During our visits to Haverfordwest we have met with a wide variety of residents , and enjoyed acquiring local perspectives on the historical development, and sense of place in the town. Whilst Janetka Platun’s commission focussed upon ‘Searching For The Centre’, our attention has been on building an understanding of the relationship of the town to its river.
From the days when sailing vessels carried people, materials and produce into the port, and out into the world along a working river, to more recent leisure pursuits when the ‘Town Reach’ catered for crowds in small rowing boats. And the present-day’s contemporary development, characterised by new riverside buildings and flood defences.
With its soft-edged banks bordered by meadows and tidal reed beds, known locally as ‘saltings,’ the river has always been and remains, a natural thread running through the heart of the community.
In the last post we introduced our process of developing a narrative for Haverfordwest, using storytelling to explore the town’s relationship with the River Cleddau. The story we have written draws on the past and imagines a future from the perspective of the river and the ecosystem it supports within its waters and along its reaches.
In our next post we will describe how this has fed into an emerging concept for a public artwork in Haverfordwest …
Featured images highlighting certain points in the river. Image credits: Studio Weave.
