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!

Transitions - the Movie

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

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

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

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

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

Blowing Away the Cobwebs - Wellbeing Walk 2 - North

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