Merry Christmas (or alternative festivities) to anyone following this blog… We’ve been quiet in recent months, but the latest news is that the Multi-Story Water project has recently secured substantial new funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to pursue further work in the Shipley area (as well as other community locations elsewhere in the UK) over the next couple of years. We’ll be working closely with Kirkgate Community Centre to enhance community contacts and discussions, and working towards a range of public events with Shipley’s river and canal as their focus. Watch this space for more details…

In the immediate short term, we’ll be participating actively in Kirkgate’s day-long Shipley Connected event, on 25th January (2014) at Shipley College’s Exhibition Building, in Saltaire. Full details to be circulated in the New Year.

And finally, a little Christmas gift – a reminder of this year’s July heatwave as we endure gale-force December winds… We’ve just, belatedly, finished editing this short film, City of Rivers, shot back when everyone was looking slightly moist with perspiration…

The film isn’t directly about Shipley, but is definitely a spin-off from our work in the area. It relates to the “river stewardship” initiative being pursued by our friends at the Environment Agency… Mostly set in Sheffield, the film is topped and tailed by anonymised footage of Bradford Beck (out-takes from the film Wading to Shipley…). Besides that, it should be pretty self-explanatory…

Wishing everyone happy holidays and all the very best for 2014.

Steve Bottoms