REDDITCH perfomance outfit Indigo Arts has launched a competition to coincide with its Son et Lumiere event at Bordesley Abbey later this month.
During the period of the Earl of Plymouth’s development of Redditch, his workers became accustomed to plundering the Abbey ruins for stone and other building materials, for their new building schemes, and to repair or construct roads.
According to legend on one such occasion they discovered a carving of a man with a golden lion lying at his feet. The golden lion was an amazing sight and shone so brightly that all who looked upon it were dazzled. As they drew closer however, the gold of the lion suddenly slipped away leaving just the bare stone.
Stunned, bewildered and unnerved by what they had seen, the workers were reluctant to plunder the site further, and took the vision as a sign the Abbey was protected, and no further ransacking of the ruins should take place. From that day forward the Abbey was left to lie untouched beneath meadows, preserving what we have of it today.
To this day the golden lion has never again been seen, no one knows where it came from or anything about the subject of the mystery carving at whose feet this amazing spectacle lay.
As part of Indigo Art’s project to raise awareness of the abbey, they are asking children and young people aged from four to 16 years, to help bring the spectacle back to life.
Entrants can either:
– send their artistic creations of the golden lion – these can be painted, drawn or modelled using any medium.
– send a picture of the scene, when the golden lion was discovered.
– Write a short story explaining who the person was in the carving with the Golden Lion, what his relationship was with the Abbey, and the lion, and how he came to be the Abbey’s protector. The story can be based on the history of the Abbey or complete fiction.
Stories and artwork with names and contact information need to be with Indigo by Thursday, October 13. They can be handed in at Forge Mill Visitor Centre, or at the Indigo Arts Lab, in town (back of the Ecumenical Centre on Vine Street) on a Monday between 6pm and 8pm, or on the afternoon of October 13 at the Indigo Golden Lion Gallery in the Kingfisher Shopping Centre (the old ‘Bank’ store).
The best entries will be included in an exhibition in the shopping centre gallery on the weekend of October 15-16.
The project has been funded as part of a £55,600 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to tell the ‘Stories behind the Stones’. The grant will go towards the project which aims to enhance and interpret the profile of the Bordesley Abbey site through workshops, events and technology.
