Bradgate Park Archaeology Fieldschool, Part Two

Last week I blogged about my visit to the Archaeology Fieldschool, where I met Richard Thomas, the lead archaeologist.  There was a lot to take in, both information and atmosphere.  Richard is clearly a great communicator, explaining the site to me as well as leading the work of the students.  The job requires incredible attentionRead more

Bradgate Park, Archaeology Field School: Part One

At the end of July, I was delighted to be able to visit the Archaeological Fieldschool at Bradgate Park.  Run by Leicester University, it offers students experience of a real piece of research: digging, recording and interpreting.  It’s an intensive few weeks, with seven hours digging all day – I was lucky to be ableRead more

Poems written by workshop participants

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my Poet in the Park residency at Bradgate has been running workshops for the public.  I’ve met some talented writers from the area, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how they respond to the prompts. They have been good-humoured about my habit of coming up with daft names at theRead more

A Walk in the Park: A Leicester Poet

Shruti Chauhan is a poet from Leicester. She has created a reputation for sensitive and heartfelt performance poetry, first as part of ‘Three the Hard Way’, a national tour with Lydia Towsey and Jean Binta Breeze, and more recently with Yoni-Verse Poetry Collective (https://www.yoniversepoetrycollective.com) a group of female spoken word poets of South-Asian heritage.  She’sRead more

A Walk in the Park: The Ornithologist

One of the fascinating things about this residency is discovery how different people see – or read – the landscape of Bradgate Park.  A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk with Sue Graham, one of the Park’s volunteers, and a wildlife expert.  Over the course of nearly two hours, she showed meRead more