Writing and Re-Writing Hilda
- Sunday 15 March 2025, 1:00 - 16:00 GMT
- St Hilda's Church, Hartlepool
Take Inspiration from Heritage
Whether you are an experienced writer or just want to give writing a try, St Hilda’s Church is a rich source of stories from the past. In this three-hour workshop with interdisciplinary writer, artist and researcher Susannah Ronnie participants will look closely at the monuments in and around the church; consider what it means to inhabit the voices of those who have gone before and be guided through a series of writing exercises to produce a piece of writing in monologue form.
What to expect
Introduction (15 minutes)
We’ll start with group introductions – you can share a brief introduction to yourself and what you would like to get out of the workshop. Then we’ll reflect together as a group the ways that we engage with history as a society and as individuals. We will consider how we can both imagine and interrogate history in ways that take into account any potential impact on the still living, thinking about the ethics of inhabiting voices from the past.
Research (60 minutes)
After being guided to see the Anglo Saxon namestone on display, you will be free to explore St Hilda’s Church and the graveyard that surrounds it to look closely at graves and other written monuments. You will be provided with a worksheet to help you gather information in preparation for writing a monologue.
Please note a portion of this section will take place outside the church so be sure to wear warm clothing appropriate for the weather!
Writing (60 minutes)
Using the information gathered during the research part of the workshop, you will be guided through a series of writing prompts and exercises and provided with writing time in order to enable you to create your own monologue.
Sharing (45 minutes)
Participants will have the opportunity to share their work and to receive feedback on it if they so wish. As a group, we will reflect on the experience of engaging closely with historical monuments as part of our writing process and how this has changed us as writers and impacted on the way we might engage with history going forward.
Event Location
Meeting Point: St Hilda's Church
St Hilda's Church, St Hilda's Crescent, Hartlepool, TS24 0JB
Meeting Point: St Hilda's Church
St Hilda's Church, St Hilda's Crescent, Hartlepool, TS24 0JB
About Susannah Ronnie
Susannah Ronnie is an interdisciplinary writer, artist and researcher with a practice that encompasses playwriting, poetry, book art and textiles with these different strands of her practice connected by an interest in history and memory. In a recent residency at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre, Susannah developed and performed the work-in-progress monologue Memory Box. In 2022 her short play On The Edge, which brings together a young person from the present day and a young person from the Middle Stone Age, was specially selected and commissioned by Live Theatre for Your Voice, Your Future: North East.
Also in 2022 Susannah completed a fully-funded practice-led creative writing PhD at Northumbria University. The creative output of this is a multi-vocal historical narrative in poetry, which won a Northern Writer’s Award. with out end is written in the voices of 22 men and the ship Discovery and both imagines and interrogates the events surrounding the mutiny that took place on Henry Hudson’s voyage to the Canadian Arctic in 1610-11.
About Heart of the Headland
This event is part of Heart of the Headland, a programme that is promoting and preserving an iconic piece of history of Hartlepool’s history.
In the 7th century, an exceptional woman rose to prominence in Hartlepool, County Durham. Her name was Hild, and later became known as St Hilda. She embodied wisdom, a strong dedication to learning, and a commitment to helping others.
Today, her legacy and values are preserved in the historic building of St Hilda’s Church, one of the most iconic landmarks on the Hartlepool Headland.
Heart of the Headland is working to bring her namesake church into the future as a sustainable hub for social and civic life on the Hartlepool Headland.
Built in the 12th century, there may be clues to its construction – and to the story of St Hilda herself – buried in local archives…
Organised by DigVentures and made possible with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, there will be more events and activities you can take part in.
You can join the Heart of the Headland email list here for news about our progress, what’s coming up, and how you can get involved in uncovering more of St Hilda’s story…
