Category: storytelling

Four Friends and The Warren

We are very pleased to be able to share some of your stories early, before their QR code plaques are installed around the town. Once we have the plaques, we’ll officially add them to the Folkestone StoryMap, but in the meantime – enjoy!
This is the lovely Nathalie Thompson with her memories of The Warren.
There’s still time to take part in Folkestone StoryMap: Your Stories. Pop over to our website to read all about the project and how you can get your Folkestone memories on the map:

Put your memory on the map

Put your #Folkestone memory on our map! Take part in our community project by sharing your memories of Folkestone. Just send us a voice recording. Help and details here: folkestonestorymap.co.uk/your-stories

Posters at large!

While you are out and about on your daily exercise, keep your eyes peeled for our new Folkestone StoryMap posters – they’ve just gone up around the Lower Leas Coastal Park.

Free storytelling workshops!

We’re a running some workshops to help you think about which story to share, how to make your story come alive, and the technicalities of recording them.
 
The workshops are on tomorrow, Wednesday, 3 March at 7pm; Saturday, 6 March at 11am; and Wednesday, 10 March at 7pm.
 
If you’d like to join one of our online workshops, please sign up here:

WANTED: Your memories of Folkestone.

We’re a running some workshops to help you think about which story to share, how to make your story come alive, and the technicalities of recording them. The first workshop is this Saturday, 27 February at 11am.

Please go to https://folkestonestorymap.co.uk/zoom-workshops/ to sign up.

Other workshops take place on Wednesday, 3 March at 7pm; Saturday, 6 March at 11am; and Wednesday, 10 March at 7pm.

If you or a family member or a friend like to wax lyrical about days gone by in Folkestone and has some funny or poignant anecdotes about the town then please share.

We’re looking for up two minutes recordings of your memories to add to Folkestone StoryMap, an audio trail at Lower Leas Coastal Park, Folkestone. Your memories will then be added to site specific locations around the town.

Introducing Folkestone StoryMap

We’re very excited to launch Folkestone StoryMap today despite the rain and Tier 4 restrictions which scuppered our photo shoot for four of our winners on Sunday. Thankfully photographer Igor Emmerich managed to snap two of the winners the day before.
 
There are now six fabulous stories to listen to while you walk through
Lower Leas Coastal Park, Folkestone. So, grab a pair of headphones and see if you can find the stories dotted around the park, or you can read, or listen to the stories at folkestonestorymap.co.uk
 
Pictured are Peter Jonathan at the Troll Bridge, where you can find his story Grimhorn and The Billy Goats Gruff, narrated by BBC Radio Kent’s Dominic King, and Sallyann Fellowes whose story Silverlight, narrated by actor Sarah Thurstan, is at the Once Upon a Time Chair opposite the Toll House.
 
Other locations include: Louise Burgess’s story Funicular, narrated by Lucille Ferguson, near to the Leas Lift as you enter the park; Martha Brook’s Martha and The Pirates, narrated by Jessica Hynes, at the sunken pirate ship; Charlie Bain Smith’s tale Just The Ticket, read by Oliver Senton, at the far end of the park next to the remains of the second Leas Lift; and Joseph Burton’s story The Gentlemen’s Club, read by Alex MacLaren, at the top of the Zig Zag Path.
 
Our thanks to Folkestone Town Council, Folkestone & Hythe District Council and Kent County Council for supporting the project which we hope the community will add to for years to come.

How about a story trail?

Have you heard about our story trail in Cromers Wood, Sittingbourne? If you’d like to know more, please get in touch – we’d love to create a story trail for you!

Introducing the Cromers Wood Story Trail

We’ve been working behind the scenes with the Kent Wildlife Trust to create a fantastic story trail for Cromers Wood, near Sittingbourne in Kent.

We first visited this coppice wood back in 2018, on a cold winter’s day, to meet up with project officer, Martin Keelor. Thankfully he and his team had a fire going and supplied us with tea and hot dogs to keep us toasty as we explored the forest. Martin shared his vast knowledge of Cromers Wood and the various plants and animals within while we took photos and got our bearings.

Some months passed while we got our brains thinking about possible storylines. While we cogitated we brought illustrator Megan Metcalf on board, taking her to the woods to get a feel for the place. Eventually the seeds of the stories started to germinate and Michele and Ribs got to work. Michele did the lion’s share, writing five of the six stories – well, her business cards do say Chief Storyteller, so it was to be expected. 

Sadly the planned launch wasn’t able to go ahead, thanks to the Covid-19 restrictions, but the carved wooden information boards have now been installed in Cromers Wood, so if you live nearby you can take the trail. And for those of you further afield, you can listen to and read the stories online on the Kent Wildlife Trust website. We hope you enjoy them!

Folkestone StoryMap Competition Open for Entries

o excited to launch the Folkestone StoryMap competition today! We’re looking for short stories from 500 to 2,000 words to be recorded by actors and accessed via QR codes throughout the town’s Coastal Park.
 
Entry is free and open to people of all ages living in the town or district, or with a strong link to the town. We’ll be holding a Zoom workshop soon if you want to find out more. We’ll announce details of that through our newsletter and on our social media profiles.
 
Stories need to be set in the town – and preferably the Coastal Park itself – but can be set in any period of time – past, present and future.
 
Before the Covid-19 lockdown, we visited lots of schools and held workshops with Folkestone Museum. All the museum’s wonderful collections are available online – visit them here to find some inspiration for your story.
 
You have plenty of time to write your story – the deadline is July 15, 2020. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown effect, we’re unsure when we’ll be able to announce the winners, record the stories and award cash prizes but we’re hoping it will be sometime in the autumn.
 
Submit your entry here. Please read the Terms and Conditions below before you submit.

Terms and Conditions

  1. Closing date for receipt of all entries is at midday on July 15.
  2. Stories must be between 500 to 2,000 words excluding the title.
  3. The competition is free to enter and is open to anyone of any age who has a strong connection to the district. This includes anyone who lives in Folkestone and Hythe district, or who used to live in the district, or whose family are from the district, or who works in the district, or regularly used to/currently holidays in the district.
  4. Entries are online only.
  5. All entries should be in English.
  6. Online entries should be submitted via the online entry page of the website: https://forms.gle/x9Rzihi33n513dYw5. All online entries will be acknowledged by an automated email. Online entries should be in a PDF and should be no larger than 10MB. We also accept audio files though please accompany it with a PDF document.
  7. Please format documents in 12 point Arial and double space with page numbers and the word count and title of the story at the top of each page.
  8. If you are over 18: Entries will be read and judged anonymously; entrants’ names and contact details should only appear on the entry form and not anywhere on their stories/manuscripts. The stories/manuscripts must be free of all personal information about the author.
  9. If you are under 18: Please put your name on the first page under the title.
  10. We’re looking for original stories peppered with lots of humour. Your story can be of any genre but strictly no obscene or violent content. It can be set in any period of time and must be set in Folkestone and mention the Coastal Park.
  11. Also consider your audience. The Coastal Park attracts thousands of families with young children. So though you don’t need to write your story for children, please think about use of language and suitability of content, as well as how well your story lends itself to being performed/read out by an actor.
  12. You can enter no more than two stories.
  13. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been previously published, in print or online, or broadcast or won a prize in another writing competition.  Any entry found to have been plagiarised will be disqualified.
  14. If your entry has been long-listed or short-listed in other competitions, and provided it has not won a prize or been published, then it is eligible for Folkestone StoryMap.
  15. Simultaneous submissions are welcome but please let us know if a story is to be published elsewhere or has won a prize in another writing competition as this will preclude you from winning prizes in the Folkestone StoryMap competition.
  16. All entries will be read by a carefully selected group of experienced readers who will select at least seven winning stories. The judges’ decision is final and no individual correspondence will be entered into.
  17. We will award each of the winners a cash prize, amount TBC.
  18. Authors will retain copyright on their work.
Folkestone’s Coastal Park. Image by grassrootsgroundswell.

Folkestone to become the first StoryMap town in the UK

Geo-caching for story lovers is coming to town! Hand of Doom Productions (that’s us!) is preparing to launch the UK’s first ever StoryMap in Folkestone.

The initial six short stories, written by residents or people with a strong connection to the town, will be recorded by actors and then accessed at various points within Folkestone via QR codes and smartphones.

The StoryMap, launching summer 2020, ties in with the Folkestone Triennial theme of Plot.

Supported by Folkestone Town Council and Folkestone and Hythe District Council and its councillors, the project aims to encourage residents of all ages and backgrounds to write and tell stories inspired by its landscape and heritage through workshops.

Writers will be paid a set fee and Hand of Doom Productions, a storytelling and theatre community interest company, hopes that the StoryMap will eventually spread across the town, as well as further along the coast, incorporating oral history too.

Michele Brailsford, of Hand of Doom, who came up with the idea for the StoryMap, said: “Folkestone’s beautiful landscape and amazing history naturally lend themselves to storytelling. The Coastal Park is an ideal location to start because it’s so well used and so well loved by residents and tourists.

“We’re particularly keen to encourage people from all backgrounds and ages to come along to the workshops because unfortunately there are so many barriers to writing opportunities, which are often seen as elitist. This is such a shame because as children, we’re all natural storytellers and everyone loves a great story in whatever format.”

The StoryMap aims to encourage residents to try their hand at storytelling, boost writing confidence, enjoy the mental health benefits of storytelling, get families out and about in the fresh air and boost tourism.

If you’d like to be added to our mailing list to receive updates about the project, please click here.

Coastal Park at Folkestone, Kent, UK
Folkestone’s Coastal Park. Image by grassrootsgroundswell.