Paul Evans, Guardian Nature Diarist, will perform a narrative poem, written specially for the Wenlock Poetry Festival 2012: Kiln is an imagined story inspired by a real historic event. The story of Alice Glaston is set in the present day and narrated by Paul Evans. Alice walks through Much Wenlock, describing who and what she sees. She waits for dusk on the Church Green and walks out into the fields and woods of Wenlock Edge, to a place called Gallows Tree Leasowe. This is where Alice Glaston was hung in 1545, aged 11 years old. She continues her walk to a derelict lime kiln hidden in the woods where the story has its climax. We discover that her remains were found by accident hundreds of years after her death and taken to a limekiln to be secretly burned. Alice became part of the lime used in mortar, whitewash and spread on fields and so remains a constant presence in this landscape. Although the story is macabre, it’s not presented as such. Alice is a lively, bright girl who loves nature. She is a benign presence and through her we see the countryside in a different way. Alice's story is an opportunity to remember how brutal acts in history have become part of the world around us and their forgotten stories are part of a shared history which must be told.
We are looking forward to another ‘quarry performance’ from local poet, playwright, broadcaster and Guardian Nature Diary columnist, Paul Evans. Paul’s previous quarry works have been innovative and exciting, and his collaboration with a small choir of local voices from village school-children adds a whole new dimension to his work. On the edge, in all senses of the phrase, Paul’s quarry recital will celebrate Wenlock’s relationship to its world famous landscape and literary and poetic heritage.
