Last year, in 2022, a drummer friend called Mary stood in for the regular guy at the jazz jams that I run every second Friday at Under the Edge Arts, Wotton-under-Edge (UK). Before the jam started, Mary went walkabout to get food and when she returned she commented that she found Wotton really interesting, with all the independent shops and lovely atmosphere, and would consider moving here. This got me thinking that I should dig into what makes Wotton a bit different, but in a good way; in fact I have already posted a photo story on this topic.
Now jump back in time. On the 6 March 2020 Billy (aka Magerison) my son played an acoustic set at the ‘Friday Night Bar and Off License’ event at Good Food On The Edge on Wotton’s main street (below).
Moe Morgan organised the music that evening, and worked the bar. This was the first time I had met Moe. Moe and Mike, it turns out, run Fish out of Water in Wotton-under-edge; this is a showcase Gallery selling local original artwork, innovative crafts, recycled Fair Trade giftware and homewares sourced from artisans and artists from around the world. Given that this connection had slowly evolved over the years, I decided to get a few stories and pictures from Moe for my photo stories blog. The following meet up took place on Friday 27th January 2023.
JC: Why did you move from Bristol to Wotton?
Moe: I had a friend here that I hadn’t seen for a very long time, so I visited. It was all quite spontaneous. We were looking in general and this friend said ‘come up for a meal, stay over and come to the pub’. So we thought we’d come and look at a few properties, and saw this one [Long St, Wotton-under-Edge], really simple. But when I got here, there were lots of people who I got connected with, who were from Bristol, so I didn’t realise there was an ex-Bristol thing. But yeah, I am Bristolian born and bred, from the middle of the City: St Pauls where I lived in the flats behind Jamaica Street. I recently got involved in the first ever community land Ownership Project (*) that they are building right in front of it [where I lived], which is where Stokes Crofts China is made … You can start from just 20 quid [in the land ownership project] and they have got an amazing function room there and it’s going to be such an exciting thing. Yeah, when I was a kid Mary’s family had that [the site of the and Ownership Project] as a chip shop. My Christian name is Mary and my Mum worked in the chip shop at the top of the hill. So it was a chip shop life. We had a really nice place in Bristol, but Mike didn’t like living in the city. And my kids would have ended up repeating my history. It is not always great growing up in a city. Now we’re here.
JC: What’s kept you here?
Moe: Well we bought a shop! And the kids have got a good school. And there are loads of nice people which makes it nice and easy. My Mum’s in the XXXXX at the bottom of the xxxx; that happened 4 years ago.
JC: How’s she doing, your Mum?
Moe: Yes she’s doing fine. So yeah, and I’m too lazy to go anywhere else! You’ve got growing up in a safe environment, in terms of being female. In terms of risks in society, it would be really hard to move back to the kind of life where you are walking the streets, particularly at night, in Bristol. And if I walk back from somewhere late it will always cross my mind how I would have thought before, and that I am actually glad that its not at the forefront of my mind any more.
JC: So you think it’s pretty safe?
Moe: Well yeah. I grew up where people would talk to you constantly, you would meet weirdos. You had to be ready and I certainly I wouldn’t have been able to walk around on my own at night. I mean a few women did. But I’d say I have the cards in front of me, and obviously there are taxis around here, so yeah, I preferred to just pay and get home. So that’s been interesting. The shop is doing quite well, we stock work from loads of local artists. I think if we hadn’t had Brexit we would have probably been looking at international options with the kids. We might have moved to the house in Greece that we own. Half of my friends live in Portugal and keep demanding I go over there; so maybe I’ll get a caravan to put on my friends bit of land over there. I’m kind of quite nomadic, I’m not very sentimental about properties at all. Strange objects [picks up DJ Derek mug]; that means more to me deep down.
JC: DJ Derek passed away didn’t he.
Moe: Lived the life he loved. Loved the life he lived. He said that on every set. He was lost for years and found at Bristol Causeway. He had been out around here. He had a thing about catching the bus to Wetherspoons, he just like doing it. A new one had opened in Dursley. So he’d been in Yate, he’d been in Dursley and then he was lost, then he was found in Cribbs Causeway.
JC: I know what you mean, I’m glad I live here
Moe: I squatted in St Paul’s from 16, with all the punks. Sat my GCSEs in my first squat. But I never liked the music, loved the fashion. And luckily I had a kind of Blues influenced place, so I looked the part, but just danced a different way to the punks.
JC: You must have got a lot of reggae there …
Moe: Yeah.
JC: Am right in thinking that’s why you keep booking my Son Billy?
Moe: I do particularly like reggae.
JC: Any interesting stories since you’ve been here in the shop?
Moe: Oh here in Wotton?
JC: Yeah.
Moe: Will Young came in. He looked quite funny, he was wearing woollen nappy pants! You know, those trousers that are, not in a hip-hop way, more nappy-trousers, yoga trousers! But they were in stiff wool, so that was quite a sight. There was our MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown that came in, and I questioned him all about the lies that he said at the hustings, to which he replied “just because I said it, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen”. Anyway, we knew he was coming down the high street and so I had a sticker on the door saying I’d prefer it if he didn’t come in. But he did come in, and so I got the sticker [off the door], and the guy he was with I was like making faces to Clifton-Brown behind his back, and his minder was telling me to stop it and stuff. Anyway, I managed to put the sticker on Clifton-Brown’s back [laughs]. I think I was hung-over. We all giggled a lot. But you know, at least he heard what I said. Because he said they were just about to look at free Broadband anyway. Which Jeremy Corbin was saying. But that never materialised at all. And I asked him about getting kicked out of the do at Parliament.
JC: I heard about that, he wanted to bring his girlfriend in or something?
Moe: Yeah. And he’s the lowest ranking Conservative member of Parliament. Who else have we had in? Oh the woman who sang the Ab Fab song “Wheels on Fire” [the cover version], Julie Driscoll. Yeah she was really cool. Mr Renishaw, he comes in quite a lot. And a pheasant had run away, tried to live in the garden. I was worried it was going to try and breed with the chickens.
JC: How are your chickens?
Moe: One passed away in the cold.
JC: Sorry to hear that.
Moe: Yeah. But I certainly met a lot more famous people in Bristol [laughs].
JC: Yeah, you can have the quiet life here if you want.
Moe: Ahh famous people are two a penny. I feel sorry for them sometimes. Oh Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s parents, Mike’s got a connection with the fishy business. That’s my famous people.
ha ha what a nice project john, everyone should find out more about their local community. we all know so little about each other until we specifically ask , or tell each other
mary
Thanks Mary, as you see you got me thinking about doing just that 🙂 Got more interesting ‘stories’ in the pipe line Cheers John