The Orb

Further Info

This story was made by young people were not in education or employment. Participants were from Lawrence Weston and Hartcliffe. The workshop was run by BBC Outreach and The Media Trust.

Transcript

In Lawrence Weston in Bristol there’s a club for young people who work with students who are not engaging in school who are having problems with behavior and main education.

My name’s Joe and I’m the manager of the centre. This is some of the young people and what they think about the area they live in.

There’s hardly a lot to do in Lawrence Weston, but sometimes you could come to Mancroft Park ‘coz it’s pretty good.
“Held onto that metal thing and spinning us round. I reckon Marnie is going to be sick first (laughter). You want to go faster? Yeah, Fast! Marnie, mate, are you feeling sick yet? Nah! Are you sure? Yeah!”

Lawrence Weston is alright, it ain’t the best of places, but you’ve got good people around here and you’ve also got some good friends and it’s easy to make friends around here.

From Mancroft Park you can see the docks, you can see all the boats, wind turbines, all the factories, you can see the Severn Bridge, loads of trees and houses.

The skate park’s very big, there’s lots of different ramps, there’s loads of benches so you can sit and have a little rest. A racetrack so you can go and have a race on your BMXs, yeah so there’s lots of things to do down here. I go to the skate park most evening coz I like to use my scooter there and it’s fun.

People have been living in Lawrence Weston for well over 1,700 years; we know this because there is a Roman villa. The Roman ruins on Long Cross in Lawrence Weston is quite a small space, but they’ve got the baths in there and the mosaic floor and you can get the key and go in and visit, it’s a really nice place to visit.

Right now I am stood outside a building site where they’ve just knocked down the old Pen Pole pub and are trying to clear it out so they can build something new.

There’s a lot of issues affecting people in this area like my age that get into a lot of fights and get kicked out of home because how much trouble they get into and they regret everything when they see like what they’ve done.

This is the Avon club for young people, this is where I come every day.

One of the good things to do in Lawrence Weston is come to the youth club where you can play table football, which I am currently playing now. There’s also three pool tables at the club as well.

I’ve lived in Lawrence Weston for twenty years, but I can see myself living here for a few more years now.

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