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Postcards From The Future was a project with artists Jean McEwan and Sophie Powell in partnership with Kirklees Council exploring the value of arts and culture as a way to engage people in the future of places. The project creatively explored peoples’ relationship to spaces; from urban town centres to rural villages, ring roads, buildings and hinterlands, forgotten characters and the everyday to reveal the hidden histories and assets of places.Over February and March 2016, we travelled across Kirklees with our little red suitcase, to community centres, libraries, markets, arcades and other public spaces to gather knowledge, stories, thoughts and ideas from people about the places they live and work in. We invited people to make maps and postcards with us, contribute objects and images important to them and to share conversation about their hopes and dreams for their towns and villages. These were as diverse as Kirklees itself, and the suitcase soon became a mobile exhibition, travelling research receptacle and container of ideas. We discovered a wide range of viewpoints, stories, and local myths, from the tale of the Dewbsury Pancake Dog to the Sex Pistols performing a kids matinee in Huddersfield on Christmas Day, to the legendary waters of Holmfirth. We discovered the radical traditions of the district, and the values of resilience, tolerance, pride and fairness which characterise it, are still alive and thriving in it's vibrant culture and communities, and are to be found in all of it’s places.

Jean McEwan with Sophie Powell

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On Christmas Day 1977 the Sex Pistols played a benefit gig for local striking firemen in Huddersfeld including a matinee performance for children where they gave out cake and presents.

“The difference between the perception of the Pistols in the media and the reality is so evident - and to think this bit of Punk history took place on Chapel Hill on the ring road we passed today is surely worth sharing.The adult gig was actually at Antoinette's (beneath Ivanhoes). The venue was somewhere near the Lidl at Chapel Hill - the same junction Lowry painted Huddersfield from, and where Victorian organist and composer Walter Parratt was born.. also home to Huddersfield's first modern building, and an underground communications bunker. Hidden histories galore!”Andrew Haigh

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what would you keep?

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Dewsbury was a very important staging post when the Crusades came.. hence the name, Temple Road.

Then in the middle ages the nuns came and the priests came and then eventually the packhorses became cart roads.. cart roads became stage coach roads

Hence, you know the Blacksmiths Arms and then you've got the royal pubs, the Kings Arms, the George Hotel.. they were the places to go for certain sorts of people, especially when the rebellion were on.

And then the canals came, and then the trains.. and then the roads.

There's only three pubs in Dewbsury now there used to be twenty

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Over there used to be a railway station thats where you caught a train to London, there used to be three railway stations in Dewsbury, used to be 200 trains a day come through Dewsbury

Dewsbury as told by town resident Barry John, at Longcauseway Church

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We need places for people to meet up. So many people are lonely and isolated, and not just old people - of all ages. We need social spaces! Art! Music! in the streets

We've come from

Bradford to

Huddersfield

market, and we'll go to Dewsbury

on Wednesdays.

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I moved from London 30 years ago to Slaithwaite because I liked the community spirit of this place.. It has been a great place to bring up a family, and people here will stand up for what they believe is right. I've been involved in many local ventures and campaigns including the production of an independent community newspaper which ran for several years.”Cara

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The best ice cream I ever tasted was in Caddy's Ice Cream Parlour.. it was a secret recipe you know. They wouldn't give it out. Oooh I can just taste it, nothing else like it.

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We used to have 5 picturehouses I loved the pictures. The Tudor, The Rex, The Pioneers, The Playhouse… was it 4 or 5? you could go every night, it was so cheap. what did they say?.. " a penny in" (laughs)The Empire was where the Post Office is now.There was dances too. We were bopping in the aisles at the Tudor Picturehouse to Elvis, remember that? The Rex Bingo was the first picturehouse to pay out £1000. Underneath was the Galleon Dance Hall. Before the dances we'd go to the markets for a coffee because we were too young to drink you know.Pat and Sylvia

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different people different faiths

Love the market, the banter

During the day and when it's sunny, it's wonderful to go, you just take your little cousins and they go running around

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ʻHolmfirth is the best place in the world because of the community spirit, beautiful scenery, amazing water.. I believe it is God's county.. on the 7th days God rested, on the 8th day, he made Yorkshire. He gave us the hills, he gave us the peat what purifies us water, we've got the best water in the world that's why they come and dye the cloth at Holmfirth Dyers. (it comes from China and it goes back over there) he gave us the stone to build us houses, and the great Yorkshire characters.. I just love the place I live inʼ Chris

ʻMy hopes...to grow steadily, to move towards having some eco pods, to continue with all the conservation things that we do (we've got the David Bellamy awards - that's something that's close to my heart , keep it green ) and have some glamping options I think!ʼBen, Holme Valley Camping and Caravan Park

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During the war they had posters that said "Is your journey really necessary? We didn't travel much because there wasn't the money for it. We walked everywhere

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Self-taught filmmaker and Dewsbury local Simon Reed shares the ideas and process behind his 37 minute documentary 'Memory Lane Dewsbury'. The film was screened at Dewsbury Museum to a packed out audience.

SR: I've lived in Dewsbury all my life, since 1977. I've got a lot of great memories about growing up here. When I think back, the weather were always great, sun were shining. These days you get a lot of negativity towards the place and I think, well that's not what itʼs all about.As I got a bit older I started reminiscing about Dewsbury and how it was and one day I came across a load of old photographs on Ebay - I bought them and I took them down to my parents house and what we found was as we looked through them was it started bringing back old memories, especially for my mum - there was a picture of the old Trinity Chapel that turned into the Rex Cinema, and at first she couldn't remember where it was. When she did though, loads of memories tied round that place and that time, came flooding back. And I realised then the connection between old photographs and reliving old memories. So I had this brainwave.. about going out with these old photographs, in the footsteps of the photographer, and retaking them in the current day, and putting together some kind of slide show or something.. something dead basic, so people could look at it and think "oh yes that's how hat's changed I remember that" and then everyone who

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watched it would have the same thing where it would bring back all their old memories. I really liked the idea of that.I had a bit of knowledge about the history of Dewsbury and I started building on that ..so I got more old photographs, I went to the library to look at maps and old newspapers, and all of a sudden, this little idea just snowballed and it became this big project where I was connecting with all kinds of different people, for example Eileen Fenton, who swam the channel in 1950, who kindly agreed to be in the film. I've always been into film and photography but I never even dreamed of making a film myself.. If someone said to me one day you're gonna to do that I'd be like no, there's no way I could do that in a million years.

JM: Did you teach yourself the process of filming, editing, all of that? SR: The lot. My brother Ash assisted with some camera work and my friend Paul Edwards designed the Simon reed productions logo, and my mother in law helped me cut up the covers and put them into boxes.. but I had to learn everything - editing software, sound, and I had to buy a music licence.. there's so much involved in doing something like this, probably if I'd known half of it, I wouldn't have done it. It took me the best part of 4 years, because I was working. So I would do it for a while then I'd not do anything for a few week, then I'd go back to the library and be sat on their floor looking at stuff and finding things out.

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But to say that's 37 minutes long, there's so much information in there, I could have made it so much longer. Really I only scratched the surface. The best part for me was revealing histories that were almost forgotten.. for instance people talk about the cinemas but the Whitehall and Hippodrome cinemas always get left out. The story of the Pancake Dog - it doesn't really come up in history books, but back then it was such a big thing for Dewsbury people - everybody will have known about it. The story goes that on Shrove Tuesday what people used to do was go into the grounds of the vicarage and there's a legend that the stone lion there (its called Pancake Dog but if you look closely you'll see it's actually a lion) once a year on that day it will come to life and jump down for it's pancake. Obviously it's never happened! But It's a part of the townʼs history that were as good as gone forever and Iʼm really happy I managed to get it back.

JM: Tell me about the screeningSG: Just before it was released I thought, keep it to family and a few close friends and thats it and then people were saying do a launch.. and then I got talked into it. What we didn't expect is that 10 minutes before the show they had to open the doors because people were queuing outside.. my family couldn't fit in the room there were so many people there.. I were stood on the stairs - I had to come in do my little talk and then go outside again.

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People were stood in the walkway and they couldn't get to the refreshments I 'd put on. Afterwards people were queueing to shake my hand and talk to me.. not so long ago I was queuing in Asda doing some shopping people didnʼt look at me twice.I've gotten to know a lot of people through it and its been life changing really.

JM: What would you put in the little red suitcase for the future?SG: Family and memories are valuable.. My best memory is coming down at Christmas getting fish and chips and looking at all the Christmas displays on Longcauseway. If I had to go into the future that's the one thing I would talk to people about. I remember it being really bright all across the grass at the front - a really warm feeling.

You can order a copy of ʻMemory Lane Dewsburyʼ at Simonʼs website http://www.simonreedproductions.com/

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I used to be a nurse.. As long we keep our hospital.. there's a march on Saturday

They call me Mick The Cross because I wear these crosses stitched to my jacket see. Huddersfield, I love it… it's not the places so much as the people. I call them angels.. They come to help when I need It. I'm an outsider artist.. my motto is, if it's normal, it's boring.

Nab End Tower was built by unemployed people in Victorian times. They have The Longwood Sing' there.

ʻWe want our babies born here’

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I would love to see more public artinvolving local people and exploring the areaʼs heritage. For me the green spacesin Kirklees and the local festivals are very important. I would like the chance to beinvolved in creating the landscape using art

family --views--- mills--- heritage----stories ----------------------art ----------------people

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“ I've lived in the valley for nearly 30 years. We are not natives, we came from elsewhere. My current business takes me to work elsewhere, but in the last 10 years of my working life I would like to start a new business that I can practice in the valley, in teaching and training. I'd like to introduce new methods to improve access to good education, adult training and teaching in the valley, and that will improve employment prospects for everybody and to the vibrancy of the economy.” Mel, Holmfirth

I worked in the textile mills, winding and weaving. I had 4 looms and moved from mill to mill. I made men's shirts in the war

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"Dear Cheryl, Erin and PhoebeJust to let you know that Mirfield is still a special place to live. We still have lots of lovely walks and parks to play in. The canal has a visitor centre cafe, bar and restaurant which is very busy",

“Quiet garden days”

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Regardless of where you go, if you just smile at someone they will automatically smile back at you. When I go to to other places, I'm there, smiling at everyone as I go along, and quite a few people seem a bit surprised, cos they think I'm smiling to myself - but I'm smiling AT THEM (laughs)Rahida

ʻYou don't always have to pay for something.. you can create an atmosphereʼ Malcolm

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Health is Wealth. I go walking in Lepton Woods..

Holmfirth is the best place in the world because of the community spirit, beautiful scenery, amazing water.. I believe it is God's county.. on the 7th days God rested, on the 8th day, he made Yorkshire. He gave us the hills, he gave us the peat what purifies us water, we've got the best water in the world that's why they come and dye the cloth at Holmfirth...it comes from China and it goes back over there.. he gave us the stone to build us houses, and the great Yorkshire characters.. I just love the place I live in

“Open up the squares andgardens”

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Mirfield Library conversations

“The Dumb Steeple - is an obelisk millstone grit column. -- is where the Luddites met and went off to do their deeds in the night.” (In April 1812, 150 Luddites met here for their abortive attack on Cartwright's Mill at Rawfolds, Liversedge. Known as 'Dumb' because no bells were ever hung there.)

“There's been a lot of building and expansion here - there used to just be a population of 12,000 now its nearly 20,000. Me mum used to say to me dad, I want a house there Cliff, thats just the right spot and he'd say no, no you can't have a house there. And now every spot where she wanted one, there's a house built there now! When I went to school (Mirfield Grammar School) we used to walk across a field to it, now its all built on. When I was little, it was different - a smaller community and everybody knew everybody else.”

“It's quite a commuting place now because of the train station. The guy who moved next door to us chose to live in Mirfield because he goes to London for the day - because you can do that from Mirfield”

“Iʼve joined the reading group here, and I love coming on a Thursday.. this poetry thing really appeals to me. It'd be awful if this place folded up.”

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Many thanks to to the venues and groups who hosted Postcards From the Future

Longcauseway Church, Dewsbury Huddersfield Indoor MarketQueensgate MarketSupport to Recovery Create Space Holmfirth Enterprise and DevelopmentCo-Up, SlaithwaiteDewsbury Pioneers at The ArcadeMirfield LibraryLocal Studies, Huddersfield Library

and to everyone who participated. Your time and generosity are greatly appreciated.

Special thanks to Rev Angela Lawson, Eileen Daysh, Scarlette Homeshaw, Andrew Haigh, John Lambie, Melanie Armstrong, Margaret Dale, Gary Gordon, Dewsbury Photographers Group, Danny Bulmer , Simon Reed, Nuala Riley, Dipak Mistry, and to all at the Creative Economy Team at Kirklees Council, especially Louise Mor and Kath Davies

Booklet printing by Footprinters Workers Co-operativeCovers letter-pressed by The Print Project

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