A Wooden Bench

Dave Drew

“Location, location, location.” they say. Dave had a nice house in Knowle, but he wanted to find an area that suited him better. This is the story of how he ended up in a “temporary” prefabricated house, built after the second world war.

Further Info | Transcript | Credits

Further Info

Following the war, homes were built quickly using prefabricated parts. Decades on, many of these temporary “prefabs” are still in use, and the people that live in them have come to love them and the community that surrounds them. A council decision to replace them is being fought. In this workshop, held over three days at the Southville centre, we find out why.

This workshop was led by Aikaterini Gegisian, Paul Matson and Paddy Uglow.

Transcript

Many people ask myself and my partner why we moved to Ashton Vale thirteen years ago.

We moved here because of a wooden bench.

As a driving instructor I used to bring pupils around the Ashton Vale area on numerous occasions. The wooden seat had been there for years and years.

If this seat was in parts of Bristol… …how long would it have lasted?

Credits

Clang sound created by Acclivity, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Street recording created by Paddy Uglow, used under Public Domain licence.

Leaves and bench close-up pictures created by Paddy Uglow, used under Public Domain licence.

Bench picture created by orangeacid (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Broken window picture created by Nicobobinius (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Broken bottles created by GirlReporter (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Graffiti picture created by net efekt (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.