Episode 1

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Published on:

31st Oct 2024

The Town of Roundabouts

The Town of Roundabouts

Verse 1 

Photographs I took

So many shades of colour

Stapled in a book 

Suppose I never looked around

The corners of this town

Until I wrote it down 

Verse 2

Amenities and folk

Shops and village pubs

Don’t fix what isn’t broken

They were right there on the door

And now we long for more

Reminiscent of before

Chorus

60 Years we’ve seen of this new town

But it feels like it’s always been around

Through these roads we’ve been lost and we’ve been found

In the town of roundabouts 

Verse 3

Districts they stood tall         

Set apart by numbers

Wasn’t long before they’d fall

People just wanted a name

A village they could claim

A place to call home


Chorus

60 Years we’ve seen of this new town

But it feels like it’s always been around

Through these roads we’ve been lost and we’ve been found

In the town of roundabouts


Middle 8

Fields of grass

Pictures taken on a Kodac 

Memories to last 

Rumoured Crocodiles

Beautiful wildlife 

Time it goes so fast 


Chorus

60 Years we’ve seen of this new town

But it feels like it’s always been around

Through these roads we’ve been lost and we’ve been found

In the town of roundabouts

In the town of roundabouts

In the town of roundabouts


Town of Roundabouts was written and performed by Paige Temperley.

Credits

You’ve been listening to the Washington Community Podcasting group and Brenda Naisby Tony Erskine (the Artist for Washington Development, Corporation), Ian Murray, Roseanna Erskine, Sarah Murray, Doug Walker, Bob Hope, Kim Hunter, Gloria Finnigan, Thomas Finnigan, Olive Metcalfe and Ellaine Davidson.

The Crocodile and the Underpass ballad podcast is produced by Grace Stubbings and the Washington community podcasting group, with songs composed and performed by David Brewis and Paige Temperley. The project was developed by Washington Heritage Partnership, Sunderland City Council’s Washington Area Committee, Sunderland Culture at The Arts Centre Washington, Baseline Shift and We Make Culture, with support from the University of Sunderland. and The National Heritage Lottery Fund. This project has been made possible by the support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund with many thanks to National Lottery players

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About the Podcast

The Ballad of the Crocodile and the Underpass
Collecting and Sharing Stories of Washington New Town
‘The Ballad of the Crocodile and the Underpass' - Stories of Washington New Town’, is a podcast ballad partnership between Washington Heritage Partnership, We Make Culture, University of Sunderland, Baseline Shift and Arts Centre Washington. Since April 2024 this partnership, podcaster and musician Grace Stubbings and the Washington community podcasting group have been working with people and organisations in Washington to collect and share experiences of life in a new town.

Musicians Paige Temperley and David Brewis (Field Music) have been working with community members and young people at Arts Centre Washington to turn stories of Washington into songs.
The songs, interviews, sounds and archive recordings have been woven together to create unique ballad podcasts. The group have been influenced by the radio ballad work of Charles Parker, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger who made radio ballads about working class stories in the 1950s and '60s for the BBC.

In the first series, 5 episodes will tell the stories of
1. The Town of Roundabouts: how the new town was delineated by new roads, roundabouts, concrete crocodiles, and the ever-so-controversial district numbering system.
2. Underpass Overpass - These features aren't unique to new towns but they are very prevalent. We explore the ideal that no child would ever need to cross a road to attend school and the modern day realities of these 'betwixt and between' spaces.
3. H’way Jimmy - Memories of the 1977 visit of US President Jimmy Carter to Washington Village, the ancestral home of George Washington.
4. Ghost and Witches - Just because you're in a new town doesn't mean that you're free of legends, superstition and the ghosts of earlier settlements. We hear personal stories of the supernatural, as well as the sad tales of women accused of witchcraft.
5. Curly Wurly Bridge - Did you know that Fatfield is home to a concrete icon? This episode looks at the so-called Curly Wurly Bridge, the design that took Fatfield from pit village to modern development, and busts a myth or two about Mediterranean influences.

About your hosts

Caroline Mitchell

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Jude Murphy

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Grace Stubbings

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