LOCATION 3
Oswestry Old Racecourse // Shropshire
The grandstand is dreaming. Horses and hooves. The rain. A swallow, tracing a figure of eight.
Yielding was filmed at Oswestry Old Racecourse; a former horse track that is now a park and nature reserve or ‘Common’. It sits on a site that is high above sea level, with far reaching views of the Oswestry lowlands, the Shropshire Plain, and further on into the Welsh hills.
The word ‘yielding’ is used in racing terminology to describe a turf course where the ground is soft and has lots of give when dampened by rain. The film plays on this term, to explore the softening of the site by weather, by nature, and by time. The poem relates this to the softening of ourselves as we lean into the process of ageing – finding space for memories to ‘break the soil’, leaning into our changing identity, finding a sense of peace, and reaching acceptance.
Yielding
