NEWS: Waddington Arts & Heritage Trail Launched
A heritage trail for Waddington village featuring new contemporary artworks has launched this July, as part of the larger Ridges and Furrows Arts & Heritage project.
artsNK worked with Waddington Parish council to commission artists Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio to create 6 new permanent artworks for the village as part of the trail. The artist duo have been working in the village since April 2017, talking to local residents as well as delivering art activities with local community and voluntary groups and school pupils. In 2017, working with artsNK they organised a special event in the village; Portraits & Places featured life size pop-up portraits of village residents past and present as well as drawings by the artists, local school children and residents.
Six sculptures inspired by the history of the village and stories that have emerged from the community workshops have been sited on buildings in Waddington along the trail. The series of sculptures is entitled ‘Emblems’ – as with emblems, each of the sculptures refers to something that is perhaps known about Waddington but is either unseen or hidden.
For example, the rabbit Emblem (pictured above) which is sited next to the former Skaith’s draper’s shop, on the corner where High Street becomes Lower High Street, is inspired by an excerpt from the diary of village photographer, Horace referring to village character Yankee Gilyatt, who was a fiddle player and a poacher (also pictured above). The artwork shows one of Yankee’s poached, skinned rabbits. Read the extract and others in the Waddington historical archive section.
All of the artworks, as well as interesting facts and historical information about the village are covered in the new Waddington Heritage Trail guide, which has been written by Ridges & Furrows project historian Dave Reeves.
The artworks and trail were launched at a special event, and guided walk on Sunday 22 July at Redwood Community Centre The walk was led by historian Dave Reeves and artist Simon Grennan and more than 50 people attended.
Waddington Heritage Trail guides can be picked up from Waddington Parish Council Offices during opening hours. A digital download will be available from this website soon.
The Waddington Trail and Emblems are supported by funding from Arts Council Lottery and Heritage Lottery.
