Iron Awe: December 2009

Thursday, 10 December 2009

IRON AWE - The beginning

In 2003 a group of volunteers from East Cleveland, (ironstone mining country) took several bags of “old stuff” into old people's homes and collected stories, they then took the stories and “old stuff” into schools – Iron Awe was born.

Our community work atracted funding and we started using film and music to tell the stories, the award winning film The Accident, was followed by the epic film Demonstration Day; we have continued our community work and are now planning our biggest project yet.

Heartbreak Hill

In 1932, when the unemployment rate in East Cleveland was over 90%, James and Ruth Pennyman of Ormesby Hall near Middlesbrough gave land to out of work ironstone miners, one of these plots of rough land was close to Boosbeck and was nicknamed Heartbreak Hill. A friend of theirs, Rolf Gardinar, suggested a collective land scheme instead of allotments; similar to the one he had set up in Dorset, they also invited German and Scandinavian students to take part. The miners and students worked together to clear the land and joined together in cultural activities - music, dancing and educational talks, a young Michael Tippett became involved and wrote a balled opera called Robin Hood, this was performed in 1934 in the Boosbeck church hall.