Riot of 1821: the events that led up to it and the outcomes which ensued; local historical points of interest in Old Park including the two chapels and famous figures from Old Park history including Revd Samuel Parkes Cadman (1864-1936). This walk was part of the History on Foot series of guided walks organised by the Wrekin Local Studies Forum. The walk leader was Darren Blackburn, with additional information supplied by Shirley Bruneau. There were poems read by Ted Eames and Jean Atkin.
Public Meetings
We hold public meetings at the Elephant and Castle in Dawley High Street, typically every 4 months. All meetings are open to members and the general public, and after brief formalities, there is usually some music and other entertainment, opportunities to buy the Out of the Dark zine made by members and time to meet and share information about the project.
The latest Cinderloo1821 AGM was held on Thursday 2oth February 2020. See here for minutes of the meeting.
Thursday 7th November 2019
There was a showing of Jill Impey and Andrew Howe’s new film Bear Witness, followed by an update on all the fabulous activities that are going on in the Cinderloo project. These included:
- Townsend Theatre partnership and other activities by Pete Jackson,
- an update on family history research from Sue Taylor,
- Telford slags research and events by Andrew Naylor,
- mapping work with Amanda Hillier and Ben Proctor by Nobby Neat
- schools programme by Andrew Howe, with performance of poems by Jean Atkin.
The Cinderloo1821 AGM was held on Thursday 21st February 2019. See here for minutes of the meeting.
18th October 2018
Over 20 members came to see a series of presentations from the Cinderloo 1821 providing a brief update on all the great progress and events from the last few months, including an update on funding and future plans. We were then treated to a premiere of Martin James’ animated Cinderloo film to coincide with the opening night of Mike Leigh’s Peterloo film. There was also short film by Jill Impey showing footage from the recent history walk, and a presentation by Andrew Howe showing some of his drawings of 200 year old trees from the Witnesses project.
24th May 2018
We welcomed some new faces for music and poetry, and plenty of discussion about maps, mining and other aspects of local history. Ted Eames‘ poem “Farewell Tom (Sam Hayward’s Blues)” has been put to music brilliantly by Mary Keith and a recording was heard in public for the first time. We also had a sneak preview of a fabulous video by Martin James.
22nd February 2018
At our inaugural meeting, we had 35 people attending from 12 different community groups plus 15 apologies and messages of support. A vibrant evening of discussion and poems from Ted Eames and Andrew Howe. Here’s a short film clip from the evening produced by artist Jill Impey:
Cinderloo 1821 Remembered 