Social History / Ashton Court Mansion
Collective experimental history-making project ‘Haunting Ashton Court’ launches book
Led by artist Jack Young and theatre maker Elinor Lower, an evolving and experimental collaboration into the reclaimed and forgotten stories of Ashton Court has now produced a 230 page, full colour book of the project.
Haunting Ashton Court is a document that has been described as “part map, part torch, part shadow” – remaking the hidden stories of a history that needs to be reclaimed, since it belongs to every one of us.
The idea originated as a community theatre project involving young people working together with artists, taking inspiration from fragments of archival material to breathe life into those stories that were never fully memorialised.
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These conversations led to two sold-out nights of live art, theatre, spoken word and music honouring the ‘ghosts’ of Ashton Court, challenging the prevailing historical narratives and addressing the omissions in the building archives.
Responding to such gaps, the book – edited by Young and Lower – features new writing commissions from Zakiya McKenzie, Tom Marshman and Saili Katebe.
It also includes a creative toolkit to help readers make their own collective histories, and a script from a live performance given by young Bristolians participating in the project.
Design comes from Patrick Fisher of Makina Books, and Professor Samantha Walton of Bath Spa University has contributed an afterword.
The book was officially launched at Bookhaus on June 21, and has had a warm reception. Corinne Fowler is the author of Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connection. “It will take generations to address our country houses’ many colonial connections,” she notes “– from East India Company activity to transatlantic slavery involvement – but this book provides some excellent starting points for groups and individuals who want to explore those histories in an historic house near them.
“This is sensitive history, and the book’s productive melding of evidence-based research and creative practice leads the way.”
Haunting Ashton Court: A Creative Handbook for Collective History-Making, edited by Elinor Lower and Jack Young, is available to order now.
All photos: Courtesy of Elinor Lower and Jack Young
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