Rediscovering the Fifth Continent – Interpretation Programme

Our plaque designs are now completed, helping bring to life the history of New Romney. We’ve developed some mock-ups to help residents and neighbours get a sense of what the new plaques will look like. They will look great in real life – we can’t wait to see these at locations in the town!

With ideas from our community partners, illustrator Victoria Foster has helped create a beautiful new illustrated Crest for our New Romney Heritage Trail. The illustrations will also appear individually in the leaflet and promotional materials to accompany the trail, helping bring the history of New Romney to life! The shape of the new crest draws influence from the traditional Cinque Port emblem.

Three new compositions to interpret the heritage and wildlife of Romney Marsh through music were performed by musicians from prestigious ensembles The 12 Ensemble and London Contemporary Voices at St Nicholas’ Church New Romney to a full house.

With funding from the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, local people took part in two “vocal painting” workshops to explore the heritage and wildlife of Romney Marsh through song, together creating a new improvised piece of music. Participants performed their new work live alongside professional singers from London Contemporary Voices in front of a full house at St Nicholas’ Church New Romney.

With funding from The Leche Trust and The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation, three composers are spending time in the Romney Marsh landscape as inspiration for three new compositions, guided by our Cultural Heritage Officer Didier Rochard.

Our Green Sheep topiary frames have arrived. These will be placed as part of the heritage landscape at the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre. We are excited to be working with the Romney Marsh Flower Arrangers to produce two of the sheep. Soon beautiful plants including Saxifrages, Old man’s beard and Viper’s bugloss will be sprouting from the frames. Come and help us finalise the sheep on Saturday 9 May at the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre, with lots of other activities taking place.

During December we were at Brookland Primary School for a full day of nature sessions with students. This included fungus fun and habitat creation, culminating in the production of a bee wall for their playground.

During November, 20 adults enjoyed an identification talk and fungus foray walk with expert Martin Allison. We identified 32 different fungus species in Ham Street ancient woodland including a couple of puffballs and the amethyst deceiver.

We are pleased to have teamed up with local author Emma Batten to run a range of writing workshops. These workshops will be focused on the stone faces present on the churches across the marsh. The first workshop will be held at the Old Romney School on 27 November. Contact Craig for more info.

The first in a series of five Door Step discovery trail booklets is being designed. Printed versions will be made available for families to get out and explore short walks in local areas, learning about wildlife and heritage around them.