A good friend and very important person in my life, Sheila Harvell passed away last month and we said goodbye to her last week.
She was the landlady of The Cricketers Arms, the oldest pub in Bournemouth, and she let us film our grad doc there, Crickland back in 2016.
We weren't meant to make this film at all originally, and it's been the greatest blessing and gift that we did, because I gained a whole family.
After we finished filming Sheila offered me a job at the Cricks, as a student I was thrilled, I now had more drinking money, most of which I spent at the pub when my shift finished and I went to the other side of the bar again. She'd always tell me that with bar work skills you could work anywhere in the world and when I graduated and she gave me my last pay, she added an extra £40 for me.
When the film was complete we did a private screening of it at the pub and Sheila awarded us with some fake Oscars. It then screened it at the BFI Southbank with the rest of the student films that year. She loved that day and felt like a true film star and was so proud of her pub.
The film went on to screen at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest in Hackney the following year or so. A group of 15 odd locals from the pub drove up from Bournemouth to go and make the biggest and best ruckus at Picturehouse Hackney and then later on around the corner at The Globe In the Morning Lane pub around the corner where there was a unexpected karaoke night.
It's safe to say that I've gone back to visit the pub many many times over the years since then.
Sheila was at the heart of this community, and was someone who would help anybody, and she did.
I never properly posted the link anywhere myself of the film, so it seems right to now. I know that Sheila was proud of it, and her pub and the community she helped create build and maintain around her. I've posted the link in my bio if you're interested in watching it, as well as a fundraiser for Macmillan in Sheila's name for those that knew her.
RIP Sheila, Queen of Crickland ❤