Back by popular demand and made possible by funding from Bristol City Council and Team Southmead, the many fascinating stories provided by the people of Southmead have this time been woven by local residents to reveal further insights into the lives of everyday folk growing up in Southmead.
Myers-Insole Local Learning Community Interest Company are delighted to be working in partnership again with Southmead Development Trust and Bristol Old Vic on the second episode of everybody’s favourite Southmead Community Soap Opera.
Meadows to Meaders begins in the 1930s housing crisis when people were moved from all over Bristol to 1,500 newly built houses on the outskirts of the city. It draws on real events remembering the war years, recalling the bitter winter of 1947, celebrating the building of the 1000th house, and life for kids on the estate right the way up to the 1960s.
- Will Rose Meadows have enough rations to make Edgar’s favourite pie?
- Will Norma Meader be able to get to the doctor’s in her lunch break?
- And why is Iris throwing her husband’s trousers out of the window, before she’s even ironed the other leg?
You can also visit www.locallearning.org.uk/meadows2meaders and go behind the scenes and see how Meadows to Meaders evolved, read interviews with the stars and choice extracts from the very first episode. Watch films capturing memories of the early years of Fonthill Road School, the Baptist Church Youth Club, and take a peek inside some of the first houses to be built in Southmead.
Students from Orchard Secondary School joined forces with Calling the Shots to interview and film residents about Southmead’s past.
If you are online, check out: https://www.facebook.com/meadowstomeaders for updates or contact Ruth Myers on ruth@locallearning.org.uk. You can leave a telephone message for Ruth at the Greenway Centre on 0117 950 335.
Myers-Insole Local Learning is a small, Bristol-based community interest company exploring our local heritage with all members of the community to uncover and share what we learn about our past. We have been very happy to be back in Southmead working together with residents at every stage of the way, from providing the initial stories, shaping the script, and devising and co-producing an entirely new piece of drama, to rehearsing and performing the soap opera.
Third year History undergraduate from the University of the West of England, Oddvá Lauritsen, has been working alongside Ruth Myers from the beginning of this new direction – writing, recording, interviewing and acting, and playing a vital role both on and off stage.