Saturday 30 June 2012

Dirty Toys and Burned Max Bygraves LPs: The Mousehold Heath Ranger's House

The Ranger's House at Mousehold Heath, Norwich. Built in the mid-1880s for the heath ranger - pretty much coinciding the time when the heath was given to the people of Norwich, so presumably the care of the heath prior was the responsibilty of the Church - and in use until the 1960s, it is now little more than a derelict shell with severe fire, smoke, and vandalism damage. Various plans have been mooted for the house - ideas range from it being used from a study centre to converted to social housing - but at the moment all seemed to have stalled. A few curious items littered about inside - heat-warped LPs, dirty toys - insinuate a pleasantly creepy vibe in the darkness.























































Friday 29 June 2012

Finding Beauty In Junk: Eagle Park, Norwich

Litter is a constant struggle in urban woodland or parkland. According to the local newspapers, a couple of months ago, local resident Sam Crouchman, fed up with the state of the nearby Eagle Park, turned community-minded litter-picking into an arts project. Rubbish found in the park was used as building materials for dens and small pieces of environment-based sculpture. A couple of pieces mentioned in the original Eastern Daily Press article - "a trio of fish dangling from a tree," "a wide-eyed owl perched on a branch" - I couldn't see, so either I didn't explore properly or they've been swiped. I'm kind of (pleasantly) surprised the pieces that do remain haven't been trashed (pun intended), actually, and it will be interesting to see how long these pieces last before they are broken down and simply become part of the polluted backdrop again, as opposed to standing apart from it.