Timbertown
Aug. 27th, 2002 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentI wonder - if I mention Timbertown, does anybody have the faintest idea what I'm talking about? Probably not. But it finished today, and made me feel nostalgic. So I thought I'd share.
Timbertown is a four-day event that's taken place in Maidenhead over the August bank holiday weekend (saturday to tuesday) for...well, it must be going on for fifteen years now. It's held on the field just down the road from my house (it's impressive that the field is still there, considering it's virtually in the centre of town), and is aimed at children from about six to sixteen.
From what I understand, it's based on a similar event that takes place somewhere in Holland. I've spent the past twenty minutes trying to Google up some kind of useful webpage so you'd have a clue what I'm talking about, but all I came away with was (a) a post by my Dad on uk.local.thames-valley suggesting it as an activity for someone else's kids, and (b) the knowledge that there is an unrelated type of timbertown associated with the town of Holland, Michigan.
Anyway, it's a fantastically simple idea. The idea is to build things. The organisers pick a theme (past themes include Space and Pirates; this year, much to my dismay, it was Harry Potter. Timbertown is dumbing-down, clearly). Then they obtain as much trash wood as they can, mainly old palettes, and a job lot of cheap paint. The kids that come along are divided into groups, with adult helpers, and each group builds a different something associated with the theme. So for Space you might have a space station, or a rocket, or an alien base, or anything else you can think of. They put it all together on the saturday (you can hear the banging in our house, although at this distance it's actually quite a pleasant ambient noise), paint it on sunday, play silly games on monday, and then demolish it all on the tuesday.
Not just demolish it, though. You see, after Timbertown's through with it, the wood is no good to anybody any more - it's too full of nails and suchlike. So they burn it. All of it. In one go.They don't let the children near at this point, obviously; it's all carefully controlled by the fire brigade, with everyone watching from a safe distance. Still, it's one hell of an impressive bonfire - flames a couple dozen feet high for several hours. And that's what they did today. Leaves one hell of a burnt patch in the field, too.
A day of banging, a day of painting, a day of games and a day of burning. It's genius. I used to love it; my cousins, brother and I went every year for about five or six years. For some reason, the year I remember most clearly is the 'british monuments' theme when I was working on Windsor Castle. I remember we added a slide, made of a particularly smooth sheet of wood. :-)
Has anyone ever heard of anything similar?
Timbertown is a four-day event that's taken place in Maidenhead over the August bank holiday weekend (saturday to tuesday) for...well, it must be going on for fifteen years now. It's held on the field just down the road from my house (it's impressive that the field is still there, considering it's virtually in the centre of town), and is aimed at children from about six to sixteen.
From what I understand, it's based on a similar event that takes place somewhere in Holland. I've spent the past twenty minutes trying to Google up some kind of useful webpage so you'd have a clue what I'm talking about, but all I came away with was (a) a post by my Dad on uk.local.thames-valley suggesting it as an activity for someone else's kids, and (b) the knowledge that there is an unrelated type of timbertown associated with the town of Holland, Michigan.
Anyway, it's a fantastically simple idea. The idea is to build things. The organisers pick a theme (past themes include Space and Pirates; this year, much to my dismay, it was Harry Potter. Timbertown is dumbing-down, clearly). Then they obtain as much trash wood as they can, mainly old palettes, and a job lot of cheap paint. The kids that come along are divided into groups, with adult helpers, and each group builds a different something associated with the theme. So for Space you might have a space station, or a rocket, or an alien base, or anything else you can think of. They put it all together on the saturday (you can hear the banging in our house, although at this distance it's actually quite a pleasant ambient noise), paint it on sunday, play silly games on monday, and then demolish it all on the tuesday.
Not just demolish it, though. You see, after Timbertown's through with it, the wood is no good to anybody any more - it's too full of nails and suchlike. So they burn it. All of it. In one go.They don't let the children near at this point, obviously; it's all carefully controlled by the fire brigade, with everyone watching from a safe distance. Still, it's one hell of an impressive bonfire - flames a couple dozen feet high for several hours. And that's what they did today. Leaves one hell of a burnt patch in the field, too.
A day of banging, a day of painting, a day of games and a day of burning. It's genius. I used to love it; my cousins, brother and I went every year for about five or six years. For some reason, the year I remember most clearly is the 'british monuments' theme when I was working on Windsor Castle. I remember we added a slide, made of a particularly smooth sheet of wood. :-)
Has anyone ever heard of anything similar?
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no subject
Date: 2002-08-27 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-08-28 07:32 am (UTC)(Although I do dislike HP; why couldn't they just do a 'Fantasy' theme? Then they could have made a giant wooden Alethiometer, or something)
no subject
Date: 2002-08-28 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-08-28 12:42 pm (UTC)Bizzare
Date: 2002-08-28 05:28 am (UTC)No, and I'm amazed that this sort of thing happens. That's a good amazed, not a bad amazed...
Re: Bizzare
Date: 2002-08-28 12:41 pm (UTC)Timbertown 2002
Date: 2005-10-30 01:47 pm (UTC)Timbertown website
Date: 2009-05-17 07:45 pm (UTC)If you are in the area and would like to see more, come down to the Town Moor during August Bank Holiday!