industrial heritage

the garden of possibilities

castlefield viaduct, manchester

In July 2022, the National Trust unveiled a new urban sky park on Manchester’s Castlefield Viaduct to bring more nature and green space to city centre residents.

Taking inspiration from the ethos behind New York’s high line (which opened in 2009), construction company MCC, Twelve architects, the four local partners with ‘plots’ on the structure and National Trust gardening specialists and apprentices have been busy planting the derelict structure with thousands of plants, shrubs and trees over the past few weeks to ‘green’ the historic landmark.

The temporary urban park sees green space stretch halfway across the elevation of the viaduct. The plans for Castlefield Viaduct are part of the National Trust’s Urban Places work to increase access to parks and green spaces in, around, and near urban areas, so that more people are in easy reach of quiet places with wide open skies.

Urban Wilderness were one of four partner organisations (along with the Science and Industry Museum, City of Trees and Castlefield Forum) who were given spaces on the viaduct to create their own unique gardens.

Urban Wilderness worked with Manchester based charity, 42nd Street, supporting young people who have suffered mental health challenges. The ‘Garden of Possibilities’ features a geodesic dome and plants known for having positive effects on mental health and physical wellbeing, including nettle, feverfew and lemon balm.

Our plot provided a place for rest, recuperation and remedy in urban nature, informed by conversations with young people from 42 nd Street who wanted a non-commercial safe space away from the business of the city.

 decommissioning the 20th century

Decommissioning the 20th Century is a research project to find improved ways of placing communities at the heart of how 20th Century infrastructure becomes 21st Century heritage.

The project focused on three sites and communities at different stages of decommissioning; Chatterley Whitfield colliery ceased production in the 1970s, Fawley was an oil-powered power plant that closed in 2013, and West Burton is one of the last coal-fired stations in the UK and will cease production in 2022.

Keele University ran the project in partnership with the University of Lincoln, University of Hertfordshire and Northumbria University. Partner arts organisation and creative commissioners Urban Wilderness worked to deliver 'The Museum of Possibilities' at Chatterley Whitfield, alongside Dana Olărescu's 'How to say goodbye to a power station' at West Burton and Chu-Li Shewring & Adam Gutch's short film 'Fawley'.

The artworks created in relation to each of the sites are shared here.

 museum of possibilities

urban wilderness

Chatterley Whitfield is a deep mine colliery in Stoke-on-Trent which was decommissioned in 1977 and then re-opened as a mining museum until 1999. Urban Wilderness worked at Chatterley Whitfield to engage with local residents, visitors and community groups with the past, present and future of Chatterley Whitfield Colliery by asking:

What would you put in a museum at Chatterley Whitfield?

Urban Wilderness invited the public to engage with their concept of a Museum of Possibilities through playful public events including a 'dig' on Chatterley Whitfield Nature Reserve, a 'living library' tour of the colliery with ex-miners and 'mad scientist' workshops with young people at Chell Area Family Action Group (CAFAG).

about urban wilderness

Founded in Stoke on Trent in 2018, Urban Wilderness is an arts organisation run by co-directors Laurel Gallagher, Isla Telford and Jenny Harper. As a collective of artist practitioners they use costume and simple actions to disrupt public spaces and suggest alternative relationships between people, places and the environment.

buildings, artifacts, found objects and ideas for the museum of possibilities

how to say goodbye to a power station

Dana Olărescu

West Burton A, near Gainsborough - one of only three remaining coal-fired power stations in the UK - is scheduled to be decommissioned in August 2022. This collection of posters pays tribute to the building, to those who participated in its existence, and to the surrounding landscape and habitats.

Designed by socially engaged artist Dana Olărescu, in response to four months of workshops, informal conversations, and interviews with relevant communities, the posters form a creative response to the station’s decommissioning. The designs incorporate memories of those who worked at, lived near, or even simply glanced in the direction of West Burton A - as well as future scenarios for the building and landscape in 100 years’ time, as imagined by the same people.

Posters were informed by conversations with: Dr Ian Waites; Maddy Holroyd; x-church artists and young people who attend its alternative youth club; former and current West Burton A staff; Years 5 and 6 of North Leverton Academy and Sturton-le-Steeple C of E Primary School; the West Burton Residents’ Planning Group; Sturton-le-Steeple, North Leverton, and Gainsborough locals; and Gainsborough Heritage Association.

about Dana Olărescu

Dana Olărescu is a socially engaged artist working at the intersection of performance, installation, and social design, with a focus on challenging minority exclusion and environmental injustice. Through participatory methodologies that democratise access to art and knowledge, she aims to give agency to people habitually excluded from decision-making processes so they can become active co-producers of culture.

 fawley

chu-li shewring & Adam Gutch

Fawley oil-fired power station near Southampton operated for 40 years until it's closure in 2013 following new legislation limiting emissions. Chu-Li Shewring & Adam Gutch produced an award-winning short film 'Fawley' documenting the life of the power station and the changing landscape of the Solent as the 200m chimney tower was demolished in October 2021.

‘Fawley’ has recently won the International Short Film Competition at Sheffield DocFest 2022. The jury, Zeynep Güzel, Cherish Oteka and Saskia Wilson said:

“This is a distinctive and beautifully crafted exploration of the intersection of nature, architecture and the human experience. Bringing together the many voices involved in the landscape – power plant workers, bird watchers, local people and the creatures inhabiting the space – the film is a powerful poetic reflection on the psychological role of our surroundings and our symbiotic relationship with nature. It is fantastically detailed, from observing the beauty in the Brutalist architecture to the tiny minnows swimming in the shallows, the film connects the audience with a range of universal themes such as ‘power’ structures, preserving nature and the impact we leave on our environment.”

The film includes interviews with local residents supported by Friends of the New Forest and New Forest Heritage Centre, and archive footage from Wessex Film and Sound Archive.

about chu-li shewring & adam gutch

Chu-Li Shewring and Adam Gutch are filmmakers from the Isle of Wight. They studied documentary and sound at the National Film and Television School. Their films have screened on Channel4 and been nominated in competition at international festivals, including: The London Film Festival, IFF Rotterdam, Edinburgh IFF and Images Toronto, where they won a Jury Prize. Their work combines non-fictional and fictional elements to creatively explore uncanny aspects of people, nature and the environment.

film stills from ‘cathedral of power’

chatterley whitfield

chatterley whitfield colliery: 2020-2022

Academic partnership projects exploring dynamic heritage with community groups, heritage volunteers and arts organisations

Reverberate: english heritage: Dec 2020

Reverberate provided support for 14 grass roots organisations around the country to enable young people (aged 11-25) to explore their heritage through locally-based projects. The programme enabled projects that re-discover, re-imagine and re-create local heritage through creativity, and share their vision with their communities.

Urban Wilderness led photo walks with CAFAG youth club to discover what heritage means to young people living in the shadow of an abandoned coal mine.