SHEEPFOLDS AND PRINTMAKING

The small, isolated primary school at Bewcastle in North Cumbria worked with the printmaker Rachel Gibson. Eighteen children were involved from Year 3 to Year 6, learning new skills in drawing, paper-making, printing and, finally, presenting their work in the form of a handmade book.

The school discussed the possibility of undertaking a journey with the artist to follow a drove road from the Scottish borders, through Longtown and along the route which Andy Goldsworthy used for his 'Drove Arch'. This journey was carried out in May 2000, visiting several of the folds which had been restored or rebuilt and finishing at the Raisbeck pinfold.

As well as visiting sites on the drove route and looking for structures and shapes to draw, the work increased the children's knowledge of Andy Goldsworthy's art and, as the Headteacher wrote, 'developed a greater interest in looking at things around them both locally and on journeys' and, 'an insight into the lives of farmers and drovers in former times.'

From the individual information, sketches and ideas gathered along the way, the children worked with the artist to produce a collective journal of the trip. The book was called 'The Long Drove Route' and contained a selection of drawings, embossed paper images, collograph prints, maps and notes, all beautifully bound, and printed as a limited edition for each pupil to keep as a record of the experience.

Artist Rachel Gibson
Contact teacher Jim Glossop, Headteacher. Tel: 016977 48662

Photographs: Bewcastle pupils at Raisbeck pinfold; print of the pinfold; working on 'The Long Drove Route' book (photograph courtesy of Bewcastle School); looking at the finished book with Rachel Gibson (photograph courtesy of Bewcastle School).