The Big Red Sofa is part bookshop, part art gallery, and part drop-in centre for a motley crew of local artists, writers, readers, couch philosophers, community activists and other assorted coffee addicts.
Located in the village of Chagford (on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England), the Sofa was opened by Alan McGeorge & Dawn Wakefield in November 2006.
Please visit the Sofa's blog, Sofa Talk , for news, book reviews, event listings, and general ramblings about life, the universe, and everything Chagford.
And visit the Sofa's website for more information about the shop and gallery.
If you'd like to contact The Big Red Sofa, please use the shop's email address (
[email protected]) rather than leaving messages here. Thanks!
Life in Devon:
In the video above, Devon musician Seth Lakeman sings "Kitty Jay," his song based on an old Dartmoor folktale about a young womam said to be buried in "Jay's Grave," close to Hound Tor. (You can learn more about the legend here .) Visit Seth Lakeman's MySpace page to hear more of his music.
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The video above is by Devon animator Matthew Simpkins. The song, by Seth Lakeman, is based on an old Dartmoor legend about shape-shifting hares. You can learn more about Matthew's work here .
The video above was created by Devon artists Brian, Wendy and Toby Froud, for the German music group Von den Elben. Visit the World of Froud website to see more of their work.
In the video above, the Devon-based troupe Daughters of Elvin perform at the Oxford Folk Festival 2007. Visit the Daughters of Elvin MySpace page to hear more of their music, and go here to learn more about the band's unique approach to medieval music and dance.
The video above features The Enchanted Organ, an automaton created for the Chagford Film Making Group's
Cherry of Zenor: A Cornish Fairy Tale. The CFMG is a non-profit community group involving local people of all ages (especially children), and is dedicated to making films rooted in the traditional stories of the British landscape.
Artist Alan Lee talks about his work as conceptual designer for the
Lord of the Rings films to a group of Devon schoolchildren, as part of the Young Motion Plymouth project.
The video above comes from the Dragon Temple School of Internal Martial Arts in Chagford. The school's founder, Damien Hackney, demonstrates Bagua Zhang freestyle. Filmed by Howard Gayton .
