Our Basildon Our Team
"For me it is very simple - Basildon is my home."
Angela Smith MP
"On a car journey around town I am pleased to see how many green places we pass. I have lived in other places where this is not the case and I am grateful I now live in Basildon."
Sue Randle, Secretary of CHASE
The Our Basildon team is a small but highly creative group of individuals commited to raising the profile of the Basildon area through heritage, arts & culture. Team members have changed since the original pilot project though their efforts continue to be recognised. Vin Harrop of course remains the heritage director and the Heritage Trail was his unique concept to inspire the Basildon community and create opportunities and a focus for long term goals for benefit to the Town and its people.
Vin Harrop
Vin Harrop has been concerned with the nation’s culture for the past fifty years. He has devised, directed and produced in the theatre, films and in television. Among his numerous achievements are national festivals in drama, dance and the arts in general, and he has written comprehensively on these topics for national and regional newspapers and journals.
Vin has travelled extensively throughout the seven continents in a singular quest for knowledge about other cultures, their arts and architecture. In recent years he has turned his attention to painting and sculpture for his own creative expression and fulfilment.
A personal introduction from Vin Harrop, heritage director
I have always loved Basildon. I love its combination of iconic architecture and broad green spaces. And I especially love the diversity of the people and neighbourhoods, the way our bustling modern town has grown from the roots of the communities who lived here before us.
Basildon is often referred to as a new town, but this is no longer entirely true. Now celebrating its 60th birthday, the town has become a thriving and vibrant community with a clear sense of its future – and it is now developing an equally strong sense of its past. Recently that past has been found to stretch back not only to Saxon times, but thousands of years beyond, to Neolithic Man himself.
Basildon Council have a clear vision for how a wider understanding of our shared heritage can influence the town's future; they encouraged us to create this heritage trail – just one of several exciting initiatives – to help connect Basildon's people to their place in history.
This heritage trail will show all of us – local people and welcomed visitors alike – just how much Basildon has to offer; its memorable architecture, its abundance of natural beauty, and most importantly, its friendly and characterful people.
The trail belongs to all of us. And so we have called it Our Basildon.
I hope you enjoy exploring our past, present and future.
All best wishes,
Vin
Lisa Hawker - Project Manager
Lisa lives in Rayleigh and has been a professional working artist and designer for over fourteen years creating original artwork and sculpture for private, commercial and health based clients. She has delivered innovative public art projects in many schools and with communities, across Essex and London and in permanent materials from ceramics to metal.
In 2003 she set up her own company and regularly works with her small team of free lance artists on larger community commissions, while liaising with other creative people and designers whenever she can.
Having met Vin several years ago, when she saw the advert for project manager she knew the heritage trail concept would be an interesting and involved project. Lisa joined the Our Basildon team in July last year in the role that Vin likes to call heritage animateur! Like many others, she sees the huge potential that the Trail could inspire for Basildon and across the County by providing a very creative focus for regeneration.
Lisa’s work can be viewed at www.lisahawker.com
Bob Fisher – Heritage Photographer
Bob lives in Colchester where he worked in post 16 education until retirement in 2002. Since then he has been developing his skills as a professional photographer after a lifetime of fascination with the subject. He was delighted to be involved with the Basildon Heritage Project as it combined both architecture and landscapes and working with year 5 (aged 10) children in two primary schools. Since then he has shown his photographs of the Town and its trail in many exhibitions as well as images for the book by Frances Clamp : 'Basildon Our Heritage'.
He looks forward to capturing the opening in April 2009 and says: 'I found the concept of the Heritage Trail fascinating and have enjoyed enormously working with colleagues on the Heritage Team'. Many of his photographs of Basildon can be found on his website: www.eastscapes.co.uk
Gemma Hook - Our Basildon Volunteer
Gemma lives in Billericay and has been working with the Our Basildon Team on a voluntary basis since she graduated in July 2009. ‘I wanted to work with the team, as Basildon is part of my life and it’s great to see a group of very talented people trying to change and improve the typical image that people associate with the District. It is clear that both Vin and Lisa are committed to the Our Basildon aims, and I love working with people who are so passionate about what they do’.
Gemma was appointed assistant Press Officer in September 2009 and since then has written many articles about walking the Trails and many of the other exciting projects which the Our Basildon Team have delivered. She hopes to get more involved with the team for future projects.