Drawing the Changing Landscape: A Day of Creativity, Coastal Heritage and Community Stories
What a fantastic day exploring the landscape of Westward Ho! and Northam Burrows as part of the Coasts in Mind exploration of coastal heritage.
Minehead to Barnstaple and on to Westward Ho! From there, it was a short journey to Northam Burrows Country Park, with its visitor centre tucked just behind the wonderfully long stretch of beach.
I met Katrina, Richard and Kate from MOLA in the Education Centre, where we set everything up ready to welcome our participants. By 10am, we had a group of 11 people, ranging in age from young adult upwards, including several people who had lived in the area for 50 years or more. It was going to be a day full of local knowledge, memories and, of course, creativity!
Exploring the past through photographs and stories
We began with introductions before Richard and Katrina shared some of the conversations they had been having with local people and visitors throughout the week. They had been gathering stories and memories about the changes people had witnessed in the area.
Richard then brought out a wonderful collection of historical photographs and postcards showing Westward Ho! and Northam Burrows at different points over the last 100 years. We looked at images of the Potwallopers, the great storm, the pebble ridge, the beach and the surrounding landscape.
There was plenty to talk about. Participants shared their own memories, pointed out changes they had noticed and added personal stories to the historical information. It was fascinating to hear how much the area had changed and how these changes had affected the people who lived there.
For me, this was a brilliant introduction to a place I had never visited before. It was already clear that this wasn't just going to be a day of drawing. It was an opportunity to explore the connections between people, place and history.
Warming up with some creative drawing exercises
Before heading outside, it was time to get our pencils moving!
We started with a few simple drawing exercises using HB pencils and the historical photographs and postcards as inspiration. Rather than trying to draw a recognisable picture, I encouraged everyone to look for different textures, shapes and patterns within the images and translate them into marks on the page.
Circles and ovals for the pebbles of the ridge, lines for the marram grass, little squares for windows and doors, along with plenty of other squiggles, dashes and interesting marks.
The idea was to slow down, look more closely and experiment without worrying about producing a finished drawing.
Next came a slightly more challenging activity. Everyone chose a small section of one of the photographs and attempted to draw it using their non-dominant hand. This proved to be great fun! Trying to hold a pencil, look at a postcard and make the lines join together using an unfamiliar hand was quite a challenge. The results were wonderfully wobbly and rather unpredictable.
We then repeated the exercise using our dominant hands. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by how much more controlled their drawings became.
Finally, we experimented with continuous line drawing using dual-tipped brush and liner pens. This exercise encouraged everyone to keep their pen moving across the page, following the shapes and details of their chosen image without lifting it.
Some people really enjoyed this technique and decided to take their pens out on the walk, while others preferred to stick with their pencils.
These little exercises helped everyone loosen up, explore different ways of drawing and, most importantly, realise that there is no single right way to approach sketching.
Creating our concertina sketchbooks
With our drawing warm-ups complete, it was time to introduce the main creative activity for the day.
I handed out concertina sketchbooks and shared a few of my own completed examples to give everyone some ideas and inspiration. These little books are wonderful for recording a journey, with the pages unfolding into one continuous strip of artwork.
Our plan was to take our sketchbooks on a walk around Northam Burrows, recording the landscape and the things that caught our attention along the way. Everyone could choose to work in pencil or pen, with the opportunity to add colour when we returned to the Education Centre.
After a short tea break, everyone was eager to get outside and start exploring.
A drawing walk through Northam Burrows
Richard and I led the group on a lovely walk around the Burrows, stopping at various points along the way to take in the surroundings and learn more about this fascinating landscape.
Richard shared so much interesting information about the area. We discovered the location of the former rubbish dump from the 1970s, learnt about the World War II sandbags and heard how the beach had been used for practising the D-Day landings.
We also talked about the horses and sheep that graze the common land, the ongoing coastal erosion and the constantly shifting pebble ridge.
It was wonderful to have someone with such detailed local knowledge guiding us through the landscape. Each stop revealed another layer of history and gave us something new to think about as we looked around.
The walk ended at a World War II bunker before we made our way back to the visitor centre.
The weather had been a little uncertain earlier in the day, but thankfully the sunshine made an appearance, giving us a beautiful afternoon for our stroll.
I have to say, I was completely taken with the place. Having never visited Westward Ho! or the beach before, I was delighted by just how beautiful the landscape was. Learning about its history while exploring it on foot made the experience even more special.
An afternoon of sketching, colour and creativity
After our walk, we stopped for lunch at the visitor centre café. There was a delicious choice of sandwiches, light meals and other treats, and it was lovely to have a chance to sit together, chat and recharge after our morning's adventures in the fresh sea air.
Feeling pleasantly relaxed and perhaps just a little sleepy after lunch, we returned to the Education Centre to continue working on our concertina sketchbooks.
This was where the colour came out!
I demonstrated how to use Derwent Inktense pencils and Faber-Castell water-soluble coloured pencils, together with water brushes, to add washes of colour and develop our sketches.
Some participants had never used water-soluble pencils or water brushes before, so this was an exciting opportunity to experiment with new materials and discover what they could do.
The afternoon had a lovely, relaxed atmosphere. There was time to refine drawings, add extra details, include notes and reflect on the things we had seen during the walk. People chatted as they worked, shared ideas and took their time developing their own interpretations of the landscape.
It was a wonderfully mindful part of the day. After a busy morning of looking, listening, walking and learning, it was a chance to slow down and become absorbed in the creative process.
A wonderful variety of sketchbooks
By around 3.15pm, it was time for hot drinks and a chance to bring all our sketchbooks together.
While the drinks were being collected from the café, Katrina and I tidied away the art materials and cleared the tables so everyone could unfold and display their work.
And what a lovely collection of sketchbooks we had!
There was such a variety of styles and approaches. Some people had created detailed sketches, carefully recording the shapes and textures they had noticed. Others had taken a bolder, more colourful approach, producing expressive interpretations of the landscape.
I was particularly interested in seeing how differently everyone had responded to the same walk. We had all visited the same locations, heard the same stories and experienced the same landscape, yet each person had noticed and recorded something different.
It was wonderful to see everyone sharing their work in such a friendly and encouraging atmosphere. For many, this was their first experience of creating art since school, so seeing their confidence grow throughout the day was especially rewarding.
Looking back and thinking about the future
We finished the day with a group reflection, talking about what everyone had noticed during the walk and how the drawing activities had influenced their experience.
Several participants commented that they had stopped to look at things in much greater detail than they normally would. Rather than simply walking through the landscape, they had taken time to notice smaller details, textures, shapes and features that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
This is one of the things I love most about drawing. It encourages us to slow down, really look and become more aware of the world around us.
I then posed a slightly different question to the group.
Imagine that, in 100 years' time, someone discovers these sketchbooks while researching the history of Northam Burrows. What might they think?
This led to a really interesting discussion about how historical records are created and preserved, and the importance of recording not just the physical landscape but also people's experiences and perspectives.
We realised that these sketchbooks were much more than a collection of drawings. They were personal time capsules of a particular day, capturing what people had seen, what they had noticed and how they had responded to the landscape in 2026.
Who knows what someone in the future might learn from them?
One thing was certain: everyone needed to sign and date their sketchbooks!
Each participant took their sketchbook home to continue working on it, adding any finishing touches and personal details they wished to include.
The MOLA team hopes to bring together photographs from the project, the sketchbooks and research gathered during the week for a future exhibition. Participants will be contacted to see whether they would like to contribute their work.
It will be exciting to see how all these different records and perspectives might come together to tell the story of this special place.
A day full of discovery, creativity and connection
Looking back, the day was everything I had hoped for and more.
It was wonderful to meet such an interesting group of people who were willing to give drawing a go, regardless of their previous experience. There was a real sense of curiosity and enthusiasm throughout the day, and it was lovely to see people trying new techniques, sharing stories and discovering different ways of looking at the landscape.
The project also reminded me how valuable local knowledge is. Historical photographs and maps can tell us so much about how a place has changed, but hearing directly from people who have lived there for decades adds an entirely different dimension. Their memories and personal experiences bring the landscape to life.
Working alongside Katrina, Richard and Kate from MOLA was brilliant. Their knowledge, enthusiasm and approach to gathering community stories made the day such a rewarding experience, and I learnt so much myself.
And, of course, I have discovered a beautiful new place to visit. I will certainly be returning to Westward Ho! and Northam Burrows for another explore, sketchbook in hand.
A huge thank you to the MOLA team and to everyone who joined us for the day. It was a real pleasure to be part of the Coasts in Mind project, and I would absolutely love to repeat this kind of experience in the future.
Who knows where the next drawing walk might take us?
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For more information about MOLA visit mola.org.uk.
To find out about how you can get involved with Coasts in Mind click here.
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