The Flag Fen Project

It is now 40 years and 4 days since the discovery of the Flag Fen site by Dr Ursula Shipton, leading to its excavation against her will with catastrophic consequences.

It’s 39 years and 4 days since her brother Alan witnessed the ‘body candle’ near the ‘Dog-In-A-Doublet’ sluice.

It is 21 years and 4 days since (future FFP project leaders) Adam and Keith first met Alan on Glastonbury Tor; and 8 years, 8 months and 6 days since their decisive encounter in a Sheffield Wetherspoons.

When the time is right Ursula Shipton will return.

The Flag Fen Project is now on YouTube.

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The FFP YouTube channel

It’s come to our attention that someone claiming to be from The Flag Fen Project contacted a graphic design agency asking for a quote for ‘rebranding’. This is very suspicious. For future reference, the Flag Fen Project has no interest in disguising its identity and if we ever made a collective decision to do so we would do it furtively and without leaving a paper trail.

Vol.1 of our initial findings – subtitled ‘Timbers’ – is now available to stream in its entirely at https://flagfenproject.bandcamp.com and is also available on CD.

https://youtu.be/6jJlUv_W2tU

The sound is an exceprt from ‘The Flag Fen Project, Vol.1’, which will be published in full later this month at https://flagfenproject.bandcamp.com/releases. Video by Matt Twynam

A few people seem confused about the Flag Fen thing and have asked for some background. We haven’t always been able to respond in a straightforward manner, and for that we’re sorry.

Obviously it wouldn’t be safe to give you all the details but here’s the gist:

Towards the end of 2013 Keith and I were in Sheffield. The band we were both in at the time was nearing its end. We’d had a disappointing show the night before and slept in a house with no curtains that was teeming with cat shit and slugs. I woke up wondering what I was doing with my life. Keith and I went to Wetherspoons to get breakfast. That’s where we bumped into ‘Alan Shipton’ (not his real name), who we’d met many years earlier at a Summer Solstice celebration on Glastonbury Tor.

At first he seemed like your standard hippy with an axe to grind but something about his story rang true so I gave him my email address. It was nearly two years before he got in touch. When he did it changed our lives.

Without going into too much detail, the Flag Fen project is our way of unpacking everything we’ve learned from the ‘Shiptons’, and a well meant but so far clumsy attempt to right some serious wrongs. The better we get at this the clearer I hope things will become.

Thanks for your support and patience. It means the world to us.

Adam, on behalf of the Flag Fen project

Experiments have resumed at a secret location. We have replaced the most essential pieces of equipment lost in the fire and are eager to rejoin the fray. Beta testing will take place throughout 2019 in locations around the UK including Bristol, Manchester and Oxford. We will not be intimidated or deterred by threats and sabotage.

Experiments have resumed at a secret location. We have replaced the most essential pieces of equipment destroyed in the fire and are eager to rejoin the fray.

900 BCE. Fire destroyed a settlement that had thrived at Flag Fen for centuries. There is compelling if controversial evidence that it was started by the villagers themselves.

2000 CE. The ‘mouse nest’ fire at the Flag Fen site destroyed important archaeological records. The circumstances remain suspicious, and questions have been asked about the suddenness with which the subsequent police investigation was brought to an end.

2018 CE. A suspicious warehouse fire at Netham Road, Bristol, destroys the equipment and workspace of the recently launched Flag Fen Project. When the time is right we will return.

Here’s a vague outline of what to expect from the event at The Louisiana public house on 22nd December.

Update from the Flag Fen project to include:

– a pre-recorded visual presentation by Matt Twynam – sadly unable to appear in person due to research commitments in Cornwall.

– A dramatic representation of the fateful Shipton / Abbot schism by Steve James.

– Demonstration of developing audio techniques by project leaders Adam Burrows and Keith Hall.

Tickets from Headfirst