Rust Belt No More

Description

I did a talk at the Silsden Festival of Ideas at the weekend. Silsden is one of those Northern rust-belt towns that went through some tough post-industrial times but is definitely on the up again now and the Festival of Ideas was another welcome example of that. Held in the Silsden Town Hall, a classic Victorian building still well-used 130+ years after it was built, the Festival had nine talks by six different speakers over three days of the weekend. The organisers, Sam Deakin and the Friends of Silsden Town Hall, had pulled together an impressive list covering everything from Arabic and Viking Astronomy to Cook’s Tours and the English obsession with gardening, and produced some eye-catching promotional material. Given it was a Bank Holiday weekend, when many people were away or tending barbecues, attendances were good, and it’s planned to stage a second Festival next year. With local government budgets squeezed till the pips rattle and libraries closing faster than coal mines under Margaret Thatcher, it’s heartening to see communities in places like Silsden coming together to make good things happen.

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