A tale of a pig, a bishop and a bird
A pig in a back yard, a bishop and a raven all helped to re-tell the whole history of the village of Ramsbury through a unique community play.
The friends of ancient Holy Cross Church in Ramsbury gathered over 875 people of all ages from three large community group and beyond together to tell ‘The Raven’s Call: voices through time’, a history of a the village and particularly of its church.
From the arrival of the first Bishop of Ramsbury in 909 to the fattening of the pig for a village celebration in 1909, a thousand years of village history was retold to full houses in Holy Cross which hosted the performances by the Ravenbury players and the Bella Voce Choir.
The Director, Matthew Haynes said:
“It is a performance that primarily concerns the relationship between place and people. When we began developing it, our main focus was on this special, historic building. Who has passed through this building over the centuries? Why did they come here? What did this place mean to the people of this community? Why Ramsbury and the symbol of the raven?
“The nature and evolution of our community sit at the heart of this show.
“And why the Raven? Well it has been the symbol of the village ever since 909 when the Bishop of Ramsbury is recorded as being installed in the “Church of the Raven”.”
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