Telling tales in Barton Hill

“We’ve lived here since 1982,” says 70-year-old Sandra Kelly, sitting with a cup of tea in Barton Hill Settlement community centre. Together with younger sister Sue, she bought her first home there as a young adult and they’re lived in the area ever since. “Compared to back then, the whole area is different,” Sandra continues. “Years ago, the kids were naughty – they used to pinch the cars and the bikes, and race around and set fire to them – but those kids have grown up now. They’ve got families of their own. We’re a happy community now, although we are mixed.”

Sandra and Sue’s memories of the area as it was, along with those of their friends and neighbours, have been captured by Travelling Light Theatre Company as part of a new production called Hillstories. The idea behind the play was to unite two generations who live largely separate lives in the same area. The process, and the play itself, have proved a fascinating delve into the area’s history told through personal memories.

“What Barton Hill Settlement does, and what we were hoping to do with the festival, is to link groups together,” explains Jo Woodcock, production manager for Travelling Light and project manager for Barton Hill Festival. “We thought it would be really nice to have a day that is a focus for that and makes people aware of all the stuff that is happening in Barton Hill.”

Her colleague, Giulia Bianchini, coordinates the youth theatre. “We asked our youth board what they’d like to do, and they said they’d really like to do a project with the older generation from Barton Hill, and to find out more about the area. So, the project actually came from the young people,” she says.

Travelling Light are working with inter-generational arts project specialists Wyldwood Arts, and received funding from the lottery’s Youth Social Action Fund and the Youth Investment Fund to make the project happen. With all the boxes ticked, the next job for Giulia was to find an opportunity to bring the two groups together – and that came, somewhat unexpectedly, in the form of bingo.

Barton Hill’s distinctive tower blocks rise above the houses

“We used to have a local bingo hall, the Mecca, and a lot of the older people used to go there,” says Sarah Dailly, network coordinator at Barton Hill Settlement. “It wasn’t just about bingo, it was somewhere for people to go. So, when it closed, one of the residents who had lived in Barton Hill for donkey’s years decided to open her own bingo at the settlement on a Tuesday night. There is a strong history in this area of people doing things for themselves.”

Sandra and Sue are two of the Tuesday-night regulars. “We just have a lot of fun, and everyone knows each other,” Sue says. But when Giulia asked about bringing some young people, aged 11-19, along to a session, she was told it had never happened before.

“We had to see what would happen,” Giulia says. “We brought them in and it was great! It was quite different from usual.”

“Especially when one of them kept winning!” jokes Sandra.

“When the young people came in, we asked them if they’d played bingo before and they said ‘no’, so we showed them,” says Sue. “From then on, they were just playing. They were engrossed in it all the time – they didn’t even want to stop for tea and biscuits! Everybody just chatted, and it was as though they’d been there for years.”

“The kids kept asking us questions,” says Sandra. “What did we do? Where did we live? What did we wear? They asked some quite intelligent questions, very subtly thought-out.”

“They thought we were ancient! They thought we were really old!” says Sue with an infectious chuckle. “They asked me how old I was; I said, ‘65’. One girl, she said she was ten. Ten! I thought, ‘You’ve got a long way to go’!”

Sue and Sandra Kelly, long-term residents of Barton Hill

“All the relationships were made through that bingo club – that was the starting point,” continues Giulia. “Having the older and younger people together in a room was a unique opportunity. It was the starting point for the script and, really, for everything. It was a really lovely thing, because we play lots of games here at the youth theatre, so we loved that the show became about generations coming together through playing games.”

Following their first meeting, the young people and older residents met several more times and got to know each other better. “They were interested and they wanted to hear more and more and more about what we did, our jobs, where we lived, where we went,” Sue says. “Gradually, they’re helping the older generation remember what it was to be young.”

Writer Adam Peck transcribed the stories from these sessions, and built them into an early draft of the script that was performed at August’s Redfest, directed by Aaron Parsons. That first show, where Sandra, Sue and the other older contributors saw their words spoken by young people and their real-life memories immortalised, was a moving experience, particularly for Sue.

“I got really emotional, because I’ve got dementia now, it’s been diagnosed,” Sue says. “I try to remember things myself and I can’t remember them, but as soon as I get told them, it helps it come out, because it’s just there in the back of my head, like a filing cabinet. Hearing it was bringing it all back, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I said that.’ And when I heard the girl say it, she sounded just like me.

“I’ve got a bad memory now, but talking about all this, I realise that we did all of that – we had freedom, we went out, we did it all. We used to all play together in the street, play in the woods, go out together, muck about, get dirty. We used to go out in the morning and we didn’t come home ’till night! Mum used to wonder where we’d been! That’s what it used to be. You can’t do it now. I don’t know if I’d like to live in their generation.”

Image: Camilla Adams

Sue’s condition brings home the sad reality that, if these stories of Bristol’s older generations are not captured now, in a short time they will be lost forever, and with them will disappear a version of Bristol so different to today’s. It’s a world of chemical factories on the site of what is now Netham Park, of the excitement when Barton Hill’s tower blocks were built in the 1950s, and of going down to Mecca for a night of bingo.

“This area is so rich with history, and the area has changed so much in recent years,” says Sarah Dailly. “People have a lot of stories and memories, and unless you create an opportunity for people to have these conversations, it doesn’t naturally come out. I think this has been a really lovely tool to use to bring generations together, giving them something to talk about that is contextual. It brings things to life. A lot of people have lived here forever, but then there’s an awful lot more people who have moved in over the last ten years. New history is being created.”

“It’s been really powerful for the young people,” Giulia says. “It’s the first time we’ve ever done this, but we hope it’s the start of doing other projects. The young people have really enjoyed hearing the stories and learning about the people of this community.” She turns towards Sandra and Sue. “They see the stories you’ve given them as a gift. For them, it’s not like they’re just speaking some lines in the play, it’s real, and there’s a massive amount of meaning to it. I think that’s where the emotion comes from. It’s a celebration of life and history.”

There will be two performances of Hillstories at Barton Hill Festival, which takes place in Barton Hill on Sunday October 29 from 11am-5pm. Volunteers are still being sought to help with activities on the day, including baking cakes. To get involved or find out more, email admin@travellinglighttheatre.org.uk or call Ali on 0117 3773 166.