New Roots, Old Soil - Fenland Lives In Transition
Year
Considering the impact of the EU’s A8 Accession legislation on the Fens of East Anglia, where migration has reshaped traditional industries & communities. An exploration of the effect on the population & the tension between economic growth & the idea of a cohesive society.
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Anti loan shark promotion in March, cambridgeshire
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Antek, Denisa and Vendula, seasonal workers from the Czech Republic hoeing weeds in the brassica fields of South Lincolnshire. Weeding, needing the application of the eye to determine between the crop and invasive plants is one of the few agricultural tasks that has yet to be mechanised or automated.
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Zydrunas & Vilma, butchers from Lithuania receive their first consignment of slaughtered meat at their newly opened shop in King's Lynn, Norfolk.
Si Barber
Cliff Carnival Parade, Navenby,Lincolnshire
Si Barber
Prospect House, Southery, Norfolk. Built in 1907 for a farm manager and their family in such a way that the land in cultivation and in particular its workers could be continually observed. The home was ultimately abandoned due to subsidence which was a fate that similar properties in the Fens suffered. In subsequent years such buildings were reinforced with concrete underpinnings to attenuate the effects of the wet land, but often to little effect.
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A demonstration against the prorogation of Parliament meets some opposition in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
In defiance of the clear and unequivocal instruction by the British electorate to leave the European Union in the 2016 Referendum, opponents, many with undeclared interests in maintaining the federal relationship sought to overturn the democratic will of the country and reverse the decision to leave. Despite the efforts of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to avoid a no deal Brexit many obstacles were put in his way. As such, with the October 31st deadline for leaving looming, on September 10th 2019 he prorogued Parliament which effectively cancelled the sitting of the House and further discussion on the issue. This led to demonstrations across the nation and was subsequently declared unlawful. As a result, Parliament resumed sitting on September 25, 2019.
Amy Harrison, Dowager Flower Queen of Spalding, Lincolnshire, instructs her presumptive heirs on the duties and responsibilities of her role as a representative of the town and its civic duties. Pivotal to her role is representing the town at various events, including the Spalding Flower Parade which celebrates the area's heritage in flower bulb growing. Candidates for Flower Queen are selected through a pageant where they are judged on aspects of their personality, their community involvement, and how well they represent the town.
Image by Si Barber
Whittlesey Straw Bear, Cambridgeshire. Originally held on the first Monday in January, the event has celebrated the beginning of the agricultural year since the Middle Ages. Farm labourers, unemployed in the winter months would black up their faces to prevent identification and perform dances in the town in return for money or food.
Latterly considered begging and criminalised before making a comeback in the 1980s over the weekend of Epiphanytide, the Straw Bear inevitably involves a number of street fights and the occasional good natured stabbing.
In the 2000s as property prices in Whittlesey rose, aspirational people who wanted to live in Cambridge but couldn't afford city prices came to the town and occupied the new builds. They disapproved of the application of blackface and conspired to make it forbidden. These were the same well intentioned, but naïve people who supported the smoking ban which did so damage to the culture of England, closing pubs like the Bricklayers Arms.
A Tullos threshing machine up for sale at a dispersal auction of the late Jessie Watson, farmer of Littleport, Cambridgeshire. Mr Watson purchased the vehicle in 1946 and paid for it to be transported to the Fens by train from Aberdeen, Scotland. Then it required three workers to operate it and another to tow it by tractor. Today, its tasks can be completed by one person.
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Ali Dent and assistant Fred of Dent's Butchers Hilgay, Norfolk. The shop has served the village since 1900.
“I was born here, I was born in this house, I've been in this shop all my life. I want to get a bit of time for me and the wife. You don't get your holidays when you live at the shop and work for yourself”.
