Confluence

Singing Across the Run

Helen Porter devised a project to involve the people of the area around Mudeford on the banks of Christchurch Harbour, where the Stour meets the Avon and flows into the sea. Working with local community musician Maggie O'Connor, they made contact with the beach hut community, ferry staff and passengers, fishermen and other enthusiasts and encouraged the writing of new songs, which were sung in in one of the huts at Mudeford on June 30th 2001.

This informal concert followed a special musical moment. Helen rehearsed a choir of local people who having enjoyed singing all afternoon on the yacht club roof and beside the lobster pots on the quay. Half of the group then caught the small ferry and the two halves sang to each other across the Run, a treacherous narrow stretch where the waters of the Stour and the Avon finally meet the sea.

Afterwards several of the group on the Mudeford quayside went across and joined the rest at Maggie's beach hut for an informal get together. We sung through the songs again, and Tim Baber who runs a newspaper for beach hut residents recorded them to add to his archive for posterity.