LETTER SUBMISSION [UNPUBLISHED]
Dear EditorWith the Ifield Parish Map Project now underway [which covers an ancient area within both Crawley and Horsham], a ‘Beating the Bounds Walk’ will take place along the Parish Map boundary this Saturday [Nov 18].
The Walk will start from the Plough in Ifield Village at 11am and finish at 1pm.
All welcome – including dogs.
Yours sincerely
Richard W. Symonds
The Ifield Society2 Lychgate Cottages
Ifield Street, Ifield Village
Crawley, West Sussex
RH11 0NNTel: 07540 309592
Email: richardsy5@aol.com
‘BEATING THE BOUNDS’ EXHIBITION
11 November – 15 December 2023
Inspection Pit, East Harting, West Sussex, GU31 FLZ
To visit the exhibition please book here.
https://www.inspectionpit.uk/beating-the-bounds
This exhibition takes its title from an old English custom – Beating the Bounds – which traditionally involves communally walking the parish boundary, swatting local landmarks with branches in order to draw and maintain a shared mental map. Through the collective act of walking, communities are able to record the history of a place, share the melody and words of songs, tell stories and pass on local traditions, preserving them all in a vat of regional memory. Every seven years this bizarre ritual is performed, bringing with it an opportunity to learn how the landscape has evolved. Perhaps land has been sold off or acquired through housing developments and agricultural expansion. Roads may have been built that cut across and divide the original boundary line. Sycamores could have taken root and grown into young trees, or streams formed by flooding and erosion. Maybe deer, badgers and ramblers have trod new pathways through forests and shrubbery. This exhibition examines these shifting boundaries, the varying effects that chance and intentionality can have in shaping our relationship with the land and how a collective understanding of the environment can be a method of preservation and restoration.