Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Lune is rising and the periscope too!


April 1st saw the completion of the first phase of building work at Forgebank. The work, funded by a grant from the Dept of Energy & Climate Change under a local partnership called Halton Carbon Positive included re-roofing, new windows and airtightness work to the mill building that will become workshops and offices.

A small celebration was held to thank those who had pulled out all the stops to get the job done in double quick time. The building was ‘Topped out’ with two bits of spruce by Joe from the main contractors The Better Roofing Company. As well as those who had worked on the job ( Alian Energy & Out of the Woods) the event was attended by people from local Community interest company  LESS and  Halton Lune Hydro who had been involved in the Halton Carbon Positive partnership: 


Chris who had been the site manager for the Cohousing company read out a poem that had been specially commissioned for the occasion from poet, printmake, artist, theatre director and general cultural provocateur John Fox. 

Having poetry on a building site was inspired by the tradition of POETS Day  - nothing to do with national poetry day. We rounded off the celebration with a toast of champagne from commemorative builders mugs.


TOPPING OUT AT HALTON. by John Fox . 25 March 2011.
 The Lune is rising
and the periscope too.
But never fear
the roof is on (before its time)
and the ghosts are gone.
The periscope reveals
dreams made concrete.
Who would imagine that here
they engineered elephants
bigger than clock work?
Who would imagine that here
an eco village would grow
bigger than concept?
A dream of utopian commitment
made truly concrete.
Where past and future meet.
Pine boards a century old
repaired and overlaid
with foil and foam and membranes
from our technological  decade.
After a combination of graft and craft and sheer bloody nous,
our workshop’s ready.
(Well nearly )
And soon we’ll see the very first house.
A community is waiting.
Waiting like the elbow of the river
with energy to power new generations
to illuminate and forge
Forge Bank at Halton.
So never fear,
the roof is on
ghosts are teased
ivy is cut and vandals appeased.
Where a naval periscope once strangely rose
now raise your glass to metamorphose.

Like the rusting elephant found a golden sultan,
we’ve topped out
Forge Bank at Halton.

3 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm interested to know more about the mechanical elephants made at Luneside, hopefully a picture of one. I heard there used to be a photo on the factory wall. Any information would be most welcome. Reuben - reubenh at mail.com

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  2. I'll see what I can find out for you!

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  3. Hi Reuben
    Yes there is a rumour of a photo and an ex-employee of Luneside Engineering has said he thought he could get us a copy. Only thing I have come across from the reight period is on the National Fairground Archive website: http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/history/galleries/gall14.html

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