Laurie Lee 100
麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire recreated author Laurie Lee's walk from Stroud to Spain - Slad Valley to Almu帽茅car. #LaurieLee100
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麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire wins prestigious award
麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire has won a major international award for our documentary on Laurie Lee.
The New York Radio Festivals awarded us "silver" for our recreation of Laurie Lee's walk from Slad to聽Almu帽茅car.
We recreated the walk that Laurie Lee made from Stroud to the South Coast of Spain in his book 鈥淎s I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning鈥�.聽聽 He set off on his journey in 1935 when he was just 19 from the Slad Valley, arriving eighteen months later in Almu帽茅car during the Spanish civil war.
The walk took him across Salisbury Plain, down to Southampton where he began busking for a living, then up to London where he worked as a labourer.聽 He then travelled by sea and walked on foot through Spain until he settled on the South Coast.
Click to listen to the award winning documentary.
麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire recreated Laurie Lee's walk from Stroud to Spain...
Chris Baxter has recreated Laurie Lee's epic journey from Slad to聽Almu帽茅car - to celebrate his centenary. 聽Here you can listen to the walk in stages...
. 聽Chris meets local poet Adam Horovitz on Swift's Hill overlooking the Slad Valley.
. 聽Laurie's daughter Jessie Lee chats to Chris about why Slad was so special to him.
. 聽Botanist Tim Wilkins explains that as the MOD still occupies Salisbury Plain, the wildflowers Laurie encountered exist to this day.
. 聽Where Laurie was disappointed not to see the sea! 聽Instead he took up busking for a living. 聽Gloucestershire fiddle player Paul Burgess tries his luck!
. 聽Laurie finally saw the true beauty of the sea, and indeed described Worthing as "a kind of Chelteham-on-Sea".
. 聽You can hear about where Laurie worked as a laborer in London, working on the flats at Exeter House.
.聽Chris Baxter recreates the walk from Slad through to Almu帽茅car in Spain.
Chris Baxter's Outside Broadcast from Spain..
View pictures of 麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire broadcasting from Spain to celebrate Laurie Lee's centenary. 聽This was the culmination of Chris Baxter retracing the great man's steps from his home in Slad to聽Almu帽茅car. 聽You can view them .
麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire's literacy project...
As part of Laurie Lee's centenary, 麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire used his words to inspire others. 聽
We followed two Gloucestershire residents -聽19 year old Dominic Manley and 36 year old Michelle Berwick. 聽They learnt extracts of Laurie Lee's work and performed them in front of a live audience which is of course was a huge step for them.
Dominic enrolled in the Gloucestershire College Adult Literacy course when he realised his poor spelling and writing was holding him back at work.
Michelle鈥檚 education was disrupted when she got into an abusive relationship. While still a teenager, she had two children who were then taken into care. The trauma of losing her children lead her into years of alcohol and drug abuse. She is now clean and back in touch with her children. She is desperate to turn her life around and get a job in beauty 鈥� she needed the literacy qualification to get back into work.
You can hear the first time we met Dom .
You can hear the first time we met Michelle .聽 聽聽
The second time we met Dom and Michelle 鈥� two weeks to go until they perform their extract in front of a live audience. 聽Listen .
Mark Cummings introduces Dominic giving his performance at the Laurie event in Slad. 聽Listen .
Mark Cummings introduces Michelle giving her performance at the Laurie event in Slad. 聽Listen .
Dominic and Michelle finally perform at Laurie's old primary school in Slad .
麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire walks out...
To celebrate Laurie Lee's anniversary, we've sent our presenters out and about in Gloucestershire to tell you about their favourite place in the County and where they would walk out from...
talks about her favourite place, Cleeve Hill.聽
聽loves watching cricket at Cheltenham College.
takes you on a tour of May Hill.
shows you Saul Junction.
takes you to his favourite spot - Swift's Hill.
Laurie Lee's Stroud...
Laurie Lee was born in Stroud and had great affection for the town. 聽It's where he penned some of his most famous works. 聽We send our reporter Jo Durrant to Stroud to visit some of the places that Laurie frequented...
. 聽This is where聽Laurie Lee used to write in the 1950s.
. 聽When Laurie Lee left the former Central School in Stroud in 1930 he went to work for Randall and Payne. The firm was based in Stroud at that time although as since moved to Shurdington.
. 聽What were Laurie Lee鈥檚 secondary school days like? And what sort of pupil was he? 聽He attended what was the Central School in Stroud, now part of Marling School.
. 聽Another place that was very important to him, just a few miles from Stroud.
Putting Slad on the map...
To mark the 100th anniversary of author Laurie Lee鈥檚 birthday on the 26th June 2014, 麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire brought you comprehensive coverage of his centenary with a special range of programmes, features and guests.聽 We explored how a young lad from Slad became an internationally renowned writer with students around the World still studying his books to this day.聽
We followed a group of adults who've decided to go back to school to improve their literacy skills.聽 As part of our literacy project, we brought Laurie Lee's work to a whole new audience. 聽
Of course we also heard from the great man himself.聽 In his final radio interview, just before he died in 1997, he spoke to 麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire's Mark Hurrell about the inspiration for "Cider With Rosie", his exploits during the Spanish Civil War and his love for the countryside around his beloved home village in Slad. 聽Click to hear the full interview.
As I Walked Out...
One of the highlights of our coverage was recreating the walk that Laurie Lee made from Stroud to the South Coast of Spain in his book 鈥淎s I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning鈥�.聽聽 He set off on his journey in 1935 when he was just 19 from the Slad Valley, arriving eighteen months later in Almu帽茅car during the Spanish civil war.
The walk took him across Salisbury Plain, down to Southampton where he began busking for a living, then up to London where he worked as a labourer.聽 He then travelled by sea and walked on foot through Spain until he settled on the South Coast.
This culminated on Laurie Lee鈥檚 birthday when Mark Cummings presented his show live from the Woolpack pub in Slad between 6-9 in the morning, then Chris Baxter took over to present his show live from Almu帽茅car in Spain between 9-12.
Chris Baxter visited some of the key places along the walk to bring you a fascinating insight into Laurie's journey. 聽You can see where Laurie set off from .
Laurie's last radio interview...
Laurie Lee's last radio interview was conducted by 麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire's Mark Hurrell and is a fascinating insight into his life. 聽He remembers his early years in Slad, his epic journey on foot to Spain and how he developed his distinctive writing style.
Here, Mark Hurrell explains more about meeting and recording the great man.
"I remember well my first meeting Laurie. We approached his agent and asked if he would talk to me about his early days in Slad. Eventually the answer came back saying that yes Laurie would meet me but would only agree to an initial chat in "The Woolpack" in the village.
When I met him I realised that he was quite a shy man and needed to get to know me before he was prepared to be interviewed. Over a few weeks I regularly turned up at the pub for a pint (or two) to talk about his life etc: but pretty quickly we moved onto other things rather than the usual - familiar ground that an interviewer would expect.聽
Eventually he decided that he was ready for the interview. This followed a lovely lunch at his house cooked by Kathy and we sat in his lounge with a couple of microphones and some new piece of 麻豆社 kit - a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine, very old fashioned now I think! Once we got past the initial "easy " questions about what he'd had for breakfast that morning and the price of fish we set to it. I think I returned with well over an hour of material most of which you'll hear in this programme.聽
Very little ended up "on the cutting room floor". Inevitably I was struck by his passion for his home area and a sense of recognition of what he had achieved - albeit - he would argue - from fairly humble beginnings. A true gentleman and a talented author."
Hear the interview
You can hear Mark Hurrell's full interview with Laurie Lee by clicking .
19 year old follows in Laurie's footsteps...
Although 麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire recreated many parts of Laurie Lee's walk in England, we discovered that a 19 year old girl walked the entire length of his route in Spain! 聽Hannah Hughes packed up her rucksack in March and 聽"couch surfed" her way through Spain.
She arrived in the Spanish town where Laurie settled on the 25th June 2014. 聽One thing is for sure, she made her Grandmother in Moreton-in-Marsh very proud!
To read about her amazing journey, click .
Why Laurie is loved in Spain...
Laurie Lee is a household name in the Spanish town of聽Almu帽茅car.聽 It's where he settled at the end of his book "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" before being rescued at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
In the book he refers to聽Almu帽茅car simply as "Castillo" to protect those he identifies. 聽There is a statue in the town and on the 26th June they will be celebrating his anniversary with a small ceremony. 聽麻豆社 Radio Gloucestershire will be there broadcasting live. 聽Almu帽茅car head of Cultural Events Juan Bolivar explained to us why they are celebrating Laurie Lee's 100th Anniversary in Spain. 聽You can hear the interview .
The Laurie Lee Wildlife Way...
On the 26th June 2014, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust opened the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way, a six mile聽circular walk around the Slad Valley, the setting for Laurie Lee鈥檚 evocative novel Cider with Rosie.聽
The聽circular walk takes in four of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust鈥檚 beautiful nature reserves (including Laurie Lee聽Wood which opened last year) includes 10 new 鈥榩oetry posts鈥� featuring poems by Lee inspired by the聽Gloucestershire landscape.
The poetry trail consists of 10 larch posts, each over five feet tall, launched on the centenary of Laurie聽Lee鈥檚 birth. Musician and author, Cerys Matthews, who has written the forward for the new edition of Cider聽with Rosie, will unveil the poetry posts and launch the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way. 聽
To find out more about Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, click .
Sleeping Rough...
One of the difficulties Laurie Lee faced on his epic walk, was where to sleep! 聽Especially in the early part of his journey, he was often too tired to pitch his tent and would fall asleep in a ditch under the stars. 聽
Did he actually sleep? 聽Did the strange sounds in the middle of the night scare him? 聽Chris Baxter decided to leave his wife and children behind for a night to experience what it would have been like. 聽You can hear how he got on and watch his adventures .
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