WINDROSE Rural Media Trust has a new team at the helm, fir the first time in the more than 40 years since it was founded by Trevor Bailey, who has retired but will remain as a trustee. Three women have taken over the charity, which works across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire on educational, archival and creative projects in local communities.

Since it was founded in 1984, Windrose has saved and amassed a large film archive dating back to 1905. It is renowned for its curated film shows in community halls, such as the Dope, Rope and Hope presentation in Bridport last December which was part of the town’s Year of Culture celebrations.

Windrose has made many films on rural topics and created a huge range of media-based projects including Farm Radio, support and training for community broadcasters, media commissions for musicians and poets, oral history recording, youth broadcasting, cross-generational work between young and old farmers, investigating mental health issues in rural areas, and providing opportunities for new radio playwrights and documentary makers.

But now, after more than 40 years, founder director Trevor Bailey is retiring. This news coincides with a decision by the charity’s film-maker James Harrison to step back after an association going back to the late 1980s. James has digitised more than 200 hours of media from the archive, helping to make the charity’s extensive collection accessible to a wider audience on YouTube. Both will still be involved in Windrose’s work as trustees.

The day-to-day running of the charity now passes in a voluntary capacity to Dorset-based journalist and writer Margery Hookings, who has worked for Windrose on a freelance basis for 20 years. She says: “I first became involved as a volunteer reporter for Farm Radio when I was editor of the Bridport and Lyme Regis News,” she said. “I soon realised the importance of Windrose’s work. It was clear that Trevor wanted to provide a voice for country people and give changing village communities a greater understanding of their rural inheritance.

“As a tenant farmer’s daughter from south Somerset, I relate to that very strongly. If it hadn’t been for Windrose and its predecessor, Trilith, much of this wonderful archive film of how life used to be in our communities would be lost.”

Windrose is a small charity with no core funding and works on a project-by-project basis, which relies on successful funding applications.

As co-ordinator, Margery will work alongside Somerset singer and songwriter Amanda Boyd, who combines arts and heritage to create new projects, including natural history, environmental conservation and education. In her 13 years being involved with Windrose’s large film archive, Amanda has reached thousands of people through public performances and community outreach projects, including specially curated film clips and song accompaniment for people with dementia.

They are joined by Bristol-based visual artist, filmmaker and producer Simone Einfalt, who works collaboratively across various media – including moving image, sound, creative tech and sculpture – to explore heritage through archives, oral histories and artefacts.

Trevor Bailey says: “In many ways our work of the last 40 years has been a mission – so many rural projects created, so many country people involved … and it will continue. We like to say that Windrose is ‘The voice of rural communities past and present’. At a time when concrete, tarmac and urban perspectives are dominating as never before, it is even more important to show that another kind of life exists in these islands.

“Life in villages and small towns is distinct from life in the cities and must remain so. And, if we are to argue for that, it is vital that we know how it is different and can say why it is different and what it can offer. That is a central part of Windrose’s mission, whether it is reflecting on the past, the present or the future. It is one great continuum.”

For more information about Windrose, please visit https://windroseruralmedia.org/

Pictured: Amanda Boyd, Simone Einfalt, and a still from archive film of the Bridport pram race.