THE WOODEN DOLLIES OF NORTH SHIELDS
A HERITAGE OPEN DAYS EVENT
North Shields Library, Northumberland Square, North Shields, Thursday 6th September 2018 10.30am. Admission free.
Launch of a new book from Northern Voices Community Projects, supported by North Tyneside Council, recounting the history of all the North Shields Wooden Dollies over the years, published to mark the 60th anniversary of the Dolly in Northumberland Square, North Shields.
Editors Doctor Keith Armstrong and Peter Dixon will introduce the event with poetry, songs and stories performed by contributors to the book, featuring folk music from The Sawdust Jacks band. A specially created display featuring the Wooden Dollies will serve as a backdrop to proceedings.
After the main event, there will also be a short performance on location by the Wooden Dolly statue in the Square.
FURTHER INFORMATION: NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS TEL. 0191 2529531.
SHAVINGS AND SCRAPINGS
We chip away
on this beheaded night,
waiting for the memories
to meet us round the corners
of our seafaring dreams.
The folk have gone away,
left the frames of tinted photographs behind
and disappeared into scrapbooks
of shavings and scrapings
on historic shelves.
Monuments outlive us,
smirk knowingly at us
as our faces twitch
and bodies shuffle along streets
that are all at sea.
Fare thee well old Shields,
my Dolly girls,
this old evening
I sail away,
leaving a floating life behind
for the gulls to pick at
and demolish
by the forgotten pub;
the grimy lane
of forgotten loves.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
