- Caroline Huckleberry
Showing posts with label Habergham Mill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Habergham Mill. Show all posts
Bryan Dixon
- Caroline Huckleberry
And so it begins... The Butterfly House
The pristine white box has begum to transform! Blow-ups of the photos I've been collecting from people in SW Burnley arrived - ready for the collage. I took photos of doors and windows, and scaled them to the size of the house - the photos were taken at an angle to give the illusion of depth - these architectural features are the starting point - images of people and skylines of the area will be added. Then, throughout the coming week, residents are invited to respond to the Butterfly House, add to it - leave notes, images, objects - make it their own!
I was apprehensive - what would the residents make of the space and the structure? Annette and Bernie from The Cabin came up to have a look. Their response was more than I could have hoped for - they loved it! We were all busy talking about what could happen in the space, what could be added to the house. We're going to work on the collage this Sunday - before groups start to use the space throughout the week. Bernie made some lovely comments: "This is right up my street (literally)" ... .."This is ours". Annette and Bernie said they didn't want it to be dismantled at the end of the week - they want to keep it. This turned into a conversation about the lack of a 'space' in SW Burnley. We have real community assets like The Cabin (with its shop selling everything from second hand clothes to household goods) and The Stoops & Hargher Clough Community Centre (which is in constant use by numerous groups, and all overseen by Chris, a much respected community worker of thirty years). But The Butterfly House needed a dedicated space - it couldn't have impinged on the existing community spaces which already meet a multitude of needs.
From 9th-13th of September The Butterfly House plays host to a number of events. Community commissioning for Ground Up's next public art project (on Monday), The Fold Craft Group (Tuesday), Calico Community Choir (Tuesday), photo walk and performances by actors (Thursday) ... open sessions where people can view the exhibition and contribute their memories to the house (Wednesday and Friday).
It's gonna be a busy, crazy week - can't wait to see what the house looks like by Friday!
Kelly
News from the Mill
Kelly's News from The Mill - The Butterfly House
Had a busy time at Habergham Mill in SW Burnley; it's a former textile mill and still a hive of activity where small businesses operate from a series of units. Houses surround the mill, so much so that from the main road you wouldn't know it was there. As you enter the yard you're hit by the sounds of industry, machinery, especially the saws from the wood yard and the clatter of the metal recycling. The proximity of industry and housing was one reason I wanted to set-up in this space - the domestic and industrial sit cheek by jowl.
Industry was the engine for Burnley's development, textiles, coal and engineering drew people from far and wide looking for work. The town has a rich and celebrated industrial heritage, most evident in the Weavers' Triangle. SW Burnley sits adjacent to this, forming its own awkward triangle, located between Manchester Road, Rossendale Road and the south side of Accrington Road (where the M65 runs). Manchester Road and Accrington Road don't join-up to form a neat triangle, they are linked via Trafalgar - where the Weavers' Triangle begins.
Standing at the southern tip of this truncated triangle, looking down towards Accrington Road and the hills on the horizon you see a largely residential area, where the grid iron pattern of nineteenth century terraces gives way to more widely spaced semis - especially the council estates. Looking at the roofs of the buildings you can see a distinct angular shape to some of the council semis - these are the Butterfly Houses, large family homes situated at the corner of streets and avenues.
This butterfly shape came to the fore in the 1920s when municipal housing was given the green light and the country set to work building Homes fit for Heroes. The municipal housing schemes built in the years between the two wars expanded the population of SW Burnley; Stoops, Bleak House and Hargher Clough estates were built on green fields, all three take their name from local farms.
I was really struck by the Butterfly Houses because they were built as big family homes and I've spent some time doing family history with residents at The Orchard in SW Burnley. A butterfly is a symbol of transformation, the magic of one thing turning into another, and this seemed to chime with family life, with a process of renewal and the new emerging from the old.
With this in mind, and with the help of artists I've worked with previously (David Pugh & Vincent James) a scale model of a butterfly house now sits in Habegrham Mill.
We began with a model in card, then built the wooden structure - working out the angle where the two pitched roofs joined was tricky. Once this was done, Emma, a local volunteer helped with painting. Emma was impressed with the structure but she questioned why build it here and why paint it white? I explained my thinking. Building a structure within a structure makes me aware of different kinds of spaces. Outside we walked from residential through to the industrial and once inside we again entered a different kind of space - as we entered this new space we were aware of how the sound of our voices changed, and how the sounds from outside were muted, the light changed and the scale of our immediate environment shifted too. I also liked the idea of a domestic structure within an industrial space - we move through industry and return to what remains - the houses, the families.
At this point Emma's mum arrived, at the same time as two council workers delivering chairs and tables. They were also curious, so I started to explain - "it's a model of one of the houses from the estate". One of the council men replied "I can see what it is, what's it doing in here"?
I continued with my explanation but was struck by the way they were busy identifying where the windows and doors should be - this was a blank wooden structure which referenced the houses - it had no representational detail - but they all recognised it - the shape of the Butterfly House!
Eventually, the structure was painted white and now it seemed to shine, a clean white object sitting beneath a north lights roof in a dirty industrial space. Emma's response? "It's sick". And that apparently is high praise indeed!
So why were the council workers delivering tables and chairs? The Butterfly House will go 'live' in the second week of September. Hopefully, different groups will help to decorate the house, which can now be collaged with photographs I've been collecting from people in the area. The space will also be one of performance, with a community choir, drama performances, a craft group and photo walks in the local vicinity.
So watch this space (literally).
Kelly
Had a busy time at Habergham Mill in SW Burnley; it's a former textile mill and still a hive of activity where small businesses operate from a series of units. Houses surround the mill, so much so that from the main road you wouldn't know it was there. As you enter the yard you're hit by the sounds of industry, machinery, especially the saws from the wood yard and the clatter of the metal recycling. The proximity of industry and housing was one reason I wanted to set-up in this space - the domestic and industrial sit cheek by jowl.
Industry was the engine for Burnley's development, textiles, coal and engineering drew people from far and wide looking for work. The town has a rich and celebrated industrial heritage, most evident in the Weavers' Triangle. SW Burnley sits adjacent to this, forming its own awkward triangle, located between Manchester Road, Rossendale Road and the south side of Accrington Road (where the M65 runs). Manchester Road and Accrington Road don't join-up to form a neat triangle, they are linked via Trafalgar - where the Weavers' Triangle begins.
Standing at the southern tip of this truncated triangle, looking down towards Accrington Road and the hills on the horizon you see a largely residential area, where the grid iron pattern of nineteenth century terraces gives way to more widely spaced semis - especially the council estates. Looking at the roofs of the buildings you can see a distinct angular shape to some of the council semis - these are the Butterfly Houses, large family homes situated at the corner of streets and avenues.
This butterfly shape came to the fore in the 1920s when municipal housing was given the green light and the country set to work building Homes fit for Heroes. The municipal housing schemes built in the years between the two wars expanded the population of SW Burnley; Stoops, Bleak House and Hargher Clough estates were built on green fields, all three take their name from local farms.
I was really struck by the Butterfly Houses because they were built as big family homes and I've spent some time doing family history with residents at The Orchard in SW Burnley. A butterfly is a symbol of transformation, the magic of one thing turning into another, and this seemed to chime with family life, with a process of renewal and the new emerging from the old.
With this in mind, and with the help of artists I've worked with previously (David Pugh & Vincent James) a scale model of a butterfly house now sits in Habegrham Mill.
We began with a model in card, then built the wooden structure - working out the angle where the two pitched roofs joined was tricky. Once this was done, Emma, a local volunteer helped with painting. Emma was impressed with the structure but she questioned why build it here and why paint it white? I explained my thinking. Building a structure within a structure makes me aware of different kinds of spaces. Outside we walked from residential through to the industrial and once inside we again entered a different kind of space - as we entered this new space we were aware of how the sound of our voices changed, and how the sounds from outside were muted, the light changed and the scale of our immediate environment shifted too. I also liked the idea of a domestic structure within an industrial space - we move through industry and return to what remains - the houses, the families.
At this point Emma's mum arrived, at the same time as two council workers delivering chairs and tables. They were also curious, so I started to explain - "it's a model of one of the houses from the estate". One of the council men replied "I can see what it is, what's it doing in here"?
I continued with my explanation but was struck by the way they were busy identifying where the windows and doors should be - this was a blank wooden structure which referenced the houses - it had no representational detail - but they all recognised it - the shape of the Butterfly House!
Eventually, the structure was painted white and now it seemed to shine, a clean white object sitting beneath a north lights roof in a dirty industrial space. Emma's response? "It's sick". And that apparently is high praise indeed!
So why were the council workers delivering tables and chairs? The Butterfly House will go 'live' in the second week of September. Hopefully, different groups will help to decorate the house, which can now be collaged with photographs I've been collecting from people in the area. The space will also be one of performance, with a community choir, drama performances, a craft group and photo walks in the local vicinity.
So watch this space (literally).
Kelly
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