Bear Witness, The Lie of the Land is a short film by Jill Impey and Andrew Howe that explores the contempory and historical landscapes of what is now Telford, through the events of the of the Battle of Cinderloo1821.
The Heritage Lottery funded film is part of a wider engagement project with local schools and heritage groups, involving walks, collaging, video, poetry, print and zine making.
They say you get the government you deserve, well 200 years ago these people stood up against the authorities at a time when there was no vote, no voice for the individual, no meeting places, no way of gathering and talking about human rights. I think that’s very relevant today because our communities have been so divided and disenfranchised, labour under valued by zero hours contracts and lack of union representation.
The whole idea of community has been challenged over the past 50 years, with places like Telford, designed for the car and not for communities. Although we have mostly recognised that we are in climate crisis, we can also see the power of nature to return, even in the most unlikely environments, as on the pit mounds of Dawley. We rely on our natural environment to keeps us alive and well, damage to it is damage to ourselves.
With the divisive rhetoric of Brexit as a background it is time to, learn from the past, strengthen our communities, our unions and as Britons, Europeans and human beings to come together.
Jill Impey
Jill Impey 