15 January 2025.
6.30 pm Canolfan y Plase,
The Heritage Centre, Bala.
Wales premiere of the film
Stunned by Silence.
“Stunned by Silence” produced by Greengage Films, is a campaign film featuring the declining Curlew and is a dual language production.
Malka Holmes has been key in its creation “This film has been a labour of love, it grew out of my personal experience growing up in a remote shepherds cottage, Cwm Hesgin, just within the Snowdonia National Park. Cwm Hesgin is situated in a remote valley near Bala and it’s surrounded by peatland.
As a child I looked forward to every spring when the curlew would return to breed near the cottage. Then about twenty years ago the curlew disappeared from these breeding grounds and I never saw or heard them up there again.
My father Clyde Holmes was an artist and eco poet, He lived up in Cwm Hesgin for over thirty years and out of many encounters with this beautiful bird the poem Curlews Nest was born. The poem features in the film, and a line from the poem is, stunned by silence, hence the title. I thought this is a relevant title as the moorland is so silent without the curlew’s presence.
Along the way I’ve met very passionate people dedicated to curlew conservation, all approaching the subject from very different angles. “
The film features discussions with Mary Colwell from Curlew Action, and the singer songwriter David Gray as well as individuals working to save curlew in North West Wales, including those in the farming community.
On the 15th of January Iolo Williams will introduce the film.
If you would like to attend entry is free.
Curlews’ Nest
Must be near the farmhouse
For weeks now
he gasps with wheezy scream.
Above my head, his curved bill
An ominous, sabred silhouette.
Incensed wing-flames
An aerial attack
Sputtering his aggression
In machine-gun rhythms
When I step out
of his circled territory
His sound magically ceases
I am stunned by silence-
freed from his anxiety. (Clyde Holmes)
14 March 2025 - 10am
Chirk Castle
Welcoming back the Curlew
Booking is not essential but please be aware there is an admission fee to visit the castle.
The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape are a partner of the Curlew Connections Wales Project, working alongside Bannau Bryncheiniog National Park and the GWCT in ICA’s 5, 12 and 9 respectively. This Welsh Government supported project, funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund, is working closely with local communities for curlew conservation and recovery.
Samantha Kenyon is the Curlew and People Officer who is working with local schools, artists, a storyteller and musician to create a celebratory children’s parade to welcome back the curlew next Spring.
“As part of the lead up to the event being held on 14th March 2025 at the National Trust’s Chirk Castle, local school children will be helping to create curlew puppets, a new curlew legend and a song to sing as part of the procession.
This creative project hopes to encourage pride in the culture and language around these precious birds. And to recognise the importance of our rural communities in providing for, and protecting, the Curlew on and around their breeding grounds.
The parade around the castle grounds will take place as we start to see and hear the birds returning to their farmland and moors across Wales.”
If you would like to know more about this event please contact Sam Kenyon samantha.kenyon@denbighshire.gov.uk
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