The Lost Words Comes to Rye Harbour
As part of our Lost Words project, we have many, free nature activities planned at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve in 2023. We're delighted to hear more about them from Project Leader, S Morgan.
How did the Lost Words project come about?
In 2017, some children’s dictionaries started to remove words connected to nature. Words such as Starling were no longer thought necessary. Heron and Egret were no longer essential, along with Bramble, Kingfisher, Goldfinch and many other species found on the nature reserve at Rye Harbour. In response, nature writer Robert Macfarlane teamed up with artist Jackie Morris to create The Lost Words, an exquisite book of poetry and paintings aimed at returning children’s and adults’ focus to nature and stopping the disappearance of nature vocabulary. It was a huge success and Lost Words projects have sprouted all over the country, dedicated to promoting engagement with the natural world.
In 2019 Sussex Wildlife Trust donated a copy of The Lost Words to every primary school in Sussex and the Trust is taking things even further with The Lost Words for Rye Harbour project. As part of the Discover Rye Harbour project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve will be delivering a year-long project to encourage everyone to start talking about nature.
Tell us about the project activities
Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Lost Words for Rye Harbour project provides a free event every month through 2023 to help local people engage with nature. There are creative writing workshops, schools’ events, a family treasure hunt, art exhibitions, a poetry trail, walks, performances of creative work and various community-based workshops.
Sounds exciting, how are you feeling about the project?
I am so excited to be heading this extraordinary community arts venture. I believe the project is a perfect opportunity to try to get as many people as possible talking about and enjoying personal experiences in nature. The events are going to be taking place on the Nature Reserve, at the Discovery Centre and in Rye itself, so we really hope lots of local people will come along.
The project launches on 28th January 2023 with the first of six creative writing workshops. To find out more about Morgan and the activities throughout the year, visit The Lost Words for Rye Harbour webpage on the RHNR website and look out for event details on the Whats On page.