An Evening of Light and Sound at Calverley Old Hall

On Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 February 2026 we welcomed our closest neighbours and those from further afield, to join us for a free, informal evening event at Calverley Old Hall, featuring a projected light show on the Chapel, immersive sound, and the chance to explore the restored medieval manor house after dark.

The film was created by artist Dawn Feather using animations drawn by members of the local community at our September 2025 Open Day. The film was projected onto the gable wall of the chapel and accompanied by a soundscape made with Bradford College students who attended a sound workshop on site at Calverley Old Hall in January 2026, led by poet Carolyn Eden and sound designer Ed Heaton.

Making the film

During the September 2025 Open Day at Calverley Old Hall, Dawn Feather from Yorkshire Edit ran a drop-in animation activity in the Community Space. Visitors were invited to be inspired by the architecture and stories of Calverley Old Hall to create drawings of the building and features around the site. Using tablets and cameras, visitors could create stopmotion animations of their drawings, capturing their progress and adding extra details. We gathered over 75 animations during the event.

Dawn then worked to curate the animations into an abstract film, creating a visual journey through the drawings and through the architecture of Calverley Old Hall. Featuring as many of the drawings as possible, the film is a wonderful visual feast showing the amazing talents of our local community!

Creating the soundscape

Once the video was made, we invited Media students from Bradford College to attend a one-day workshop at Calverley Old Hall Community Space in January 2026. The students worked with creative facilitator and poet Carolyn Eden, and sound artist Ed Heaton, to learn about recording audio sound effects, and how to edit them in post-production to create interesting sounds. Carolyn also wrote a new poem inspired by the film and the history of Calverley Old Hall, which the students also recorded.

With sounds created using planks of wood, builders’ sand, hammer and chisel and brass curtain rings, the students were inspired by the film. The small cat that features in the film inspired some wonderful meowing and the owls resulted in excellent hoots!

After the session, Ed took the audio the students had recorded away, and added his own effects, and music, including some music played by local traditional musicians Leeds Waits.