Prees Heath and Blue Butterfly

Amazingly when I started this work in July/Aug '10 I saw in Opportunities in Artist Newsletter an advert seeking artists, poets and writers for a book of Shropshire Butterflies. So I submitted some of my preliminary images about the Silver Studded Blue Butterfly at Prees Heath, one of this butterfly's few habitats. And to my delight my images are to be part of the book. So watch this space concerning further developments and events about the book publication.

I was so thrilled about this butterfly as I see it as a symbol of transformation of this little gem of a landscape. It also evoked the RAF colours and therefore the memories that the heathland was once a RAF airfield, training people to fly bombers. I feel this site continues to have that potential of honouring those who lost their lives in the Second World War.

Another look at the project

Since I started being interested in working with the landscape of Prees Heath the Air Traffic Control Tower has been boarded up to reduce vandalism but spaces in the walls have been left for the use of birds and bats.

This building has a starkness which I really like. I ask myself is it derelict or is it a ruin? Has a ruin more status than a building which is derelict? Has a 20th century building the same kudos as a ruined roman fort?

I think the fact the two main roads pass around this heathland. Vehicles pass by this little bit of common land, notice it then forget it.

However, this land is the habitat for a variety of flora and fauna. A place for walking, a delightful colourful space with mosses and birch trees creating visual interest. I am so aware that small pieces of land can hold such diversity its this looking deeper into a landscape that continues to inspire my work.

A new year A new begining

I am so glad to be back at work having had nearly a year out. Being ill with Leukaemia was a very difficult time but I was able to make some work whilst in hospital, for about 5 months, mainly about white blood cells!!

However, once home again I started to make work about Prees Heath in north Shropshire. This is a piece of common land wedged between the A49 and the A41 near Whitchurch. Easily seen from the road is the old WWII Air Traffic Control Tower. I had taken a series of photos of the Tower in 2006. Having been brought up in a RAF family the architecture of these old military buildings is very familiar to me.

Being quite weak I started to make very small images, 8"x8", of the control tower. And have even made some Airfix models of aeroplanes. The kit came with figures. I liked the one with the bike as it is very reminiscent of my childhood on RAF camps.

Across A41 from the Air Traffic Control Tower is a small aerodrome and the image of the wind sock evokes the history of the heath when it was a training camp for bomber aircraft.

I came and took this photo on 1st January 2011. Making a commitment to come every month for the next year. The common has now become a conservation reserve for the Silver Studded Blue Butterfly and is being restored and protected by this organisation.

I discovered that in 1991, the poet Eleanor Cooke was funded by the Arts Council and Shropshire Wildlife Trust to research and write a poem called Who Killed Prees Heath. A wonderful piece of work supporting the keeping of our common land which is rapidly disappearing as developers and farmers take over this land.