Outdoor Art Kits to win!

As part of our Forward Footing project, we are giving away our limited edition Outdoor Art Kits to lucky winners!

The kits are designed and handmade by us and each one is unique. They are stuffed full of inspiration and all the tools and materials you need to create your own exciting interventions in the landscape when you are out exploring.

Winners will be picked from people who take part in any of the following events (click on the event for details):

The Flaming Skirt Festival, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, Sunday 7th June

The Flavour Exchange Mystery Tour, Birmingham, as part of the Still Walking Festival, Saturday 20th June

The Flaming Skirt Festival, Ironville, Derbyshire, Sunday 28th June

We hope to see you there!

New dates in June for Forward Footing walks

We have some new dates arranged for our Forward Footing walks. Places are limited so please email us to book or for more details at milesanddacombe@virginmedia.com

We have two dates with the Flaming Skirt Festival:

Various venues starting at 10am at Ivanhoe College, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, Sunday 7th June. Finish 5:30pm

Various venues starting at 10am at Ironville Church Hall, Amber Valley, Derbyshire, Sunday 28th June 2015. Finish 5:30pm.

Flaming Skirt is a one-day festival of creative activity for all the family, including a bus between venues. More details will follow. Visit the Flaming Skirt website to get a flavour from last year's festival.

In between those two dates, we will be in

Birmingham, Saturday 20th June 2015, (times to be confirmed) as part of the Still Walking Festival.

The Still Walking Festival run a series of walks led by people of different disciplines and various expertise, in order to re-discover the city from new viewpoints. You can read more about them on their website and there will be more info on 2015 events shortly.

Also, we are planning a walk in

Norwich in Eaton Park.

The date for this is yet to be confirmed, so keep checking back to this page or join our e-mailing list to be kept up to date.

New commissions and a little Coalville history

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