Teme Valley 2023
In 2023 the P.O.V. Teme Valley project asked 14-18-year-olds living in rural north Herefordshire and south Shropshire to share their views through creativity. The stories told here reflect the experiences of young people who live far from busy cities and regular bus routes, but are shaped by the places they’re growing up and hope more people will listen to what they’ve got to say.
Portraits of young people growing up in the Teme Valley. All photos by Martha Grubb.
‘Home’
“My whole life, my only friends have been people who were either rarely just as strange as I was or more commonly people who didn't have any other choice. I can count my friends, past or present, on one hand. Maybe if I had lived anywhere else, somewhere with more people and somewhere I could walk to see people, I could have double that amount.”
From ‘Home’ by Buchanan.
Just a Field in Herefordshire
“There was rain, and there was sun, and there was sun amongst the rain…”
by Fred Lovegrove
In her ‘Baling Twine’ photo series by Martha, exploring the isolation, mental and physical hardship farmers face, caused by the ‘just get through the day’ mindset of farming culture. She said: "Farms are held together with baling twine. These blue, orange, and yellow threads join fences, hold gates or doors closed, and tie up feed sacks."
The P.O.V. Teme Valley activity took place across Herefordshire and Shropshire. An area with fuzzy borders, it includes the parishes of Aymestrey | Leintwardine | Wigmore | Bucknell | Hopton Castle | South Craven Arms | Downton | Burrington | Pipe Aston | Elton | Leithall Starkes | Onibury | Kinsham | Stapleton | Willey | Lingen | Walford | Adforton | Brampton Bryan | W. Bromfield | Buckton & Coxall | Bedstone | Clungunford.