Heroes, Thought Leaders and a Magician flock to Todmorden
Posted on 25. Sep, 2011 by Lily in Event, Food and Drink, Home and Garden, Local Business
It may have been a drizzly day in Todmorden yesterday but there was plenty of sunshine in people’s spirits.
The town was certainly buzzing this weekend with the gathering of other Incredible Edible projects to discuss the next steps in moving the movement forward to the next phase. European guests were also visiting to see how they can emulate this incredible project. Folk from all over the country appeared to learn more about the pioneering Todmorden movement. It seemed the whole world wanted to hear about the project and its successes.
Later in the day two special guests arrived from London, one was the well-known Chief Executive of the RSA and thought leader Matthew Taylor who toured the Incredible Edible green-route. The second, was the academic Tim Lang from City University London who is an expert in Food Policy. Both were involved in the evening talks at the lovely Edwardian Hippodrome where well over 200 people attended. Charlie Clutterbuck another academic also dropped in to give support.
As our regular readers will know people of Todmorden are growing stuff at the edges of buildings, abandoned bits of land, road side verges, a graveyard, plots atthe local health centre in fact anywhere they can.
The evening went down a storm with a fantastic turnout and a rousing final talk by Pam Warhurst of Incredible Edible.
Todmorden High School pupils were proudly filming the weekend as a work experience exercise and others helped out with looking after the visitors and serving supper at the packed Hippodrome to enthusiastic supporters and guests.
So where does the magician fit in? Well, it so happens that Derren Brown was somehow conjured up while filming in the town at the same time. Although one must say the wonders that are appearing in Todmorden are all done by shear hard work and passion by local heroes who are committed to doing things differently in the face of a changing environment.
