The Stove Network
The Stove Network’s Trading Journeys began with artist Alice Francis and her fine friend Douglas setting off for Wigtown
HAPPY DAYS!
Photography by: Kim Ayres, Matt Baker, Colin Hattersley, Will Marshall and Colin Tennant
Our third intrepid traveller, Uula Jero, will leave Balmaclellan on Saturday morning, picking up keen cyclists at New Galloway and making their way down to Wigtown, passing through the picturesque Galloway Forest Park. If cycling is your thing, you are very welcome to join Uula at New Galloway.
Uula will be somewhat unmistakable as he brings with him not just one of his amazing cargo bikes, but also a pedal-powered foundry! Remember the charcoal that the boats are bringing from Creetown (see the earlier post here); the foundry is charcoal-fuelled, and the Creetown charcoal will contribute to the heat necessary to melt and cast our very own Wigtown spoons! (More about Billy Marshall and his spoons here.)
The spoons will be cast in front of a live audience outside the Wigtown County Buildings as part of Trading Journeys on Saturday evening, the 27th of September. We are making a very limited edition of spoons, so if you would like your very own Wigtown spoon, come along to our spoon mould crafting workshop during the afternoon. Workshops will take place from 12 noon in Southfield Park and are free to everyone.
We will also be holding drumming and flag-making workshops in preparation for our procession prior to the spoon pour. The procession is open to all to join in.
Full details of the running order of the event are available on our website’s Trading Journeys page here.
If boats aren’t your thing, and you like a more measured pace, keep your eyes open for Alice Francis, who is travelling with her horse and making a three-day trip to Wigtown from Auchencairn.
As they travel, Alice will be creating a standard that will form the head of the Wigtown Trading Journey’s procession that will take place on Saturday afternoon. She will also be recounting the story of Billy Marshall, who supposedly lived for 120 years in southern Scotland and always claimed to be the “King of the Gypsies.” He was also referred to as the “Caird of Barullion.” Caird refers to a skilled gypsy, and it originates from ceardon, meaning a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft. Barullion is the name of a range of hills in the county of Wigtownshire in the council area of Dumfries and Galloway in southern Scotland. Another so-called title of his was “King of the Randies.” The word “Randies” in this context may refer to a type of macho, virile man who despised all rule and authority.
The crossed spoons may possibly represent a wish for his people that they may never go hungry, while the coins at his gravesite might have been left with a good luck wish. Originally, they were left for a poor travelling gypsy to be able to buy another meal. The spoons probably represent horn spoons, which have been popular in Europe and Scandinavia as far back as medieval times and were also popular with the Vikings. Horn spoon making has been a tradition among gypsies since the 1600s and possibly had been a labour of love for Billy Marshall.
If you find that you have a hidden talent for spoon playing, bring that new talent along to Wigtown on Saturday; it’s bound to come in useful!
For more details on the Stove Network’s Trading Journeys, head across to our project page [here].
Trading Journeys has been created as part of the Wigtown Book Festival.
Suffering from withdrawal symptoms from last weekends Nithraid? Never fear, there is another opportunity to join us as we make the journey to Wigtown Book Festival on Saturday, 27th of September. And we’re not just taking the A75 from Dumfries. Stove members are each making their own journeys the the former county town with its inheritance of martyrdom in Covenanting times and its modern booktown status, once the central crossroads in trading routes and pilgrimage routes through the West of the region.
First off Mark Zygadlo will be hoping for a little more wind than on Nithraid day as he and a flotilla of intrepid sailors make the journey across the Cree from the Ferry Bell at Creetown across the water to the old Wigtown Harbour. This flotilla is being kept to small numbers for safety reasons but if you wish to join the sailors there may still be an additional space left, please get in touch asap to Mark: [email protected]
Each boat will carry a small cargo of charcoal made at Creetown Primary School with the help of Phoebe and Will Marshall. This will be used to power Uula Jero’s pedal-powered foundry… but more on that later!
For more details on the stove network’s Trading Journeys, head across to our project page here
Trading Journeys has been created as part of the Wigtown Book Festival
Great weather – great people – great town – great river…..art making places. More than 5000 people were on the Whitesands for the Nithraid over Saturday afternoon – even Alex Salmond turned up at one point. Happy Days!
This is a really quick set of images from the day…..more to follow soon
Photos from The Stove Documentation Team (Colin Tennant, Galina Walls, Kim Ayres, Drew Johnstone) and ‘Our D+G’ Facebook Page…thanks all!!
From Ruth Morris
By far the most difficult part of the whole thing has been finding enough young musicians to take part. We had the idea of a Balkan style street carnival band. To sound like that, one needs a few brass/ woodwind instruments, which turn out to be like hen’s teeth in Dumfries and Galloway! However we have a few now, including a euphonium, a trombone, some clarinets and some saxophones. We also have fiddles, accordions, flute and percussion. So it should be very lively!
To hear it at it’s best, join the parade through Dumfries from 1.30pm this Saturday, or see the band perform the full piece on our stage on the Whitesands later in the afternoon.
Writing music for transposing instruments, eg clarinets, saxophones, euphoniums is full of interesting challenges. For example, if I want everyone in the room to play the note ‘C’, I have to tell fiddles, flutes, accordions etc to play ‘C’. But I have to tell clarinets and euphoniums to play ‘D’, and I have to tell alto saxophones to play an ‘A’. This can lead to confusion, as I’m sure you can imagine.
But once everyone has worked out what the notes are, it’s a truly wonderful sound, loud and powerful. For most of the people involved, this is a very different kind of music to what they normally play, so it’s a great opportunity for everyone to try something a bit different.
Writing it was a lot of fun. We usually start with an idea for a melody line, then once that has become fixed, find some nice chords that work with it. We often then record that, which gives something to try different harmony parts against. We adapt the parts to suit the players that are involved. We’re very pleased with how the Nithraid music has come out, it will work well for a parade.
Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick are part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, working to develop and grow the procession that will see the salty coo carried through the streets of Dumfries and down to the riverside where it will take pride of place over the River Nith to welcome in the arriving boats. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.
