PAPER HERON

This fictional sound story is set in 1851 on the banks of the River Exe. It was commissioned as part of a wider project exploring the history of papermaking in Devon. 

The story is narrated by Effie, a teenage girl working in a rag room at a paper mill on the Exe, with secret dreams of being an artist, when she unexpectedly gets the chance to visit the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London's Crystal Palace. 

There she encounters the newest technologies produced as part of the industrial revolution from across the British Empire and beyond, including the new machines transforming paper production, and wider literacy and communications in the UK and globally, transforming her sense of herself and the possibilities for her future.

As recounted to a local grey heron.

The sound design features my field recordings of the River Exe and the turning wheel of a local working mill, and a sonic interlude evoking the experience of travelling up on the new railway to visit the Great Exhibition. 

Click here to read a blog post about my research process for this project, which involved spending time with archive materials in the Devon and Exeter Institution, The Devon Archives, visiting a local derelict paper mill, a working mill, and an innovative local paper producer, taking part in a paper making workshop, and collaborating with a team of research volunteers. 

Click here to listen to me being interviewed for River Radio about the commission and about the wider Paper & Print research project.

This work was commissioned by Double Elephant as part of Paper & Print. Funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. Written, narrated and produced by Ellen Wiles. Sound design by Nicholas Allan and Ellen Wiles. 

Special thanks to Emma Molony, Jess Huffman, Nicola Thomas, and the Paper & Print volunteers.