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The theatre began life when some Bulgarian students, here as part of our projects as Grampus Heritage, recognised
the natural ampitheatre qualities of the area. As the photos show, this took some recognising, so overgrown was the
whole place.
At present agencies like the Forestry Commission are trying to get woodland owners to diversify in the land
use of their woods. This is because British timber is becoming less viable and often small pieces of woodland like ours
is unsuitable for the industry anyways. So through a "Forest Futures" grant, we obtained the resources to really start
work on theatre, showing a radically different aspect of woodland use.
| An overgrown, damless stage |
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| Steps and terraces |
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| Pre Boardwalk, to the theatre |
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At Grampus Heritage, we promote traditional skills and local sustainability. With this in mind, we
felt we should construct the venue, as far as possible with local materials and using traditional techniques. The following
photographs show examples of this.
| Pulling Bracken |
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| Using Bracken to thatch roofs is a traditional way of using local resources. |
| A Celtic roundhouse. A ticket booth!! |
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| Bracken thatched roundhouse masquerading as our ticket office |
| Planking winblown oak, Gelt wood, Carlisle |
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| The chainsaw mill lets us plank wood on site. This is for the terrace stairs |
| You want steps... |
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| Using the sawn oak to construct the theatre steps. A job that just goes downhill |
| Digging the terraces |
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| A hard task. The barrels are used as seat foundations, better than not degrading in landfill. |
| Making Fences |
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| A traditional Slovakian way of weaving fences using willow and hazel. |
The bulk of the constuction work was carried out through the spring of 2004. Quite often in the rain,
more often just me, my friend and our spades. Sometimes it was brutal, back breaking work, no time more so than using
naturally washed through gravel to spread on the terraces, lifted from our pool below those terraces. But we feel that
the work was worth it and that a quite beautiful and atmospheric venue has been created. We can only hope that you agree.
| The dam, the pool and the stage |
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| On clear days the newly created pond reflects the tree canopy |
| The new terraces |
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| Environmentally friendly gravel and traditional willow weave fronts |
| Before |
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| The stage area before work began |
| After |
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| After lots of hard work, a vibrant, alive venue that we are proud of. Come see for yourselves. |
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