Information for participating schools
The purpose of this well established East Devon arts project is to help children of all abilities and a wide age range to discover their own creativity. This short paper describes the new project arrangements for academic year 2017/18.
Story synopses
2014 Summer Storm
Tom Vanstone, a Budleigh Salterton fisherman, stands alone on Budleigh beach one summer dawn. His young son, Peter, has recently been lost at sea and, blinded by sadness at the loss of his son, he contemplates putting to sea into the teeth of a vicious storm. At the last minute he sees sense and turns to go home but then hears a faint cry on the wind.
He rescues a young girl from a sinking skiff but, as they land, his fishing boat is wrecked, he is badly injured, and the girl runs away.
A retired security services civil servant, Gwen Watson, sees the emergency unfold from her fine house above the beach and calls the emergency services.
Local policeman PC Stephen Booker and his daughter Caroline help in the rescue.
Criminals detect the emergency radio traffic and a 4x4 with blacked out windows sets off for Budleigh.
Caroline Booker and her friend Eddie Carter find clues that make them suspect that Peter Vanstone might still be alive. They set off in a kayak with Peter’s dog Bud and find a sea cave containing strange barrels.
After a series of adventures and with the help of the resourceful Gwen Watson they find and rescue Peter and meet the girl who had escaped from the sinking skiff. She tells them the barrels contain stolen goods belonging to a gang of robbers from London who had captured Peter when he was shipwrecked there.
But Gwen and the girl are then kidnapped by a tall gang member with a scar down his face called Guy who imprisons them in a shed on Woodbury Common. He takes pity on them however and sets them free but then they are chased by other members of the gang.
In a thrilling final scene, one dark night a few days later gangster Guy returns to the cliff top above the sea cave to recover the treasure the gang have hidden there. By a fateful coincidence this is just where PC Booker has taken the children on an overnight camping trip…
He rescues a young girl from a sinking skiff but, as they land, his fishing boat is wrecked, he is badly injured, and the girl runs away.
A retired security services civil servant, Gwen Watson, sees the emergency unfold from her fine house above the beach and calls the emergency services.
Local policeman PC Stephen Booker and his daughter Caroline help in the rescue.
Criminals detect the emergency radio traffic and a 4x4 with blacked out windows sets off for Budleigh.
Caroline Booker and her friend Eddie Carter find clues that make them suspect that Peter Vanstone might still be alive. They set off in a kayak with Peter’s dog Bud and find a sea cave containing strange barrels.
After a series of adventures and with the help of the resourceful Gwen Watson they find and rescue Peter and meet the girl who had escaped from the sinking skiff. She tells them the barrels contain stolen goods belonging to a gang of robbers from London who had captured Peter when he was shipwrecked there.
But Gwen and the girl are then kidnapped by a tall gang member with a scar down his face called Guy who imprisons them in a shed on Woodbury Common. He takes pity on them however and sets them free but then they are chased by other members of the gang.
In a thrilling final scene, one dark night a few days later gangster Guy returns to the cliff top above the sea cave to recover the treasure the gang have hidden there. By a fateful coincidence this is just where PC Booker has taken the children on an overnight camping trip…
2015 The Times of Their Lives
Caroline, Peter and Eddie go on a school field trip to East Budleigh church, famous as the family church of Sir Walter Raleigh. Bud, Peter’s collie, goes too, hidden in a bag.
Bud emerges from the bag and uses the carved end of the Raleigh family pew as a scratching post, to the shock and dismay of the young new teacher Miss Davis. Suddenly Bud disappears and the children run amok around the church trying to find him. A furious Miss Davis cancels the field grip, taking the other children back to school but leaving the three friends to find Bud.
Peter has read about History Portals and wonders if Bud had found one. The children rub the end of the pew and find themselves transported back to the 16th century just as the Spanish Armada arrives.
They meet Lady Gwen of the Portal who explains that if they wish to return through the Portal to Their Times, they must perform certain good deeds. She warns them about wicked Sir Guy of Leytonstone and the Portal Demon, both of whom will try to prevent their return.
They sail against the Armada; sew a cloak for Sir Walter and deliver it to him in London; meet William Shakespeare; saved the Queen’s crown jewels; sail to the New World where Eddie discovers the potato and, beginning a new passion for cooking, invents fish and chips. Caroline meanwhile begins a life-long fascination with medicine, an interest she inherits from her mother Susan, a paramedic at the RD&E hospital at Exeter.
Knowing that all Portal Pilgrims must return together to Their Times or stay time locked forever, Sir Guy cunningly kidnaps Bud and locks him away. Will Bud escape? Will the friends escape back to Their Times so that Eddie can watch the Man U match? How will Caroline smuggle William Shakespeare’s poem back to Budleigh Salterton?
Bud emerges from the bag and uses the carved end of the Raleigh family pew as a scratching post, to the shock and dismay of the young new teacher Miss Davis. Suddenly Bud disappears and the children run amok around the church trying to find him. A furious Miss Davis cancels the field grip, taking the other children back to school but leaving the three friends to find Bud.
Peter has read about History Portals and wonders if Bud had found one. The children rub the end of the pew and find themselves transported back to the 16th century just as the Spanish Armada arrives.
They meet Lady Gwen of the Portal who explains that if they wish to return through the Portal to Their Times, they must perform certain good deeds. She warns them about wicked Sir Guy of Leytonstone and the Portal Demon, both of whom will try to prevent their return.
They sail against the Armada; sew a cloak for Sir Walter and deliver it to him in London; meet William Shakespeare; saved the Queen’s crown jewels; sail to the New World where Eddie discovers the potato and, beginning a new passion for cooking, invents fish and chips. Caroline meanwhile begins a life-long fascination with medicine, an interest she inherits from her mother Susan, a paramedic at the RD&E hospital at Exeter.
Knowing that all Portal Pilgrims must return together to Their Times or stay time locked forever, Sir Guy cunningly kidnaps Bud and locks him away. Will Bud escape? Will the friends escape back to Their Times so that Eddie can watch the Man U match? How will Caroline smuggle William Shakespeare’s poem back to Budleigh Salterton?
2016 Burning Ivory
Miss Davis (the new teacher) takes the children on another field trip, this time to a hi-tech company on Dunkerswell airfield specialising in the use of driverless all-terrain vehicles and drones to support environmentalists in the field.
During the visit, Eddie wanders away and finds himself in the top-secret operations centre. Here he sees television screens showing the latest world news. It features an appeal by an environmentalist who has been taken hostage by ivory poachers in Africa. It’s Eddie’s father!
By chance the hi-tech company are starting equipment trials in the same part of Africa. Gwen Watson realises that no one else will help Eddie’s father and so she uses her connections with the security services to set up a rescue. They establish a twinning programme with a local African school and soon the three children and Gwen are flying in the company’s private jet out to Uganda.
Caroline becomes an ace drone pilot and Peter learns how to control remotely the all-terrain vehicle.
Gwen takes Eddie on a balloon trip to overfly the area where they suspect his father is being held. Unfortunately it crashes, the poachers find them and Eddie finds himself a prisoner with his father.
By chance, Guy the now reformed gangster from Summer Storm is on an illegal hunting trip in the area and had befriended the poachers. Now realising the error of his ways, Guy agrees to help them escape. Meanwhile, Peter and Caroline have launched a rescue attempt using drones and the driverless vehicle. But the chief poacher is a ruthless man and is determined to let nobody escape alive…
During the visit, Eddie wanders away and finds himself in the top-secret operations centre. Here he sees television screens showing the latest world news. It features an appeal by an environmentalist who has been taken hostage by ivory poachers in Africa. It’s Eddie’s father!
By chance the hi-tech company are starting equipment trials in the same part of Africa. Gwen Watson realises that no one else will help Eddie’s father and so she uses her connections with the security services to set up a rescue. They establish a twinning programme with a local African school and soon the three children and Gwen are flying in the company’s private jet out to Uganda.
Caroline becomes an ace drone pilot and Peter learns how to control remotely the all-terrain vehicle.
Gwen takes Eddie on a balloon trip to overfly the area where they suspect his father is being held. Unfortunately it crashes, the poachers find them and Eddie finds himself a prisoner with his father.
By chance, Guy the now reformed gangster from Summer Storm is on an illegal hunting trip in the area and had befriended the poachers. Now realising the error of his ways, Guy agrees to help them escape. Meanwhile, Peter and Caroline have launched a rescue attempt using drones and the driverless vehicle. But the chief poacher is a ruthless man and is determined to let nobody escape alive…
2017 One of Our Beavers Is Missing
Natural England has begun a trial re-introduction of beavers on the River Otter. Peter, Caroline and Eddie are fascinated by the beavers and Peter’s collie, Bud, has become great friends with them.
Bud is a rare human-speaker, an animal who can understand human speak, though humans are unaware of this.
A series of summer storms hits the East Devon hills and a final deluge sends a wall of water down the River Otter and sweeps all before it, including the beaver family’s lodge.
Meanwhile, ex-gangster Guy reads about the beaver trial and dreams of catching a beaver and making a new fur hat for his dear old mother. He makes his way to Budleigh Salterton to try his luck.
The three children, convinced the beavers must have been swept out to sea, make a plan to ask Coast Watch to find them.
Bud and the local animals doubt that the humans will be successful so call on the ARC (the Animal Rescue Centre) to mount a rescue.
Bud sees the male beaver pinned to the riverbank by a large branch and rescues him. His beaver wife has been swept downstream onto a bank of the river from where she stumbles, exhausted, into an old garden shed to recuperate. Who should be hiding in the shed but wicked Guy!
The beaver cubs are washed into a cave and escape out into the sea as the tide comes in and threatens to drown them. Can the animals and the humans work together to find and save them? Will the mother beaver become a hat for Guy’s mother?
Eddie invents a fabulous new recipe for cakes and sells it to the supermarkets but will he raise enough to save the cash-strapped beaver trial?
Will the man from the ministry cancel the trial anyway and send the surviving beavers to Scotland?
Bud is a rare human-speaker, an animal who can understand human speak, though humans are unaware of this.
A series of summer storms hits the East Devon hills and a final deluge sends a wall of water down the River Otter and sweeps all before it, including the beaver family’s lodge.
Meanwhile, ex-gangster Guy reads about the beaver trial and dreams of catching a beaver and making a new fur hat for his dear old mother. He makes his way to Budleigh Salterton to try his luck.
The three children, convinced the beavers must have been swept out to sea, make a plan to ask Coast Watch to find them.
Bud and the local animals doubt that the humans will be successful so call on the ARC (the Animal Rescue Centre) to mount a rescue.
Bud sees the male beaver pinned to the riverbank by a large branch and rescues him. His beaver wife has been swept downstream onto a bank of the river from where she stumbles, exhausted, into an old garden shed to recuperate. Who should be hiding in the shed but wicked Guy!
The beaver cubs are washed into a cave and escape out into the sea as the tide comes in and threatens to drown them. Can the animals and the humans work together to find and save them? Will the mother beaver become a hat for Guy’s mother?
Eddie invents a fabulous new recipe for cakes and sells it to the supermarkets but will he raise enough to save the cash-strapped beaver trial?
Will the man from the ministry cancel the trial anyway and send the surviving beavers to Scotland?
