Undiscovered Networks

Walking by Water

2012-01-20T16:32:00.002Z

We started our first walk of the year, and the first in a set of eight new walks for our project Light Walks for Dark Days.

We set out in Kettering on a crisp, frosty day. The bright sunlight seemed to heighten the colours in the bare trees, vibrant red and green twigs in a sapphire blue sky.

Frost edged leaves and blades of grass like tiny diamonds.

It was hard to imagine that the patch of rough grass near the bridge had once been the site of a Mill and that the field we were walking across had once been a dumping ground for waste materials from the local Boot and Shoe factories. This green space is a well used, well loved space, children play here and throughout the day there are many meetings of groups of regular dog walkers of all ages. To the left hand side of the field there are old apple and plum trees which still produce fruit to this day.

We headed across the common towards the water's edge, and stopped on the footbridge for a while. Carole caught sight of a large trout darting in amongst the water plants and told the group that this was a popular spot for young anglers and exuberant dogs who love to career down the banks after sticks or squeaky toys!

Looking over the bridge, fast running shallow water and luminous green flowing weeds. We started thinking about the speed of the water, where it goes. "How are rivers made?" somebody asked. We talked about the power of water to carve its way through earth and rock, rivulets joining with other rivulets to create torrential rivers, all down to gravity and the search for the lowest point.

Walking on down the path along the water's edge, a horse plodded across its frozen field to greet us.

A field stretching up the hill beside us, its dead stalks contouring the slopes in rhythmic lines. During the planning walk in December Carole and Jo found clusters of fungi nestled in between the ground level branches of an inviting tree.

On the day of our walk Carolyn found the same tree equally inviting and couldn't resist clambering where the fungi had clustered just a month before. This is the wonderful thing about walking, the route may stay constant but time and seasons bring a host of tiny changes which create subtle alterations.

We found a single boot, sturdy, quite new, mysteriously abandoned at the side of the path and we all wondered why it was that there were often single boots / shoes / trainers left to fend for themselves.

John was reminded of the song Jake the Peg, and created a new leg for the boot,

which then temporarily became a walking stick

Willow trees growing wild by the water, loving the moisture! Their yellow whips of new growth got us thinking about weaving willows and how nature always regrows after death.

A line of frost clung to the water's edge.

Pete recognised the pip pips of Great Tits and we spotted a pair of them flitting repeatedly from one tree to another. Jo mentioned she had spotted coots nesting on the river on a previous visit. And so, attuned to watching for further wildlife, we continued on, ears pricked and eyes searching for any movement.

Further down, we spotted a great grey heron on the other side of the water, standing still as a statue. It reminded John of other great birds and when he saw an Albatross at a nearby reserve.

Further down, the water's rush slowed until perfectly still, creating perfect mirror images.

As we picnicked, a cheeky red robin hopped up really close to us, checking out any crumbs on offer. Quick, mad rush to get out the camera in time to snap him - but no!

Each time the camera was lined up and ready to click, he would flit away again! Teasing us, he reappeared several times, just flying off again as we were about the capture him ... until ... finally! Jo got this -

and Carole got this - we were quite sure he was starting to pose for us!

After lunch Jo showed everyone how to make paper boats

we had wondered about using seed paper but thought it wouldn't be very watertight

we chose a simple orange paper which would break apart in due course.

The paper folding was great fun, luckily the sun was just warm enough to keep our fingers supple and it wasn't long until we had created a whole flotilla.

We left our secluded picnic spot and walked further along the path, heading towards Warkton, as Carole knew where there was an ideal spot to launch the boats from. She assured us that it was just a short stretch away, with a shingly outcrop and quite fast flowing water. The first attempts caught a reverse current and came back to us, so we made sure the boats were thrown out to the furthest bank where the current carried them swiftly forwards. The boats were a Light Thoughts intervention, carrying our hopes and wishes with them.

The return walk covered a variety of paces, some were watching the time, having meetings to get to by 3pm, others were still caught up in the spirit of exploration, finding new things to see on the way back, but we finally got back to our starting point, rosy cheeked and with fairly muddy feet. It was a very good way to start the week.

A rich day of colours, sounds, birds and water, many memories stored away of a good day.

Moving Through

2011-11-06T13:38:00.001Z

Here is the link to our short film made during our second Ticket Exchange which took place on 15th September 2011 whilst travelling between the Derbyshire stations of Shirebrook, Langwith Whaley-Thorns, Creswell and Whitwell with a brief stop at Mansfield Woodhouse. Postcard answers from both Ticket Exchanges can be found by clicking the Mailbox page above.

Light Walks for Dark Days

2011-11-03T15:53:00.001Z

Winter is drawing closer and the clocks have been changed...

So we are thrilled to announce that we have been offered funding by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund to continue our walking projects through the winter and beyond!

Our new project is called Light Walks for Dark Days, and we hope will help lift the spirits of all who take part!

Watch this blog for details as we unravel our plans.

Rushden and the Great Bubble Olympics!

2011-10-10T13:47:00.002+01:00

We were thrilled to meet up once again with our group who have been undertaking the Wellbeing Walks with us. But instead of meeting at Corby train station as usual, this time we met in Rushden, Northamptonshire. The group's organiser Carolyn had put together this walk, so it was a surprise to us this time and we were intrigued to know where she might lead us.

Following the old rail track, we turned into a long, wide road, the rail line to our left.

Suddenly, and as a total surprise, our leader turned left and took us up a steep track into beautiful woodlands.

When we came out of the trees, we came to a clearing, the remnants of something in concrete and what seemed like an industrial stonehenge of slabs.

Further along, we came to a large area overgrown with grasses and strewn with bushes, a wonderful place for picking berries of all sorts!

Our walkers were fascinated by the idea of free natural food and how many types of berries that could be identified. One of our walkers said to Jo, "well, there are things to learn everyday. Why sit at home feeling miserable when there's all this to come and find out about?" We couldn't agree more!

Not only were there elderberries and apples, but blackberries, damsons and

sloes and Carole couldn't resist the opportunity to do a bit of foraging.

We picnicked on the grass amongst the hedges. Carole had brought along her bubble wands, and John suggested that bubble blowing would be a great Olympic event! So we decide to hold the first ever Great Bubble Olympics right there and then!

Longest bubble gold medallist

Most bubbles in one breath gold medallist

It was a happy / sad moment in the car park at the end of our walk, as through walking we have shared some great conversations and have explored different terrain together and now we had reached the end of this particular project.

Everyone was given a set of the maps we made which record the memory of our walks in Corby in both words and images. We hope to walk with the group again in the future.

Visit our Wellbeing maps page to see the maps.

Here is some of the jam Carole made from her foraged fruit after the walk!

Mailbox

2011-10-06T12:59:00.001+01:00

We now have a new page on this blog, the Mailbox, where we will be posting copies of the postcards that have been sent to us by people we met on the Ticket Exchanges. They have been fascinating reading and great inspiration! Together they become a wonderful collection of the thoughts of people as they travel. Please visit, read, comment and continue the conversation!

A big thank you to everybody who has sent us a postcard and become part of our network! It is absolutely thrilling to receive a pile of postcards each week and to have the sense of all those new connections.

Langwith Ticket Exchange

2011-09-26T15:07:00.000+01:00

Our second Ticket Exchange took place between the stations of Shirebrook, Langwith Whaley-Thorns, Creswell and Whitwell in Derbyshire, with a short stop at Mansfield Woodhouse.

It was another beautiful day. (How do we do it?) Blue skies and crisp shadows.

A study of shadows and symmetry on Mansfield Woodhouse station

This time we were travelling on a weekday and the holiday period was over, so travellers were making their journeys for very different reasons.

Another happy driver whose heart beat to the sound of Northern Soul

This section of rail does not have the tourist pull like at Cromford. The towns have all suffered in the recession and there are many boarded up windows on the high streets. However, the people we met were not grumpy or complaining, they were all busy getting on with it and making the most of things.

The trains were still busy in the mornings. There were far more lone travellers than on our last trip. A few people were on their way to get settled into starting new university courses. Some were shopping or going to appointments. But the most common reason for travelling seemed to be to meet somebody. There were a number of dads taking their young children out for the day, or on their way to see their kids.

Family day out - a celebration

A couple on their travels from Canada

A woman of mystery

An artist

We came across cyclists again. Combining cycling and train travel is still a common way of getting around. We had quite a long conversation with this chap, sharing our experiences of cycling and the difficulties of cycle security, our mutual knowledge of Nottingham Station. He was off to Clifton on the edge of Nottingham, which Jo knew well as she had worked at the University there.

For Jo, this stretch of railway is all about patterns

Our group of young explorers, also on the wrong station, examine their postcards

At one point we missed our stop and ended up at Mansfield Woodhouse. Lucky, really, as we bumped into this lovely group of people who had come to meet their friends. They were off to "Go Ape", an activity like an obstacle course but high off the ground. They certainly had plenty of energy for it! After chatting for a while, they suddenly realised that they, like us, were at the wrong station... and their friends were at Mansfield, not M Woodhouse! We hope they found them.

We also loved the old building...

...and the bridge at Mansfield Woodhouse

Light and texture

Sign of the times

A rusting fragment from the bottom of a waste paper bin

As a visitor just passing through, it's very easy to skim over the impact loss of industry, jobs and purpose can have on a town, especially when the sun is out, there are chickens and geese in back gardens and brightly coloured berries weighing down the branches.

In Shirebrook, where we stopped for lunch, there is an ongoing debate about the proposed new Tesco store, many people welcome the prospect of the 180 new jobs it would bring, while others worry that it will lead to further shrinkage on the high street for local shop keepers. As in Langwith, young people are feeing alienated and bored, they often express their frustration through acts of antisocial behaviour. The Fire Service and local traders have been working with school children, encouraging them to meet shopkeepers to try and establish a better understanding between the generations.

During the day we passed many different versions of the Station Hotel, most of which were boarded up and decaying, this one was in Creswell. Whilst dashing to the other platform on Creswell Station via the main road Carole met Eileen in the photograph below.

Carole asked her if she would like to take part in the Ticket Exchange and offered Eileen a ticket and postcard.

"Oh yes duck, as you've been so lovely to me, of course I'll write back to you" she replied.

Eileen had been in the Trade Union for over 20 years and said that it broke her heart when the pits closed. This reminded Carole of Corby, where Undiscovered Networks first began, a town which had also lost its principle industry, the steelworks, and which has been undergoing significant regeneration (that led to the reopening of the rail line from Corby) but it wasn't so long ago that Corby also had boarded up buildings and abandoned spaces.

This Art Deco building, a former palace of dreams, is now a Bingo Hall

Thrones in the scrap yard

The mysterious remains of former station buildings also hidden in the scrap yard amongst old buses, ice cream vans, cars and other vehicles.

Moments of beauty in Creswell

The afternoon was very different. People were generally tired and more reluctant to get involved. They were on their way home and just looking forward to that cup of tea. School children were making their way home on the train. These were routes that they did every day. It reminded Jo of when she used to commute to Bristol by train for college. She would walk a mile to the station, take two trains and then a bus to college. And the same back again. Every day. Exhausting.

There was none of the energy of the morning encounters. It made us aware how optimistic the morning train had been. People were looking forward to their day, the train was just the start of a journey that they were setting out on. They were open to ideas and opportunities, ready to see what the day offered them.

In the afternoon, we felt that everybody was suffering a dip in sugar levels. There was a sleepy feel to the carriages. The day was still warm, slightly woozy and sluggish.

It will be interesting to see if we get any postcards back from this day. How different will people's outlooks be if they wrote their postcards in the morning or in the afternoon? One of our questions was about Departure and Arrival - how different does it feel when you are on your way somewhere to being on your way back? We had started to get a sense of this ourselves from this trip.

In Between Connections...

2011-09-16T21:54:00.000+01:00

Carole and I spent another successful and interesting day on Thursday doing the Ticket Exchange at stations around Langwith Whaley Thorns, a post about the day will appear soon!

Meanwhile, we have received a number of postcards from people we connected with from our last Ticket Exchange, many with fascinating and thoughtful comments on the experience of travel.

Film still

There is also a short film put together by Mac Canonymous which he filmed on our day around Whatstandwell - click here to see it.

Film still

Thanks to everybody who has taken part so far and especially those who have sent us a postcard!

Whatstandwell Ticket Exchange

2011-08-28T20:18:00.001+01:00

Travelling between the Derbyshire stations of Belper, Ambergate, Whatstandwell and Cromford, artists Miles & Dacombe staged their first Ticket Exchange on 23rd August. We offered a ticket with a question on it, in exchange we asked for an answer!

We made ourselves badges, tickets, bags and postcards, and jumped on and off the trains all day to talk to as many people as we could.

It was remarkable how friendly and open most people were. We are always delighted by the staff on this stretch of railway who all seem to be having such a happy time of it and love their jobs. They were all really supportive though rather bemused by our antics!

All the railway staff we met seemed really happy in their line of work

and were friendly and welcoming to the artists.

Reasons for travelling were varied. Many were going off on day trips and felt that the train was the most enjoyable way of doing this. Others had more serious intentions. A man from Leicester was cycling alone to Telford for charity, dipping on to trains with his bicycle to link up parts of his journey. A couple were laden with flowers, on their way to place them at the grave of a loved one.

Passengers alighting at Belper Station

A family group on their way to Matlock Bath for a day's outing

The theme of connections grew stronger throughout the day. Our ticket designs and strange request helped us form an instant connection with passengers - people were intrigued and curious to know what question would be on the back of the ticket they picked. Our questions opened up conversations straight away.

This is one of the first passengers Carole met at Whatstandwell waiting for the return train from Belper. Carole had spoken to her and some of the other passengers, asking whether the trains were well used. It seems that since the introduction of parking fees at the station car parks there has ben a drop in rail usage, but the parking fees were introduced as many visiting walkers were parking before exploring the canal side walks. The passengers thought it might be fairer if parking fees were refunded to those who were travelling on the trains, as is common practice in supermarket car parks.

A husband and wife sitting in different parts of the train in order to capture parts of their journey on film.

Walking on up the carriage, we often turned around to look back and see people discussing their ticket questions with each other and sharing them around. Connecting again.

We felt we had changed their journeys. Intervening and asking challenging questions about train travel, asking them to consider a new viewpoint. "Have you ever thought of a network of rail travellers as a community?" "Are you leaving or returning, and how different do these feel?" "Do you ever imagine the story of a stranger travelling near you?"

Jo giving out her tickets

Some people wrote us answers on the postcards straight away. Others took their postcards with them to think about it more and post them back to us. We really hope they do.

Mother and daughter

Fabulous friends

We made new connections with 71 people that day. Some were travelling short distances, others were going a long way. Jo met a man who works at the Brush company in Loughborough, a place not only visible from the train but also just up the road from where Jo used to live. Other people connected to us through art - we met art students and art teachers. A small child drew us a picture.

This lovely lady took one of each ticket as her husband was an art teacher!

We experienced parts of other people's journeys. Jo sat with a couple who pointed out the bits of the journey they liked - the new log cabins being built just past Whatstandwell. They watched the lorries trundling down the road below us, parallel to the train and matching our speed!

We met Jim and Pat at Belper Station and travelled with them for a while

We hope the postcards will further connect us. We imagine a network of postcards which have all started on that particular short train route, travelled to different places and hopefully been posted back to us in Corby. Jo met a lady from Australia who took a postcard to write back to us!

It was good to visit the Stations again at Whatstandwell, Cromford, and short stops at Ambergate and Belper.

At Cromford, yet another Handy Andy helping to collect his Aunt's camper van and take it back to Devon

Beautiful nasturtiums in the planters and the commemorative sign at Whatstandwell Station. There are no longer any station buildings there but we did find this link with wonderful images of the station and lovely recollections by William E Glossop.

On the same site there are also the recollections of Mr A C Phillips a former Station Master at Whatstandwell Station.

Whilst waiting for Jo to arrive, Carole's eye was drawn to the house, some of which was built during the 1700's, which has a tunnel running beneath it. The previous evening, whilst Mac Canonymous was filming, Carole walked over the bridge and onto the towpath by the canal, only to meet Sheila, the current owner of the house.

Sheila very kindly invited Carole into her garden to see the railway line from the less commonly viewed direction. Carole invited Sheila to come and take part in the Ticket Exchange the following morning, but sadly they missed their connection!

A slice of train heading towards the tunnel under Sheila's house.

A view of the house behind the restored Cromford Waiting Room

It was a great day and gave us lots of food for thought! Mac Canonymous is putting together a film of the day, and we'll let you know when that's up to see.

We're looking forward to doing our Ticket Exchange again, this time at Whitwell, Cresswell and Langwith Whaley-Thorns, where we will be visiting on 15th September. Perhaps see you there?


Last train from Cromford Station

Wellbeing Walks - Maps and Sand-Beans

2011-08-25T15:23:00.005+01:00

Having completed our four points of the compass Wellbeing Walks, we have had some studio time to make the maps. It's always an enjoyable process sharing ideas and working on allotted tasks, it's almost a dance between studios, thoughts and actions. We decided to use the Miles & Dacombe hand stamped logo we developed for our first Undiscovered Networks postcard as a unifying element. It may seem odd that with easy access to dozens of typefaces on the computer that we should choose such a low tech method of printing, but we like the fact that the pressure of our hands creates a different intensity of colour and ink, sometimes parts of letters are barely visible, sometimes the alignment of text is a bit wobbly, but we feel this adds something to the end product.

For each Miles & Dacombe header and footer we print our own surnames and often chuckle at the incidental words SAND and BEAN created at the end of each surname. The border strips of colour are also hand mixed and rolled because we enjoy seeing the uneven line and spread of the inks.

Our studios are in the annexe of a primary school and during term time in the lunch hour the atmosphere changes, there are shouts, laughter and activities in the building and out on the playground, so we generally de-camp to another venue. One of our favourite haunts is the Skylark Cafe in Fermyn Woods Country Park, we've had numerous planning meetings and making sessions in there.

We added the paper cutouts to the first two maps in the cafe whilst a group of people from Paperchase were taking part in a team building exercise. The food is lovely and the staff never seem to mind us turning our table into a mini studio space or portable office. A recent British survey discovered that a brisk 15 minute walk reduced chocolate cravings in response to stress, but is is very hard to resist Ellie's home made cakes when ordering food! Through the windows you can see a host of birds hopping in and around the picnic tables and people of all ages taking advantage of the rambling spaces in the country park.

We chose the paper cutouts because they had tiny luggage labels in a variety of colours which reminded us of the labels we attached to our balloons. Jo drew all the map outlines and placed the paper shapes, Carole added areas of colour and the dotted lines that described the four routes.

Jo also made some lovely, tiny paper windmills to record the area we staged our windmill intervention and we decided to scan the maps rather than photograph them to preserve the textures and give a truer representation of the colours. Whilst Jo was sticking and placing, Carole was scribbling and reading back the memories of places and journeys during the walks, each map has its own 'story' printed on the reverse of the map.

We have a limited edition of A3 maps and an unlimited edition of A4 maps, the printing of the A3 maps were an In Kind donation from CTB Print & Design, who Carole has had a working relationship with for over 20 years.

Folding the finished maps

A3 maps rolled and ready to go!

Just the Ticket

2011-08-17T20:01:00.009+01:00

When we first started thinking about Undiscovered Networks we took an Away day to the London Transport Museum and were both struck by the the huge variety of tickets and travel tokens. The ticket above exhorts the traveller to buy Bryant and May matches to support local workers and to enable the company to "pay £1,000 a week more in wages". We didn't take note of the date of the ticket above but it seems ironic as in 1888 the first recorded strike was staged by the Match-girls working at the Bryant and May factory and prompted the women's rights activist Annie Besant to write a paper "White Slavery in London" in The Link on 23rd of June 1888.

A selection of tickets and travel tokens

An early Bus Conductors's ticket dispenser

We decided that our tickets should reflect the format of current rail tickets which have two distinctive bands of colour at the top and bottom of the front face. These were hand printed and stamped with the Miles & Dacombe header and footer and each ticket was stamped with a different selection of images.

The tickets will be dispensed from a specially constructed shoulder bag with almost transparent pockets in front and a larger pocket, lined with a Liberty map fabric, which will contain the postcards for travellers' responses.

Five tickets, five questions

10 different postcards with images from

Whatstandwell, Cromford and Langwith Whaley Thorns

awaiting our first Ticket exchange!

We're on our way...

2011-08-09T12:25:00.003+01:00

Thank you to East Midlands Trains who have just rung me to confirm that they are happy with our proposals, so we are all set to do our first exchange activity on the Derbyshire trains.

Watch out for us in the week of 22nd August when we will be travelling between Cromford and Ambergate and Whitwell and Shirebrook stations.

Wellbeing Walk 5 - Still Heading East - Hope to All

2011-07-24T18:16:00.005+01:00

Carole and Jo have had quite a few adventures trying to find a walk East from the station. They tried three times or more, scoured the map, asked a variety of locals, hunted high and low for the remains of a Roman Road, looked at other options, all of which meant spending some time walking beside main roads. There were tantalising open spaces with cleared ground, which looked very much like private property. Finally a compromise was made, a route decided and our new group of young walkers met at Corby Station.

It was strange starting again with new walkers who had a different energy and no experience of a derive, would Carole and Jo be able to convince them that a walk under threatening skies, through an urban landscape, could hold any interest?

Carole and Jo encouraged the group to look around, look in detail, see what might catch their eye, flowers and a vehicle carrying cars were the first things to capture the group's attention.

Grasses, weeds and billboards, old signs, a weather vein on a church spire, shifting cloud and racing traffic punctuated our route. We made slow progress, walkers making an elongated, easily distracted line.


The red garage doors reminded us of beach huts

"A patch of blue big enough to darn a sailor's trousers"

old family saying

The rain finally got the better of us and we took shelter by some flats, in the group's minibus, which had come to find us. Whilst the rain pelted down, sandwiches were consumed and Jo began to tell the group about the French Situationists that had triggered the exploration we were making that day, about being a "flaneur", exploring and wandering and how we were now part of an international movement of people who drift in urban spaces. We looked at some of the pictures the group had been taking and as soon as the rain stopped Andreia and William ventured out to photograph a vivid red rose bush.

Wild Cherries

Festive garden

Carole and Jo were keen to explore an enticement, a path between the backs of some houses leading to a gated field. It was quite dark, overhung with trees, the ground soft with decaying leaves, somehow magical. We found ourselves peering over walls and through knot holes in fences, spying free range chickens scratching contentedly, noticing patterns and shapes created by walls and fences. No one was bothered by the time or the weather and the group began to gel together, sharing ideas, becoming excited by possibilities.

Photo by William

Photo by Andreia

We finished up at a public football pitch and green open space, where we prepared to make another balloon launch. There were no seeds this time, but we wrote thoughts and wishes on labels and attached them to the balloons. Some escaped before the launch, others burst whilst being filled with helium.

The group strode out into the middle of the field with their strings of unruly balloons.

Ready, steady, lift off

Captured and carried east by the wind

After the balloon launch we headed back to Corby Community Arts in the Old Village to discuss what we'd seen and to make small drawings and notes on a map of our route.

We hadn't travelled far east, probably no more than a mile, but in that short stretch we had managed to spend two hours exploring, looking closely and noticing things previously unnoticed, discovering surprising things even though this stretch of Corby we all thought we knew well. The amount we managed to record on our map shows how many interesting things can be found on a single stretch of road by just looking in a different way!

Wellbeing Walk 4 - the elusive East!

2011-07-16T21:32:00.001+01:00

It was a really hot day. We just couldn't walk that far! All that was on our minds was finding a cool, shady spot to sit down.

Meeting at Corby Station as usual, it was great to see yet more new faces joining us for our final walk with this group. As it was our last walk with them and really stiflingly hot, we decided to make this more of a celebratory day.

Besides, the East had proved elusive! Carole and Jo had been trying for a few weeks to work out the best route East from the station, wherever they went they got cut off before getting very far. The large new developments to the East of Corby were well underway and there were fences across land that were not marked on Jo's Ordinance Survey map!

So today we focused on the achievements of our walks together. The photographs of the beautiful little collections of small items that we had all put together on our last walk were printed onto paper which had flower seeds embedded into it.

We wrote messages on the back of our little pictures and tied the messages to the end of balloons filled with helium.

We filled envelopes full of more seeds and scattered them around the park.

And off they went!

We gave Carolyn, who had done so much hard to work to organise the group and bring wonderful picnics each time for everybody to enjoy, a thank you in the form of tomato plants - to continue the theme of growing and healthy eating!

These walks have been great. We've all discovered fascinating things right under our feet, felt better for the exercise and the fresh air, made friends and contributed to making the world a more beautiful place by sending out all those seeds and good wishes to ... who knows where? There is something very uplifting and positive about sending seeds full of growing potential out into the world.

The wonderful thing is that Carole and Jo are going to meet up with this group again in August. Inspired by our project, the group are now undertaking their own walks in other parts of Northamptonshire, and we will be meeting up for them to take us on a walk in Rushden.

And as for finding the way East, that story will be continued soon...

Langwith Whaley Thorns

2011-07-02T12:44:00.014+01:00

There was something very tranquil about Langwith Whaley Thorns station and we spent some time taking in the views from each platform and the bridge.

The livery was bright green and cream, and later we discovered that all the stations along this stretch use the same colours, railings and lamps. Although corporate, the colours seem clean and modern with a fresh feel. The railings and lamps were in keeping with the area, working with the flow of the landscape.

One of the things that struck us was the visual suggestion of rhythm in the line of lamps, the railings, the tracks, seeming to echo with the clickety clack of train wheels passing through the station.

We came to Langwith Whaley Thorns enticed by the name. It is named after a dense wood, recorded on the first Ordinance Survey Maps. "Whaley" is Celtic for water or spring and refers to the local springs and the near-by river Poulter and "Thorn" is an Anglo-Saxon word for wood. So the name may originally have meant either "Wood of the Springs", or "Wood above/between the water(s)". In the mid-nineteenth century, much of the wood was cut down, following the discovery of coal.

We felt it was important to make at least one train journey and hopped on for a brief trip to Whitwell and back. The route whisked us through fields interrupted by the now recognisable flash of the bright green railings at Cresswell station.

A small bridge at Whitwell takes you back over the tracks to the opposite platform. Strangely, the rail foot bridge is built separate to but right adjacent to a much older bridge over which passes the road, with views of houses and allotments.

View from the bridge at Whitwell.

Grazing lamp posts

After a brief look around Whitwell, we took the train back again. The conductor seemed quite amused by seeing us so soon between journeys and spent a few moments in conversation with us on our way back.

The driver flashed a beaming smile

before leaving us to make our way around the town of Langwith Whaley Thorns.

Whaley Thorns was a colliery town deeply affected by the pit closures in 1978, this has such powerful resonance with our starting point, Corby Station. By 1996 many properties in Whaley Thorns had become vacant and had fallen into disrepair, in 1998 the town was identified as a Renewal Area. 140 houses were demolished and replaced with owner occupied dwellings and housing rented through a Registered Social Landlord. Poulter View, a £4 million redevelopment of the former Bathurst Terrace site, is a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom houses. These include town houses, semi-detached and detached properties. The houses are close to a communal green space, play area and very near to Langwith Whaley Thorns Heritage Centre

Dreams and rust

and the salt of the earth

We picked up quite a lot of information from the helpful people at the Village Hall. Strange to think that the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright influenced the planners and builders during Whaley Thorns boom time. Now it is a very quiet place, there are plans to raise money for a skate ramp and the Village Hall has had a splendid make-over with great spaces for gathering, exercise or meetings.

But the heart of the community lay within the community shop which was opened after a successful programme of table top sales at the museum. Snappabargain is located on Main Street Whaley Thorns and is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9.00 am till 3.00 pm. Also at the shop is the Snapbox Cafe where light refreshments are available to eat in or take away. We stopped in for a cup of tea and were amazed at the amount of community initiatives that Ian at the shop is involved in!

In the cafe we found out about a fantastic new project to involve local people in horticulture at The Rhubarb Farm, about some of the photography exhibitions and new groups being set up, the local historian Tony Warrener and his book about the area, the Heritage Centre and events that aim to link villages in the area.

Thanks to the people in the cafe we came away with a wonderful buzz from the positive inspiration of people like Ian and the Community Association. Regeneration is not just about buildings and bricks, but about people who invest their energy and creativity into getting people together and bringing life to a community. Once again, we found a town brimming with potential.

Whatstandwell

2011-07-02T11:45:00.000+01:00

Our idea has always been to go somewhere unknown to us, without doing any research, to explore what we find and meet people along the way. Our second away day was to Whatstandwell in Derbyshire and we were fairly certain we would find a very different location than we found in Perry Bar. There were no station buildings but there was a graceful bridge between the active platform and the one on the other side, which was colonised by a wonderful array of wild flowers and weeds.

Gary the Train Driver was the first person we met, on his way to work in Derby. He’d had a variety of jobs with the railway and told us it was best to contact the main station in Derby if we wanted to stage an intervention at Whatstandwell. He hopped on the train and we crossed the bridge in search of a cup of tea.

The bridge took us to the towpath of the Cromford canal. On the towpath we met three sisters, all local, who told us there was a tea shop further along “it wasn’t far”, so we fell in step with them for a while. By the end of the day we’d discovered that “not far” was roughly 2 and a half miles in any given direction!

After walking with the sisters and hearing about their lives, local industry, family ties we fell back to better appreciate the lay of the land discovering that there were 4 levels running in parallel, river, road, rail and canal. At points along the way these networks crossed each other. Our feet on the path added a fifth network.

Canal crosses over railway

Canal crossed over river

Hidden behind trees on the far bank

Finally we came to High Peak Junction, where we not only found a cup of tea but a wealth of information from the Countryside Rangers at work there. They told us about some of the work that used to go on on the railway along the route that we had just walked. They were intrigued by the idea of an artistic intervention and, again, were very helpful with giving us contacts and information.

Cromford Station itself was beautiful, painted in the same red and cream livery as Whatstandwell and again with wonderful details in the iron work. A black and white cat bellowed at us as he crossed the rail line and wandered around the platforms that he clearly owned!

We took a train ride from Cromford Station, through Whatstandwell to Ambergate, and then walked back from Ambergate to Whatstandwell. It felt strange to be travelling the same route we had just walked on the train, the experience of the two modes of travel were diametrical opposites. We seemed to have been walking for hours that day, whereas the train journey from Cromford to Ambergate was a mere 10 minutes! No time at all for the contemplation of small details and to take in the play of light on water and through trees, as we had on the walk.

Kevin the Conductor, a mine of information and a very kind man who had the time to show us just how his ticket machine worked. We have been intrigued by tickets and ticket machines ever since our visit to the London Transport Museum. He had worked in finance for most of his career but found that working for the railway the past three years had been a completely joyous experience. He was a man truly happy in his work!

Walking back from Ambergate, we had no idea how far it would be!

A welcome sight for our hot feet, the foot bridge to the platform at Whatstandwell

The day had been one of crossing networks, modes of travel, helpful people, sunshine, getting lost and endless possibilities!

Transitions - the Movie

2011-06-23T08:05:00.005+01:00

If you are curious to know just what delayed Carole during the Transitions - South walk follow this link . The film was made during Walk 3 - South and explores transitions through domestic and industrial spaces, fields and woodlands, established routes and reclaimed pathways.

It features the Windmill Intervention that was created as part of the walking experience and the birdsong from within the ancient woods.

Wellbeing Walk 3 - South - Transitions

2011-06-19T15:17:00.016+01:00

Our walk South took us through transitions, passing from one sort of space to another: an industrial estate, over water, through woodland, into open fields.

We aimed to find a place to plant our windmills. The weather had threatened, there had been rain earlier but our group of walkers had happily grown in numbers. We left the station chatting contentedly with water bottles, Carolyn's laden picnic bags and glistening windmills.

Winding our way South through an industrial estate, we went through a waymarked gap and instantly found ourselves once again in a place overtaken by nature. The sounds changed, a stream bubbled below, wild flowers brushing our legs.

Squeezing through the permitted gap in search of open spaces

Onwards, a path took us over a stretch of water towards two monstrous warehouses standing like lego blocks against the sky. Many enticing paths engaged our curiosity, but we followed the way over a metal bridge and between the warehouses.

Cloud overhead but the day stayed fair.

Seductive deep water

The bridge echoed under our feet. This resulted in a playful jumping and stomping on the bridge and Carole tried to record the metallic resonance of our stamping!

curvaceous young Dock

The path led us through a beautiful created walk edged by wildflowers and hedges, until we came back to a road. But along the road further down we crossed a stile and once again found ourselves in a cool woodland.

Through the gate and into the woods,

traffic noises replaced by birdsong,

following soft, earthy pathways

Testing the man-made arch,

listening to birdsong,

adventuring,

being embraced by the woods

The path through the woods went on and on, the shade brought coolness and the sounds changed. Dappled sunlight scattered across the path. To our left a deep furrow ran parallel to our track, trees growing out of it in a single line.

All of a sudden we burst out of the wood and were confronted by a huge open field, lush green, a panorama of fields and trees spread before us. This was the place to plant our windmills!

We picnicked here to the sound of the windmills rhythm.

Eating plums

one of 5 a day

warm breeze,

gentle heat,

open space

Exploring Jo's map

Then back on our return journey. We were all so calm and content that we didn't realise for some time that Carole was no longer with us! Somebody asked the question, and we waited... and waited...

Eventually she came back to join us. Seduced by the woods, she had lost herself recording the birdsong...

Along the route we had all been collecting things to put in small envelopes.

These resulted in a fine tuning of our attention to detail and the small things... the results of the envelopes were exquisite arrangements of colours and textures. We must use these somehow on our next walk.

Peter's request

a golden poppy

self-seeded

growing in the path

We got back later than expected but the walk had been a wonderfully relaxed, calm experience, and what a lovely sociable group! We look forward to our final walk next week, which must include an element of celebration to complete our explorations!

Journey's end - almost

Our route

Take a Walk in Leicester This Weekend

2011-06-10T18:54:00.009+01:00

This weekend I'm taking part in the ArtHouse 5th Annual Exhibition -

Sat 11th & Sun 12th June 2011.

ArtHouse is an Annual Exhibition of over 40 Artists, in 9 individual houses in the Clarendon Park and Stoneygate areas of Leicester. A great opportunity to take a different kind of walk, the streets are full of interesting buildings and tucked away treasures. I'm exhibiting with Sarah Kirby in the stable / studio at 67 Avenue Extension, a terraced house with a fascinating history, behind large blue doors there is a cobbled courtyard leading to a converted Victorian coaching stabling building.

Sarah's work features lino prints of many landmark buildings in Leicester and I have some mono prints and a selection of bottled jewels inspired by the Held in the Hand Hoard, I made for Leicestershire Museums earlier this year. Jo had a major part to play in the Held in the Hand commissions and you can see the fabulous first handling collection here

The Art Houses are

18 Ashfield Rd LE2 1LA,

73 Holmfield Rd LE2 1SF,

6 Aber Rd LE2 2BA,

67 Avenue Road Extension LE2 3EP,

24 Portland Rd LE2 3AB,

231 Queens Rd LE2 3FP,

222 Clarendon Park Rd LE2 3AG,

192c Clarendon Park Rd LE2 3AG,

12 Pendene Rd LE2 3DQ (no parking available at this address).

Extraordinary Art in Ordinary Houses.

Open 11am until 6pm each day.

Hope to see you there.

There will be cake!

Along The Tracks

2011-06-07T23:09:00.013+01:00

In between masses of paperwork and eBay listing, I've been watching this

Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film on BBC iPlayer

"Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.

Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.

Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.

Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists. (R)"

We're certainly inspired! We'll be exploring a couple of stations in Derbyshire soon, but in the meantime, spurred on by railways and textiles, I've been playing on the V&A website - I uploaded the photo above to their Patchwork Pattern Maker and you can see the results here. Team of plucky volunteers anywhere to help me make it?

If you want to make your own pattern follow thislink

Retreat from the Real

2011-06-07T09:50:00.000+01:00

From Robert Macfarlane's wonderful book "The Wild Places"

Blowing Away the Cobwebs - Wellbeing Walk 2 - North

2011-05-27T22:48:00.000+01:00

Turning North. Armed with our seed bombs, seeking a neglected placewhere we could throw our seeds and hope for the best! We were encouraged as one of the bombs had already developed tiny shoots...

We met at the station as usual, great to have two new people join us!

Cutting around The White Hart, we crossed the stream over the footbridge and walked across an open green space with many benches and sheltered seating, all looking rather unused. A predictable shopping trolley in the stream.

Along up Rockingham Road, but then turning off the main road and down some steps which could so easily be missed, leading from the main road down beside the railway track. Here our adventure really began...

Walking with the rail track to our left and an industrial estate to our right, but then there is a gap in the fence... we followed the desire-line worn by the feet of others.

The path took us into a wild space, grasses growing all around us, a burnt tree, wild flowers. Ferns unfurling.

Following this path it began to get more and more overgrown until we were enclosed in a wooded area. Everywhere new trees beginning to grow, tiny oak trees below our knees, willows that had self seeded. We talked about how nature moves in and makes its own any spaces that humans leave.

Further on it became apparent that this path had been created with walkers in mind, there was a distinct line surfaced with gravel, now overgrown. Here and there we came across picnic benches in the undergrowth. There was evidence of human use here, somebody had made a fire and drink cans were strewn about. Further on a picnic bench actually had a tree growing through the middle of it!

Deeper and deeper in we went. It was a windy day, and the silver birch trees swayed above us, their leaves sparkling silver as the wind flipped them over. Somebody said the sound of the trees swaying were like the sound of the seashore, gently shooshing.

Across the rail tracks someone’s makeshift kite had crash landed.

Up a hill, we suddenly burst back out into an open ground, high up with an amazing view taking in a wide area of the north end of Corby - the Weetabix factory, a footbridge that led to the lakes where we had picnicked for our last walk, and the cream coloured towers of the Flour Mills gleaming in the sunlight like a castle on the horizon.
Below us, down the steep bank, and beyond high wire fences, was the neglected area we sought! Broken up hard core, bricks, and cracked concrete lay about across a huge wide area, but creating its own pattern across the cracks were wild flowers and grasses. We spotted aquilegia and budleia growing. Somebody said "they seek out the cracks and there they grow." A motto for life.

Carole had a short video on her phone of our friend Maureen, who knew this place from her childhood. She talked about how it was once where the rail carriages were left and that there is a tunnel somewhere.
We decided this was a good place to launch our seed bombs. The round ones made high arcs and exploded on the concrete below. The flat ones flew like frisbies, one of us even managed to curve a bend in the trajectory of his throw!
We picnicked here, admiring our gardening work and shouting to each other to be heard above the wind, before walking back to base.
Continuing our theme of the wind, we made windmills and put words and drawings in them inspired by the day.

"Let The Wind Blow"

"The wind in my face helps me breathe"

"blow wind blow and we shall have snow"

"Blowing away the cobwebs"

...and drawings of the sun, flowers, the weather:

We will seek a place to plant our windmills, like flags claiming our land, in our next walk, which will take place in mid June.

On my way home, it began to rain... a perfect end to the day, I imagined our little scattered seeds seeking out the cracks, lapping up the rain and beginning to release their energy into new life....

Growing from a gutter - the persistence of nature

Up-cycle, Recycle, Life Cycle

2011-05-24T16:55:00.023+01:00

I’m a bit of a Magpie with too many collections and a serious addiction to domestic china – I love cups and saucers, plates and bowls and constantly kid myself they are coming home with me because they are functional. I love the look of a cake stand heaped high with tasty treats and am equally tempted by the many and various shapes, patterns and eras of the wares they are served on, oh yes, and I can never resist investigating a back-stamp!

There are also items picked up along the way that have great shape but disastrous decoration and even they have been smuggled over the threshold to be squirreled away for some unknown purpose. So when I heard about Esther Coombs and up-cycling, I was intrigued. I just missed her workshop at the V&A but then I heard she would be running a course in a tea shop I was on that train / bus for High Tea at Highgate.

Esther Coombs

First there was excellently brewed tea and a fascinating talk about low-fired ceramics and the long history of recycling in the ceramics industry.

Then the 10 tea drinkers started drawing on their cups and plates and a dreamy hush fell over the room.

The air was heavy with the smell of baking cakes, which tasted as good as they smelt.

At the end of the morning we had our firing instructions, carefully wrapped wares and a goody bag with a discount voucher to spend at Esther’s Etsy shop, an up-cycled Esther brooch and two sample packets of tea. It was an excellent morning of generosity and simple pleasures; we all left vibrating with the vintage vibe.

Distracted by reissued '50's classic fabric designs in the a shop close to High Tea at Highgate.

Then it was back on the bus to Liverpool Street Station and a wander through inviting alleyways and undiscovered streets with my dérive buddy for the day, Elaine.

Love tea but prefer coffee

We headed for the Tracey Emin show at the Hayward Gallery stumbling across some small gems along the way.

The Ward of Candlewick

Tracey Emin Room 1 of the show was the most satisfying, the great thing was to see the blankets and the pier structure together, to see the textures and fading colours of the blanket and assorted textiles – the ugly beautifulness of fabric, text, context and content. The final rooms left us feeling sloganed out, annoyed and aggravated. Two things did pull at me – the framed blanket with the words “Why be afraid when I will be the one to carry you to heaven” and a print with a half naked woman and the words “I wonder if you remember me?” , it’s hard not to connect with such vulnerability.

Outside the Festival Hall

there were beach huts, bunting

and an installation with arcs

of suspended paper planes.

Inside, on the lower floor, was The Museum of 1951, a celebration of The Festival of Britain and the seen everywhere at the moment 50’s revival.

Even in 1951 fifty women were piecing together history out of bits of blanket and old fabrics.

In the 1951 map above places were defined by local conversations.

People in Northamptonshire today rarely talk of boots and shoes ,

that industry has all but disappeared in the county.

In one of the cases were silk Festival of Britain ties, I had once come upon a set of these in a bundle of old clothes on Wellingborough flea market, whilst I dithered someone else spirited them away. I wondered if these were in fact those very ties!

Towards the afternoon’s end we wandered into the South Bank Shop only to find some of Esther’s work on display in the window, our journey had come full circle.

Almost time for tea.

Through The Gaps - Wellbeing Walk 1 - West

2011-05-17T17:10:00.008+01:00

We wanted each of our Wellbeing Walks to start from Corby Station and search out different environments: urban, green, wild spaces and the forgotten.

When we were scoping out the walks we also realised that we had an instinct to make something happen in some of these spaces, to respond to them in an active way. We decided for each walk we should create an intervention.

Our first walk took us West and then North. We didn't know quite what to expect, the weather was unpredictable and we hadn't yet met our group, but we both knew that the simple act of walking could take us through an unexpected gap in a hedge to new ideas and new relationships.

"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. ~Soren Kierkegaard"

For other lovely quotes about walking follow the the link to The Quote Garden

Waiting for our walkers to arrive

We turned off the main road, and through a gap in a hedge - immediately we were in another world, a wooded area, over a stream, birds singing, cool shade and a quieter atmosphere, the sound of the road masked by the trees.

Horse Chestnut blossom in West Glebe Park, we were amazed by the vivid colours and the tiny conkers forming. During the World Wars the conkers were a source of starch which was fermented to produce acetone. This was then used as a solvent which aided in the process of ballistite extrusion into cordite, which was used in military armaments.

A place of mystery and history

Rolling down the steep slopes of West Glebe Park

Future blackberries waiting to be foraged when the time is right. You can find lots of free information and Blackberry related activities at the Nature Detectives site

Very determined Sycamore seeds

Striding out

We picnicked by the lakes, discovered hidden behind hedges

Creating a variety of ripples

Exploring the everyday

offers perplexing contrasts

We watched a pair of swans make

their graceful way across the water

only as they swam closer could we see

their one Cygnet sheltered in between.

Just beneath the surface,

the skeleton of a pram or trolly

A young tree in a newly renovated park stripped of it's bark -

surely there are less destructive games to play

We made seed bombs.

A spot of guerilla gardening will be

our intervention for the walk next week!

Our seed bomb wishes:-

"Sky, water, sunlight, grow, petal"

"Grow"

"Petal Power"

"A more colourful world"

"Darrel wants green hair again"

"A brighter future"

"Playing football for Ireland"

"Tino Greeno"

"Blooms to dispel gloom"

For more information about Guerilla Gardening and seed bombing follow the link

A snapshot of our route

The lovely people at Mytho Geography donated copies of the book 'A Sardine Street Box of Tricks' by Phil Smith to our project. Here's a link to their site and to Phil Smith. Many thanks, we're really enjoying the books! We also had some BEAR Granola to nibble on. A quote from 'Sardine Street':

"The street is our library. But the library is also full of walks."

Wellbeing Walks

2011-05-04T21:03:00.001+01:00

Corby Station

Our project now starts in earnest. In June we plan to visit Derbyshire for Undiscovered Networks, but before that in May we will be starting our exploration around Corby for our associated project Wellbeing Walks.

Wellbeing Walks is a walking and mapping project for young people in Corby. There are two reasons for the project:
1. to find good routes to walk from Corby Station, thus expanding the rail network into a walking network;
2. to find walks that will give people a sense of wellbeing - to make maps of those walks so that other people can find those feelings of wellbeing too!

There is lots of evidence that people feel better by taking physical exercise like walking. Carole and I also find it relieves stress to discover the beautiful things around where you live or along a walk.

So we are going to walk with groups of young people from Corby Station out along the 4 points of the compass: North, South, East and West. We will walk and make maps of the beautiful things that we find, however small:

things of beauty
things of mystery
things of history
places for meditation
places for exercise, to breathe, to stretch
places for foraging
places for wildlife

Our maps will then become available for other people to use and discover those places, whether they are people in Corby looking for something on their doorstep, or visitors via Corby Station.

We hope to do two walks in May and two in June.

If you are a young person and want to get involved in the walks to make the maps, please get in touch.

The project is supported by N-Step for young people in Northamptonshire, Corby Community Arts and Northamptonshire Community Foundation.

Aps and Mapping...or One Carole on a Bike

2011-04-25T22:43:00.013+01:00

With the onset of good weather I have been out and about on my bike after a gap of about 6 months and having resisted for about 8 years I now have a new phone, one with a camera, mobile internet access and a raft of Apps to delight and bemuse! There is a compass, which has an old school look to it

One of the nice features connected with the phone’s camera is that it will drop a pin in a map every place you take a picture on the phone,

by pulling out the screen you can see the locations in greater detail and it’s a lovely record of a journey, you just need to remember to capture an image at each place you stop!

You can make a screen grab of the map / maps to keep as a record after you’ve downloaded the photos to store elsewhere.

There is a Find My Phone app – very handy so long as someone else’s phone can find mine! There are loads of walking, fitness and calorie counting tools, many of which are free. Many of the walking, cycling apps will also calculate how many calories have been burnt during an outing.

Map My Ride is a very handy app and can also be accessed on the Internet. The app enables you to create a route as you are doing it but it is quite heavy on the battery. Yesterday’s cycle is incomplete as the phone ran out of charge 2 miles before the end and we forgot to add the extra information before saving.

It is also possible to look at the route in satellite format, there are other map options :- Hybrid, Open Street, Terrain, Traffic which gives even more information about unfamiliar locations, the little walking man makes it possible to take the street view.

I have to confess that Map Man has been responsible for designing the routes so far and still loves to mark things out on a good old ordinance survey map. As I am a relative cycling novice I do whinge a bit about hills (well the really big ones) and am not a great fan of cycling through traffic, but my confidence is growing.

Until I feel totally road savvy we have been trying out the most local cycle paths, what a great asset they are! Our last cycle was just over 23 miles at a leisurely pace with stops for exploration, investigation and a spot of picnicking.

The route took us across two different bridle paths one of which was very close to the local railway line; sadly I wasn’t quick enough to catch an image of a train as it coursed through the landscape.

We came across a ruined farm building sitting in a field of oilseed rape, it’s only moments away from being completely consumed by nature. The ground is incredibly dry, there’s been so little rain and yet there is still an incredible lushness everywhere.

We broke our ride in Finedon, in St Mary’s Churchyard, a beautifully kept, romantic place with a fantastic array of time worn head stones,

gargoyles gulping mouthfuls of blue and sun soaked ironstone walls, which spoke of other times and a different pace of life,

a Red Kite circled low enough to make out it’s wing markings.

Over the low walls, in the distance you catch a tantalising glimpse of Finedon Hall, a building which so nearly fell into complete ruin. You can read more and see archive photographs here

Whilst trying to catch a clearer view of the Hall we discovered cottage gardens, drying washing, the tantalising aroma of Sunday lunches, chickens, huge horse chestnut trees in full bloom, a disused scout building and the entrance to Finedon Pocket Park which bears the remains of the railway line that transported the iron ore quarried there between 1939 and 1949. Ironstone is characteristic of Northamptonshire and you can read more about the mining that took place in Burton Latimer (another point on our route) here

This building on the housing development behind the Church was one of the most curious meetings of ancient and modern

Rather than taking the short route home we backtracked across the second bridle path, catching sight of small groups, or couples out walking. We came across what looked as though it might have been some sort of railway building, bearing the ghosts of windows past

and found a row of houses, which might have been railway cottages as they were very close to the existing line

In some ways the whole day felt very Enid Blyton, but in a good way, choosing a slower mode of transport somehow takes you out of present time and creates spaces for contemplation, which may lead to future actions. The past is never the cosy postcard we send to ourselves but these cycling links are well worth a watch if you’re thirsty for a drop of nostalgia.

Cyclists' Special - part one

Cyclists' Special - part two

Snibston Lines and Connections

2011-04-18T12:52:00.000+01:00

My third and final walk to Snibston started at the pink gates of Belvoirdale School near Coalville's town centre, and followed the route of the old railway line that used to transport coal from the mines.

Our walk took us along these lines, noticing the crossings of bridges and paths, and then climbing the hill through the country park.

Our first clue to where we were was the long straight path from the car park at the supermarket which goes towards town and then crosses over, eventually linking to the old rail track that Snibston still use for steam train rides. The straightness of the path immediately made us wonder if it had been a rail line, when one of the children, Reuben, being sharp eyed, spotted the rail gate that is still at the end of the path, which confirmed our suspicions!

When I look at maps of Coalville, no matter what era the map is from I can always orientate where Snibston is by identifying the shape of the railway. For me, the gentle curve of the rail line has become the signature of Snibston.

The shape of the walk from Belvoirdale with railway line

The walk took on the theme of lines: we noticed the rail lines but also a ladder on a roof that seemed to lead nowhere. We noticed cracks in glass panes or paintwork that suggested maps. We found paths that connected to other paths, creating networks and straight lines.

Once at Snibston I showed the group how to make prints, and we all drew things that we had found on the walk. Their drawings and prints were great!

My third map is inspired by this print by Liam, aged 7:

Liam made a print of the ladder we had seen that led nowhere. He then repeated his print, and made another one for the corner shapes, so the print turned back on itself and joined up again.

Liam's print looks like a ladder. But it could also be a railway line. It could also be a map. I love that it almost echoes the shape of our walk, returning back to the beginning, just as we walked back to where we started.

My final map will be about following lines and connecting back to the routes we discovered.

THE GREAT ESCAPE Part 2

2011-04-12T21:20:00.000+01:00

As we walked further out from the station, the feel of Perry Barr started to change dramatically.

Like Corby, Perry Barr has undergone a programme of regeneration and the One Stop Shopping Centre seems to be the flagship for the new, the clean, the modern and the convenient. The shops are full, the place is busy, it’s functional and like many other out of town retail complexes but its aspect and orientation does much to combat the impression made by Perry Barr when you alight from the station. There is energy and hustle, students and locals add to the hum of energy.

We decided to explore the University Campus, once again the nicest spaces were sheltered, curled inside, tree lined walk ways, small, planted courtyards, intimate study areas not immediately obvious from the outside view. From the steps leading up to the Student Union building you could see a sculptural conglomeration of pipe and ducting – reminiscent of a Paolozzi design or sculpture. Jo particualrly liked this as an gritty industrial backdrop to the shiny newness of the University piazza.

We continued walking, trying to find the edge of Perry Barr, or at least get a sense of its size. We asked how large Perry Barr was? We were directed towards a park, it seemed to imply this was as far as "Perry Barr" went. So we carried on down the road in search of the park.

On the way we passed the Greyhound Stadium. We already knew there was a Greyhound Stadium here and were quite excited as Carole owns a whippet. But of course when we got there the Stadium was empty. It was really strange, a place that would be a hive of excitement and atmosphere when the races are on, but when empty it had a weird feeling of loneliness and abandonment.

We stumbled upon the zigzag bridge, now dwarfed by a newer bridge just upstream which carries the traffic. The zigzag bridge itself is just for pedestrians, providing a really rather lovely, surprising and odd little path.

It was a long walk to Perry Park and we weren’t really sure if the park we came upon was the park we’d been looking for. They were building a new skate park, men and diggers were busy moving earth and reshaping the landscape. A lone skater practised his moves on a relatively new skate ramp. A path wound past the heavy vehicles and busy men, there was an expanse of grass punctuated by trees and drifts of crocuses.

A bowling green awaited bowlers and spaces cried out for parents and children, picnics and play.

We peered over a wrought iron railing and saw a drainage channel lined with Victorian blue brick. A man in a suit picked his way along the channel, measuring stick in one hand, camera in the other. He told us this was the first time the water had run so free and clear in many years, his face was a picture of pride and happiness at the completion of a job well done. We all agreed that the structure did have its own beauty about it.

We were particularly struck by the park, how beautiful it was after the business and urbanity of the part of Perry Barr that we first arrived at, and yet it was practically empty of people even on that glorious sunny day. Another man working on clearing the channel told us that the park was always this empty. We felt an urge to adopt the park, draw people to it, fill it with noise and laughter.

In the distance, on the far edge of the park, we could see a large construction project underway. This, we were told, is the new stadium, due to open as part of the Olympics. Obviously there were big plans for this area and we wondered how the stadium would affect the park - would it draw more people to use it? We realised that the "Be a Star in Perry Barr" campaign must be part of this project, to involve local people in the Olympic event.

So what next? - We want to come back, meet more people, and explore more of the area. Our visit gave us lots to think about and the great thing about train journeys is that short amount of time to reflect on where you have just been.

We discussed our impressions and the idea that Perry Barr had many friendly and positive things but these were underlying and hidden away, like the people, sense of community, the park and the zigzag bridge. We wondered, where is the heart of Perry Barr? This idea is something we would like to develop into a proposal for the town. A way of mapping and networking Perry Barr and the impressions of people who live there - where do they think the heart is? Does each person have a different location for their heart? Is it a very personal thing? Where do people get together? What potential is there for community celebration?

If you live in Perry Barr, send us your thoughts on Where is the Heart of Perry Barr?

More photographs from the day

THE GREAT ESCAPE Part 1

2011-03-25T17:47:00.000Z

PERRY BARR, MARCH 4^TH 2011

Perry Barr, sounds rural, romantic or like the name of a childhood sweet, we’d never been there and we went with few preconceptions other than it was unlikely to be rural, romantic or anything like a childhood sweet!

To take advantage of our £10 Great Escape ticket we had to begin our journey at Northampton Station, a busy place but very ugly in a low, crouching, cramped kind of way. It’s a functional place with many commuters using the line to get to and from work; it must cost commuters a fortune in parking fees every week.

On our arrival at Perry Barr we knew we were going to have to work hard to make the place come alive in our imagination, if Northampton Station was ugly, then Perry Barr really needed to be adopted by the community. The London Midland lime green and black livery did do something to add a visual cohesion but there was a sense of things being a bit run down and unloved.

Maps, help points and signage were sad, tired and there was a cherry tree that seemed to be held prisoner in the unforgiving embrace of the concrete stair-rail, there was also bird song, and budding on the branches, the light was lifting, warming and the adventure was about to begin.

Out on the street we were struck by the noise, petrol fumes and the savage gash created by the main road running through Perry Barr. It was hard to get any sense of the place, it wasn’t a space it was a line. There had been an attempt to make the Subways beautiful in an Art Deco-meets-the-8o’s way.

The community didn’t love that either; the walls were tagged, the walkways were filthy, cigarette butts and cast aside rubbish etched itself on the eye.

It was obvious that there were the beginnings of regeneration; the bold colours of a large, curved billboard jumped out at you, urging you to "Be a Star in Perry Barr". The significance of this became clear later.

As our senses began to atune to the surroundings, we started to pick out interesting details that seemed to hint at stories: a dignified Church building sitting next to a modern factory / warehouse complex. Sheltered under the ornate arch of the church entrance, a man, smartly dressed in a dark suit, texting on his iphone……….

A jumble of sudden colour at the market, bright fruity colours lined up in blocks that sang out amongst the concrete and tarmac greys of the main road.

Having almost stumbled over a monument to P. C. Malcolm Walker we stopped to puzzle over it.

A voice behind us piped up “ I can tell you all about that, what happened that day……” and Sal the manager of a Property Lettings Agency launched into the history of the monument, what had happened on the day, the subways, the tension between communities, his passion for local and family history, his travels in the forces, the wide and varied network of his family and roots. We were wide-eyed and glued to the spot and we felt it was as if we were meant to meet this person who was able to make the location come alive.

Once we started noticing the individual, whether it be in the glorious local market or the tales of Sal, we realised how friendly this place can be. Many of the people milling about were calling a good morning to others in the street, there did seem to be some sense of community and people were, on the whole, smiling. An underlying warmth in Perry Barr had started to reveal itself and we were glad we had taken the time to look deeper. As our walk around the area continued, we found more things of astonishing beauty and potential, and we left hugely inspired... which you can read about in part 2, coming soon!

Old photos of Perry Barr

Some history

Myth Maps in Snibston; the story so far

2011-03-16T14:53:00.000Z

Two fantastic walks have been completed to Snibston with family groups. Thank you to all the Intrepid Explorers: the Paines, the Bishops, the Petersons, the Rawsons and the Wheelers, for coming with me and bringing these walks alive! Thanks also to Maurice and Esale for joining us, and to Snibston for making us so welcome.

Working drawing

My idea for Myth Maps is to look at how maps can tell tales about places and the meaning of places. I am interested in how places build up layers of meaning over time, and those meanings can become intermingled, stories can be distorted through whispers or tales that are guessed at, overheard and passed on as fact. Thus myths are created about the places that we inhabit and visit.

For Myth Maps I will map the walks that we took, not just the route we followed but the people who were with me (the Intrepid Explorers!), what they said, the tales we told, the dreams we dreamt, what happened on that particular walk on that particular day with that particular group. The myths we made.

Walk 1 in February started at St Mary's Lane where Leicester Road meets Standard Hill. Following footpaths across the fields, we looked for "treasure", listened to the sounds, and responded to the shapes of the land by running, jumping and climbing.

The walk took on a surreal, dreamlike quality, children finding delight in small, strange things they discovered, that seemed out of place and time.

They climbed trees and dug at the sides of fields, making up stories about magical lands and the King of the Forest.

My first map is called A Map of the Real and Surreal.

A Map of the Real and Surreal: work in progress

Detail

Walk 2 started in Ravenstone at Woodstone School, a new school by new houses and next to a host of young trees still being planted into a new woodland.

Ravenstone to Snibston: work in progress

Crossing through a newly made park full of mounds and mole hills, we then zigzagged through Ravenstone and into a playing field, down an old green lane and onto Church Lane, lined with 19th century houses.

Back across a field and up the steep hill where suddenly we saw Snibston below us, and the children raced down the hill to get there!

This walk seemed to take on the theme of different times overlapping and connecting, the old, new and the yet to come. Each space we passed through had its own sound, its own atmosphere. Some places had a sense that somebody had just been there - fresh animal tracks, the marks of footballers' boot studs.

An archeaological dig?

I have long had a feeling that Snibston as a place is where the past, present and future co-exist. When I asked Jack, one of the boys on the second walk, where he thought the oldest place on our walk had been, he said "Snibston". When I asked him where was the newest place, he thought for a while and then said "Snibston" again! And he's exactly right!

The final walk is on Sunday, starting from Belvoirdale School in Coalville.

Back from Beijing

2011-03-10T09:59:00.001Z

I spent Christmas and New Year in Beijing, China.

The city is changing so fast, the Chinese are building at a tremendous rate. Staying in the Central Business District we were surrounded by shiny new skyscrapers and neon lights. Incredibly clean streets but quite polluted by the thousands of cars, which are really starting to cause a problem with the traffic and emissions snarling up the city.

There are still masses of bicycles everywhere, though, sneaking their way down the sides of the car-packed streets, in this city that was once famous for its millions of bikes. (Carole and I both love bikes!)

Being in Beijing is a bit like Time Travel. I get this feeling in many cities, one of the reasons that I love them, but in Beijing it is extreme. China is an ancient civilisation and its history is millenia long, at the same time it is embracing the new at an astonishing rate.

Exploring the city you really feel this, the ancient and the new are built next to each other everywhere.

You can lose yourself in the huge complexes and tranquillity of the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace, and yet step out of the gate and you are instantly transported back into the futuristic reconstruction of the city.

When I was working on the Children's Trail in St George's, Leicester, in 2007, I wrote about cities:

There is a dreamlike quality in many cities, where buildings and street designs are worked out as they go along and have to fit in and around older structures. In Beijing I fear that they are in danger of knocking down and replacing too much, thus losing the richness of the layers of architectural history that gives most cities their unique characters. The Chinese are only just starting to realise the importance of their heritage and that it must be rescued.

Beijing is full of contradictions. Despite Communism and the Cultural Revolution, ancient belief systems still persist. The Chinese are famous for their superstitions. Even the new buildings are still built on Feng Shui principles! The famous "Birds Nest" Olympic Stadium represents to the Chinese the body of the dragon, therefore they had to balance this with another building which stands a little way away, respresenting the dragon's tail.

The body of the dragon...

...and the tail

(Apparently the head of the dragon is underground!)

Another wonderful thing we found was the Shard Shop. Tucked away and quite hard to track down, this little family run business is using old culture in innovative ways. During the Cultural Revolution people were not allowed to keep their traditional Ming and Qing pottery and so thousands of these important pieces were smashed up. The Shard Shop is gathering these shards of pottery and making them into new things. We bought several shard boxes as gifts, lacquered boxes with beautifully decorated blue and white pottery shards inlaid into their lids, curved pieces that hinted at their original life as a huge rounded vase. Wonderful and unique.

And how about this for mapping! The Temple of Heaven, a circular building built to represent the celestial year, with four inner pillars for the seasons, twelve outer pillars for the months, you look up into the ceiling of the Temple and it is like a plan for the heavens!

Preview to Perry Barr

2011-03-05T18:12:00.000Z

Ann Leonard sent us lots of information about our selected place, Perry Barr:

Perry Barr is home to the
Birchfield Harriers - The UK's Premier Athletics Club
www.birchfieldharriers.net

More about Perry Barr here:
Perry - History of Birmingham placenames

Perry Barr was the northern half of the ancient parish of Handsworth lying on rising ground north-east of the River Tame; the other half, confusingly also known as Handsworth, lies south-west of the river. The boundaries at the north of the parish was marked by ancient roads: Queslett Road, the Chester Road, College Road to its junction with Kingstanding Road. From there the boundary followed the line of the Roman Icknield Street down to Hockley Brook.

Perry Bridge, popularly known as the Zig-Zag Bridge used to take the Aldridge Road across the River Tame. Built in 1709 this is a four-arched packhorse bridge in red sandstone which crosses the river with a span of 15m and a 50m long embankment which raises the roadway above the flood plain. The Roman river crossing was by a ford, perhaps paved, some 200m east of this bridge at Holford and may have been used as the main crossing until medieval times.

Thanks Ann!

We will be posting a report of our trip to Perry Barr soon!

Our Mystery Destination

2011-02-28T16:01:00.002Z

We will be visiting Perry Barr for our derive on Friday.

First I picked 15 places from the network that I liked the names of but had never visited.
Alsager
Kidsgrove
Stone
Oakengates
Shifnal
Penkridge
Perry Barr
Lye
Wylde Green
Polesworth
Danzey
Wootton Wawen
Tring
Woburn Sands
Long Buckby

Then I sent a text to Carole to pick a number between 1 and 10. (She didn't know what I wanted it for.) She picked 7.

I counted every seventh number and crossed it off, then continued counting and crossing off the seventh until only one place was left.

Kidsgrove.

BUT - Carole said this is where her partner's parents live! Strange coincidence. So we tried again. Carole picked 9.

We got Long Buckby.

Only one stop from Northampton, where we will be starting from. Not much of a train journey.

We thought we would go further afield.

I repeated the exercise, having removed Kidsgrove and Long Buckby.

I got Perry Barr, near Walsall. Neither of us have been there before. That is where we will go.

Our Mystery Trip - where shall we go? It's up to YOU!

2011-02-05T12:36:00.002Z

On 4th March Carole and Jo will be taking a Mystery Trip via rail to a station somewhere on the London Midland Network. We don't know where we are going to go. THAT'S UP TO YOU!

We are asking all readers of our blog to vote for where they would like us to go on the network.

You might know one of the places and think we should go, or you might just be intrigued by the name of the place and want us to find out what it's like there.

Please click here to look at the network map. Choose a place and make your vote by leaving us a comment or emailing us at milesanddacombe@virginmedia.com saying where you would like us to go and why.

We will choose the best idea on Thursday 3rd March, the day before we go, and then we will write a report on the blog of what we found there!

Why are we doing this? London Midland Network are doing a Great Escape ticket for only £10 for adults and £5 for children anywhere on their network between 19th February and 6th March 2011. If you also go on a Great Escape, please write to us about your trip too and we will publish it on our blog. Click here for more details on the Great Escape ticket.

On the Rails

2011-01-17T08:46:00.020Z

During the Autumn and winter of 2010 I spent a lot of time exploring the delights of the Brampton Valley Way cycle track. It's a great route to cycle for those new to cycling (ie me!) with plenty of scenery and not too many hills. It runs along a former railway line and there is also a stretch of line still run and maintained by Northampton and Lamport Railway which has a team of dedicated volunteers who run the service, bookshop, cafe - you can eat on the station platform or in one of the stationary carriages. The volunteers also repair and maintain the line and restore the rolling stock. Near the entrance to the Brampton Halt and Cycle Track is the Brampton View Care Village.

I've been thinking a lot about the ways we get ourselves from A to B, there are huge and increasing demands on a diminishing energy supply, we have been encouraged to see the future as a seamless progression, societies moving forward, further, faster, higher. But what if the future requires us to visit older forms of transportation - could we go back? Is this why I am constantly drawn to canals, rails and pathways? What if cycling becomes necessity rather than recreation. My father remembers travelling from Kennington (with cycles) by train to Witney and then cycling with is father from Witney Station to Bibury to visit his grandparents. He cycled to work before the advent of Ada a converted Ford van (very early type). I remember riding on the crossbar of my dad's bike, on the way to the park in Edmonton - I always felt perfectly safe but he was roundly admonished by our GP for adopting this rather unsafe practice!

Cycling off-road certainly gives you the opportunity to move whilst dreaming - there are pitfalls and hazards, there are walkers, dogs, horses, children, potholes, mud, thorns etc to be mindful of, but there is enough space for everyone. There are benches and secluded lay-bys which seem to appear just at the places they are most needed. I wish I'd started cycling sooner, before carpel tunnel and bad circulation set in. Getting all of me the right temperature for the best possible ride, especially in the colder weather, has been a challenge.

The route is punctuated by a series of way markers and the journey breaks into neat segments

Rolling stock awaiting restoration. Photos by Andrew Rushton

The weather this winter has also made me think more about how we move through the country, I don't love driving in snow having once been caught in a white out. It took me 8 hrs to complete a journey which would normally take 20 minutes and I hated every minute. The promise of more snow before Christmas encouraged me to abandon driving and to take the train to Cheltenham to visit a friend from Canada. Things took more time, there were several changes, but it was all smooth. On the train from Birmingham to Cheltenham the conductor went and got me a coffee from the trolley detained several carriages up - a small friendly thing which brightened the journey. The trees in passing fields were laden with great balls of mistletoe, perfect, sculptural tangles against the greyed out skies.

The year's ending seemed to be full of recurring motifs - station platforms and rail networks

Bicycles

The collision of new and old architectural details on station platforms

The sense of travelling through rather than traveling across

The weather reports were amazingly accurate and just as forecast, the snow arrived in Cheltenham on the morning of my departure, taxis weren't running so there was a hurried scramble to catch a bus to the station, then a train home whilst they were still running. By the time I reached Derby all signs of snow had disappeared, there were many conversations on the train between people in various parts of the country trying to get to London for parties or family gatherings, now held up in traffic jams and snow drifts. My friend's journey to London by coach was much more hazardous, the snow was falling thickly, conditions were treacherous, there were delays and detours and we were all keeping everything crossed that her plane from Heathrow to Canada would get her back to her family in time for Christmas. It did - many others weren't so lucky.

26th December 2010, back at Brampton Halt,

on foot, snow having become crystalline particles,

crunching underfoot, bitterly cold,

staggeringly beautiful

Frost forests captured on static carriage windows

remnants of the breath of excited children

after all the mince pies and Santa Specials had

rolled on for another year

Icicles and rust

hold-ups and signal failures

Mysterious Deer prints

and frozen blooms

lay scattered across the snow.

Punctuated by Cycles

2011-01-16T23:49:00.017Z

In October 2009 I was given an hour slot on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Anthony Gormley’s One & Other, a year on and the book of the project was being launched at the Wellcome Collection

I was curious to see some of the other people who had taken part and the Wellcome Collection had intrigued me for some time so decided to make a day of it. 2010 was further year of reclamation & excavation for me – reclaiming things I had loved doing but somehow lost the knack of and excavating, well, myself. One of the things I’d lost the knack of was getting to London to see plays, exhibitions, meet friends, walking through the changing cityscape and exploring. There is something wonderful about having a day to fill your mind and heart with the industry and creativity to be found in a busy city and the day couldn’t have been better, bright with just a slight edge on the air.

There has been much press coverage given to the rise in obesity and until a year ago, I had fallen into that category, I had lost the joy in movement and the fun of dressing up. At the moment, I’m still a work in progress but I’m on the way to renewed fitness and one of the things that helped has been taking up cycling. Londoners have also caught the cycling bug, perhaps I was in the frame of mind to notice, but my walk that day did seem to be punctuated by bicycles.

A grid of shadow, an island of rest

By road & rail

A fragmentation

A gathering

I really wanted to walk across the floor covered with hand painted ceramic sunflower seeds in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, I wanted to feel them falling through my fingers, but alas, the floor was cordoned off. They were worried about the dust, the danger to people's lungs but I'm sure it would have been far too tempting for far too many people - could you resist scooping them up and carrying them off? They were very beautiful and highly desirable. The security guard told me that the seeds had been weighed and that Ai Weiwei knew exactly how many should be there, I imagine that it must be hard to picture such a sea as a number - The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei

Containment

Captives

Almost abandoned

Tryst

We are all brief pinpoints of light

It's underneath our feet

2010-12-22T18:08:00.001Z

A couple of things coalesced for me last week. More maps, walking, networks...

On Monday I had a great time walking around Snibston and finding the footpaths that lead in and out of the site. (There is now a Facebook page for the Transform project at Snibston.)

I also met with Nick at the museum, who was fantastic and spent lots of time showing me the maps of the mining seams and how they had been mapped from the mid 1800s until the 1980s, a period of almost 150 years of mining in the area.

Walking back through the fields I had this astonishing sense of the mapped tunnels beneath my feet, layer upon layer of seams cut through the earth, like the floors of a building inverted.

On the maps you can see that the mining seams are absolutely vast, stretching out underneath the town and neighbouring villages.

The maps themselves are beautiful, and incredibly complex. Spiderwebs of tunnels that radiate out, the drawn lines mapped on top of other maps of the surface - the underneath layered on top, a very strange sense of parallel worlds that exist simultaneously in the same place.

Lines and networks stretch out everywhere, below and above ground.

A couple of days later I attended the New Research Trajectories event in Nottingham. Bringing together research students from across the region, the event had a small audience who were also participants in exploring Nottingham on a walk, where we encountered and took part in art presentations and happenings in unusual places. (There is a great write-up and photos of the event on Heather Connelly's blog, scroll down to NEW RESEARCH TRAJECTORIES - Navigation in the City and Online Space event, Nottingham, 15th December.)

I met Jackie Calderwood who has done some interesting work on exploring spaces and walking. She led us in an exercise on "Clean Language", asking each other questions in a set format which revealed deep levels of thought about our own research interests as well as producing extremely concise words or short poems.

We had to write our results on a sticker and also use colour in a grid pattern to express our research interests. We then had to find a place to "disseminate" our stickers.

We visited the incredible Nottingham tunnels, we also experienced work in an old theatre and finished in a room above the Surface Gallery currently being used as a LAB for an artists' collective, where they served us an excellent minestrone soup!

My disseminated sticker ended up with the words "It's underneath your feet". The colours on the grid represented the natural and the urban, reflecting how suddenly, by walking, you can cross from a predominantly urban area into a green stretch of land and countryside. I placed my sticker on the bottom of a scaffolding pole, a place being refurbished which, for me, made it a transitional space.

Lots of connections with my walk at Snibston. And a very fascinating day.

The 2010 Social Networking Map

2010-12-11T14:57:00.002Z

A humorous map of social networks by Flowtown, including the Sea of Personal Information and the Rising Island of Google Buzz. I particularly like the island of Youtube which can be found in the Sea of Desperation!

Click here to see the whole map

New commissions and a little Coalville history

2010-11-28T21:03:00.004Z

Carole and I have both got ourselves new commissions!

I will be working on my Myth Maps project at Snibston Colliery in Coalville. Carole will be working on a project for Leicestershire Museums, which she has called The Held in the Hand Hoard. I'll let her tell you more about that herself.

I am particularly pleased with my Myth Maps project as it draws together a number of things I have been thinking about, things I have been blogging about here and it links with this project.

Leicester & Swannington rail ticket

A little history...

The colliery at Coalville, as I blogged before (see Preservation and Persistence), includes the wonderful historic railway track. A line was put down by George and Robert Stephenson for the Leicester to Swannington Railway (L&S), one of the first of England's railways, opened in 1832 to bring coal from pits in west Leicestershire (Whitwick, Ibstock and Bagworth) to Leicester.

The Leicester & Swannington Rail Line

Whitwick Colliery, 1926

George Stephenson was known as the "father of railways", having built the first public railway using steam locomotion (the Stockton and Darlington Railway). His son, Robert, worked with his father and developed the famous "Rocket". Robert was the engineer for the Swannington line and George opened the Snibston colliery the following year.

Midland Railway Station in Coalville, 1889

Sidings at Bardon Hill quarry

So the history of Snibston colliery and the railways are intertwined. It was the success of the railways to speed up the transportation of coal that enabled the coal industry from west Leicestershire to thrive, which enabled the opening of the pit at Snibston.

Coalville East Station

Thanks to the Coalville Heritage Society website for these pictures. Also, they have a wonderful sound archive of Coalville dialects, called Covill Tork - click on the link if you want to find out what the following mean (and make sure you have your speakers on!):

Woreeawreet?
Ayoopmissusenthemassteeratom?

Covill Tork

Turning towards tomorrow

2010-11-09T18:19:00.000Z

In 2008, when Carole and I were working on the Fingerprints project, we wrote quite a lot of poetry. Going through some of our musings the other day, I came across this that I wrote:

It seems that, in our collaboration, we had already started considering the links between time and travel.

Click here to see some of our other Musings from the project.

We are definitely turning towards tomorrow now, and really just starting out on our project. We have already had responses to our postcard, so thanks to those who have replied. Responses have been enthusiastic and encouraging and there have been suggestions of other people we should contact, thus already expanding our Undiscovered Network!

Mood Mapping

2010-10-28T15:08:00.000+01:00

I love this! The Complexity and Social Networks Blog from Harvard University have a post with an animation of how they mapped the mood of the US by mapping people's happy and grumpy tweets on Twittter! It's fascinating, as the blog says you can watch "the pulsating 24-hour twitter mood cycle of the United States", the moods appear to change in waves across the country.

Click here to take a look