Goonhilly Village Green 2015 was an experimental pilot project led by artists Sara Bowler and Elizabeth Masterton and curators Field Notes. A schools’ day was held on Goonhilly Downs on Friday 25th Septmember, with a public facing event the day after on Saturday 26th September. The public events celebrated the unique landscape, history and culture of the site through a programme of talks; film screenings; artist commissions; guided walks and a tug-of-war. Goonhilly Village Green aimed to gather a diverse range of people and interests to meet, talk, play and learn about Goonhilly, and to find common ground on this historic common land. The success of the project led to a larger scale project of the same name Goonhilly Village Green 2019.
Opening Procession, photo: Artur Tixiliski
CONTEXT
Goonhilly Downs is an intriguing location on the Lizard Peninsula in South Cornwall. The Downs is a special place, it has never been truly inhabited by humans yet it bears witness to millions of years of history; from its rare serpentinite geology, through Bronze age barrows and trackways, subsistence farms and experimental forests to WW2 radar bases and the space age, where the first transatlantic television signals and pictures of the Moon landings were received at Goonhilly Earth Station. Now designated as a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its rare and diverse plant and animal species, Goonhilly is a unique ancient landscape where the deep past intersects with deep space.
At its heart is the Drytree menhir, a standing stone, which marks the convergence of five parish boundaries. There a rich history of human activity at Goonhilly, however there has never been a central village there.
Goonhilly Village Green founding artists Sara Bowler and Elizabeth Masterton have been involved with the site for over a decade, building an expansive, durational investigation of the distinctive area of Goonhilly Downs. Before GVG, this took form as HAPPIDROME, an experimental artist-led project platform, based in a WW2 radar shelter on The Downs. With the support of the land manager, Natural England, Sara and Elizabeth have devised and presented new work by invited artists both on the Downs and online since 2007. Working across 50+ extant radar buildings, some intact and some open to the elements, they created a space of roaming artistic inquiry for artists, curators, scientists, engineers and writers working in a site specific way.
After four iterations of HAPPIDROME, Sara and Elizabeth became inspired by a new area of The Downs; the perfect green sward of the nearby ex-BT recreation ground amidst the rough heath peaked their interest and they developed the idea of a transient assembly of folk, united by a shared interest in the site, who would come together for one day on a pop-up village green at the heart of Goonhilly. This led to Goonhilly Village Green, a programme of free, public events and activities from 2015-19, that aimed to gather a diverse range of people and interests in a series of celebratory events; to meet, talk, play and learn about Goonhilly; to find common ground on this historic common land.
At its heart is the Drytree menhir, a standing stone, which marks the convergence of five parish boundaries. There a rich history of human activity at Goonhilly, however there has never been a central village there.
Goonhilly Village Green founding artists Sara Bowler and Elizabeth Masterton have been involved with the site for over a decade, building an expansive, durational investigation of the distinctive area of Goonhilly Downs. Before GVG, this took form as HAPPIDROME, an experimental artist-led project platform, based in a WW2 radar shelter on The Downs. With the support of the land manager, Natural England, Sara and Elizabeth have devised and presented new work by invited artists both on the Downs and online since 2007. Working across 50+ extant radar buildings, some intact and some open to the elements, they created a space of roaming artistic inquiry for artists, curators, scientists, engineers and writers working in a site specific way.
After four iterations of HAPPIDROME, Sara and Elizabeth became inspired by a new area of The Downs; the perfect green sward of the nearby ex-BT recreation ground amidst the rough heath peaked their interest and they developed the idea of a transient assembly of folk, united by a shared interest in the site, who would come together for one day on a pop-up village green at the heart of Goonhilly. This led to Goonhilly Village Green, a programme of free, public events and activities from 2015-19, that aimed to gather a diverse range of people and interests in a series of celebratory events; to meet, talk, play and learn about Goonhilly; to find common ground on this historic common land.
The WWII radar base, photo courtesy of Happidrome and the BT Archive
The Dry Tree menhir, photo: Field Notes.
COMMISSIONS
We commissioned art and architecture partnership Liminal who make work that explores the relationship between sound and territory. Parishes - territories defined by the earshot of a bell - have formed a central part of their investigation. For Goonhilly Village Green 2015, Liminal created Transient Parish inventing a new temporary parish by erecting a temporary bell tower at the centre of the site.
Standing 8m tall, the tower was a 1:10 scale model of the WWII radar receiver towers that once stood on Goonhilly Downs. It was built and errected in collaboration with first and second year architecture students from Falmouth University. Children from each of the five parishes that converge on the Village Green composed the peals that sounded throughout the day.
Standing 8m tall, the tower was a 1:10 scale model of the WWII radar receiver towers that once stood on Goonhilly Downs. It was built and errected in collaboration with first and second year architecture students from Falmouth University. Children from each of the five parishes that converge on the Village Green composed the peals that sounded throughout the day.
ENGAGEMENT & EVENTS
Goonhilly School
The day before we opened to the public primary school children from the Keskowethyans Multi-Academy Trust were invited to site for a day of workshops devised by Liminal and led by students from BA Architecture. Documentation of this can be found here.
On the site of the Earth Station
Former BT employee Chris Rowe spoke about the rich heritage of Goonhilly Earth Station.
A temporary Village Hall and Museum was set up with a display of artefacts from the collection of Helston Museum.
Cornwall Segway offered discounted sessions.
On the Village Green
Elizabeth Masterton’s Goonhilly Standard was raised high at the end of an opening procession which set out from the Earth Station, crossing through a usually locked gateway out onto the Downs.
Kelly Stevens led writing workshops based on Goonhilly folk tale of the Ghostly Lugger of Croft Pascoe.
Charlie Johns, Senior Archaeologist at Cornwall Council led guided archaeology walks exploring the bronze age history of the site.
Mullion Handbell ringers perfomed.
Elizabeth Masterton organised a Tug-of-War.
Lizard Wild Ranger Claire Scott led drop-in bush craft workshops and a life-size willow Goonhilly Nag was built communally for the closing procession.
In the WW2 radar receiver block known as the Happidrome
Sara Bowler led the Village Green Society Lectures - a series of talks and screenings on Goonhilly re
lated themes including art, local and social history, cultural geography, ruins, ecology, conservation, telecommunications and space science.
The speakers were:
Katherine Ashton from Helston Folk Museum, Sir Ferrers Vyvyan from Trelowarren Estate, Dr Caitlin DeSilvey from Exeter University’s Environment & Sustainability Institute, Henrietta Boex from Falmouth Art Gallery, Dr Jonathan Bennie from the Environment & Sustainability Institute, Eddy Search of GES Ltd, and Liminal in conversation with Tom Ebdon, Head of Architecture at Famouth University and Director of Tom Ebdon Architects.
The day before we opened to the public primary school children from the Keskowethyans Multi-Academy Trust were invited to site for a day of workshops devised by Liminal and led by students from BA Architecture. Documentation of this can be found here.
On the site of the Earth Station
Former BT employee Chris Rowe spoke about the rich heritage of Goonhilly Earth Station.
A temporary Village Hall and Museum was set up with a display of artefacts from the collection of Helston Museum.
Cornwall Segway offered discounted sessions.
On the Village Green
Elizabeth Masterton’s Goonhilly Standard was raised high at the end of an opening procession which set out from the Earth Station, crossing through a usually locked gateway out onto the Downs.
Kelly Stevens led writing workshops based on Goonhilly folk tale of the Ghostly Lugger of Croft Pascoe.
Charlie Johns, Senior Archaeologist at Cornwall Council led guided archaeology walks exploring the bronze age history of the site.
Mullion Handbell ringers perfomed.
Elizabeth Masterton organised a Tug-of-War.
Lizard Wild Ranger Claire Scott led drop-in bush craft workshops and a life-size willow Goonhilly Nag was built communally for the closing procession.
In the WW2 radar receiver block known as the Happidrome
Sara Bowler led the Village Green Society Lectures - a series of talks and screenings on Goonhilly re
lated themes including art, local and social history, cultural geography, ruins, ecology, conservation, telecommunications and space science.
The speakers were:
Katherine Ashton from Helston Folk Museum, Sir Ferrers Vyvyan from Trelowarren Estate, Dr Caitlin DeSilvey from Exeter University’s Environment & Sustainability Institute, Henrietta Boex from Falmouth Art Gallery, Dr Jonathan Bennie from the Environment & Sustainability Institute, Eddy Search of GES Ltd, and Liminal in conversation with Tom Ebdon, Head of Architecture at Famouth University and Director of Tom Ebdon Architects.
The screenings were:
Liminal’s 2014 work, Of This Parish.
Ian Helliwell’s experimental documentary ‘Practical Electronica’, on the work of electronic music pioneer and former WW2 radar engineer F.C Judd.
In an attempt to test the concept and heat the Happidrome artists Darren Ray and Andy Webster created a replica of Arlene’s Solar Furnace Project from 2008.
All photos: Artur Tixiliski
FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
Goonhilly Village Green was an artist-led project initiated by Sara Bowler and Elizabeth Masterton, it was supported by funds from Arts Council England and supported by Natural England and Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. The artists also received support from the University of Exeter, as affiliates of ESI-RANE Creative Exchange, an innovative programme linking artists with researchers from the Environment & Sustainability Institute at Exeter’s Penryn campus.
GET IN TOUCH:
info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
