Rye Harbour's Lost Words

By Lucy Bowyer

Senior Wildlife and Communities Officer

Imagine having no more acorns, bramble or conkers or the disappearance of larks, magpies and newts. These are all words that were removed from some children’s dictionaries a few years ago. Author Robert MacFarlane and artist Jackie Morris responded to this by producing the beautiful book: The Lost Words.

As part of our Discover Rye Harbour work, made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have been running the Lost Words project with local writer S Morgan. She has been leading a range of activities encouraging people to use these disappearing nature-based words to find out more about the amazing wildlife at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Everything from writing workshops, an art exhibition in the Discovery Centre, a summer holiday treasure hunt through to a sound recording workshop with a local school, creative workshops with young people aged 5-11 and an exhibition at Rye railway station.

As the project comes to a close, we held an event to celebrate what has been achieved. This included a showcase of photos of the artwork and masks that the children made, listening to poems written as part of the creative writing workshops, picking the winners of the treasure hunt prize draw and enjoying some well-deserved tea and cake!

Thanks to all who have been involved in the Lost Words of Rye Harbour, especially writer S Morgan who designed and led all of the activities.