Moving Through

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.

Whatstandwell

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!

Through The Gaps - Wellbeing Walk 1 - West

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."

THOUGHTS FROM THE WAITING ROOM

I feel as though I am in the Waiting Room – in the time before activity or before our proposed journeys can begin, I am pacing round the room, looking out, watching the clock, ready for the off. There are walls and windows between me, and where I hope to be. There is excitement, a sitting on the edge of my seat feeling, so many things may yet be possible.

The Waiting Room itself could be a place of creative activity, convention dictates that the passenger must sit and wait, but other activities could take place in this ‘waiting’ space. It could also be seen as a space waiting for something to happen. I can see all the possible activities that could take place but I must sit on my hands for the time being, and wait. In this time of waiting, I’m taking the opportunity to make other sorts of journeys on different, pre-existing networks.

Out on winding country roads hardly a car wide navigating by ordinance survey map learning to look for landmarks – pylons cutting across the road and changing direction – seeing first the diagram on a map before the pylons appear in reality. Very little traffic, apart from the inevitable, impatient 4 by 4.

Cradled inside an old landscape of gnarled trees and bountiful fields, villages connected by many small roads that crisscross and intersect each other. Small wonders that can punctuate the day, a well- stocked gift shop, a recycled wool blanket at a bargain price, the impromptu cream tea in a tree shrouded car park.

Striding out on tow paths beside canals, walking along networks and systems, which were designed to transport all kinds of goods, routes cut into the landscape, engineered and manmade.

As with trains, these walks can afford a glimpse into the gardens and backyards of others, some well tended, some a blank canvass, others chaotic and uncared for.

Passing alongside once thriving industrial buildings, the landscape bearing traces of change, decay, renewal, the ghosts of problem solving, remnants of the places where networking systems met and moved on, leaving one mode defunct once a new form of transportation took it’s place.

Ghost on the Rails by MacCanonymous (You Tube link)