Royston Townscape
About the design
We decided to host our workshops at Royston Library with it being the hub of the community, accessible to all and open to a wide audience. We were keen to capture ideas from people of ages and find out what was important to them and their memories of Royston then and now.
The choice of hotspots came from discussions with participants about their favourite points and places of interest and what they felt other people should know. We held our workshops in the summer holidays and had a mixture of ages attending; school age children, parents and grandparents. We provided a range of drawing materials and textile equipment to allow participants a freedom of choice. We had a list of suggested places of interest to spark ideas and some example pieces to act as a prompt if needed.
Everyone worked on their own individual ideas which we then scanned and pieced together digitally to create our ‘townscape’ of Royston.
- Louise Ann Wright & Charlotte Fairclough Bell
How to use the townscape
Can you find these scenes in the townscape?
The Park: The park is loved by locals for the surrounding nature, dog walking spots and places for children to play. The park has interesting features such as the bandstand and the bowling club. Children enjoy using the playground, skatepark and playing football here.
Sports Centre/ Swimming Pool: Lots of people throughout the decades remember having swimming lessons here and told stories about this and the swimming teachers they had. Children still really like the swimming pool today.
Wells: This is a historical site of interest. This was an opportunity to create a design based which mixes stories from history and current day. People love that parts of the old well are still visible today and this is a special spot in the town that many of us pass by on a daily basis.
Workshop at Royston Library
Workshop at Royston Library
Workshop at Royston Library
About the artists
Louise Ann Wright
From a young age I have had a love of pattern and minute detail; drawing for hours and filling sketchbooks with eclectic inspiration taken from the Yorkshire countryside, moors and coast. Fascinated by spreading organic structures such as lichen, fungi and mould; I explore details in sketchbooks as a starting point before creating paintings made from multiple layers of watercolour and ink. Each layer develops organically, growing and spreading across the page.
Charlotte Fairclough Bell
I have a variety of experience ranging from fashion design to retail and for over 14 years, a secondary school teacher of Design & Technology and Art with prior knowledge of pastoral roles.
I am now a textiles/ mixed media artist and freelance Art/Textiles workshop Facilitator for Leeds Playhouse as part of their “Heydays” programme and for “Artfelt”-Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity.
www.instagram.com/citizensofstitch
The ‘Principal Townscapes’ project has been commissioned and funded by Barnsley Council's Cultural Development Fund programme, Storying Barnsley.