As part of the Living Memory project, Friends of Rowley Hills recently contributed to Making Memories, a new creative project exploring the local area and its rich history. Led by artist Hannah Boyd and Blue and White Creative, pupils from Grace Mary Primary School and St James’s CofE School participated in a series of workshops exploring Jim Rippin’s photography of the area, with knowledge contributed by FORH’s Mike Poulton and Bob Duncan about the hills’ flora, fauna and geology. You can read a full account of the project and see photos at https://livingmemory.live/making-memories/; below are comments from some of the pupils and their teachers.

Mrs Wood:

Watching the children explore the Rowley Hills area and engage with the activities was amazing! They were really engrossed and were fascinated by the talks they were given. It was a very enjoyable day and a wonderful experience for children and teachers alike.

Mrs Freeman:

The day was filled with fabulous opportunities to learn new art techniques whilst experiencing the natural habitat in our local environment.

The input from Hannah, Richard, Bob and Mike was excellent and we all learned a great deal about what the Rowley Hills have to offer!

Amy:

I enjoyed:

Learning new techniques

Painting with sticks and ink- it was fun!

Exploring blue rock and the onion rocks

Looking at different flowers

Seeing a bee on Mike’s top!

Logan:

I enjoyed everything but especially painting with sticks because I never knew you could do it! I loved learning about blue rock and I had a very great time doing it.

Kai:

I enjoyed all of the techniques and the information about butterflies. I loved the water colour pencils and most of all how my art turned out!

Muhammed:

I loved drawing with sticks and using the water colour pencils.

Annie:

I loved drawing with sticks as it was unusual and fun!

Mariel:

I enjoyed drawing with the black pens.

Barin:

I particularly enjoyed the journey up to blue rock where the landscape of Oldbury looked beautiful. I loved the activity where we drew a picture of choice. I enjoyed every single bit of the day!

Ammar:

I loved drawing with sticks as it was really beautiful!

Macie:

I enjoyed painting with sticks and the special water colour pencils. It was fun learning about the types of flowers.

Ben:

I enjoyed the painting with sticks and blue rock was an amazing part of nature.