A Ghost Pub Pilgrimage

A Ghost Pub Pilgrimage through Stroud and the Five Valleys
Raising funds for the Trussell Trust in September

Walk and/or bicycle your way through this list of pubs.
Tick them off.
Keep a diary or a record if you wish.
Take photos for the archive.

Let these pub names and addresses
Come alive again
(‘Have another?’
‘I don’t mind if I do.’)
And help us all out in these hard times;
Let’s find them and toast them with imaginary pints
On a series of Ghost Pub Pilgrimages on foot or on bicycle,
And if you know of any other ghost pubs or inns,
Please send them in …

Do the list in any order.
On your own and/or in a group.
And raise funds in any way you wish for the Trussell Trust.

Perhaps you have personal or family memories
Of old times spent in some of these inns:
Got stories to tell? Please send them in.
Perhaps draw pub sign for these lost gathering places,
Or perhaps write a poem about the pub name,
Or have a group rendition of The Listeners by Walter de la Mere.

With thanks to Geoff Sandles
and his invaluable and necessary
Stroud Valley Pubs Through Time
And his wonderful website
https://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/
And Pubs of the Old Stroud Brewery,
By Wilfred Merrett

Painswick
Adam & Eve, Paradise, (formerly The Plough Inn), A46
The Bell, (bombed 1941) Bell Street
Bunch of Grapes, Cheltenham Road
Cross Hands, Stammages Lane
Fleece Inn, Bisley Street
Golden Heart, Tibbiwell Street
New Inn, St Mary’s Street
Red Lion
Star Inn, Gloucester Street
White Horse, Vicarage Street

A Ghost Pub Pilgrimage through Stroud and the Five Valleys
Raising funds for the Trussell Trust in September

Walk and/or bicycle your way through this list of pubs.
Tick them off.
Keep a diary or a record if you wish.
Take photos for the archive.

Let these pub names and addresses
Come alive again
(‘Have another?’
‘I don’t mind if I do.’)
And help us all out in these hard times;
Let’s find them and toast them with imaginary pints
On a series of Ghost Pub Pilgrimages on foot or on bicycle,
And if you know of any other ghost pubs or inns,
Please send them in …

Do the list in any order.
On your own and/or in a group.
And raise funds in any way you wish for the Trussell Trust.

Perhaps you have personal or family memories
Of old times spent in some of these inns:
Got stories to tell? Please send them in.
Perhaps draw pub sign for these lost gathering places,
Or perhaps write a poem about the pub name,
Or have a group rendition of The Listeners by Walter de la Mere.

With thanks to Geoff Sandles
and his invaluable and necessary
Stroud Valley Pubs Through Time
And his wonderful website
https://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/
And Pubs of the Old Stroud Brewery,
By Wilfred Merrett

Painswick
Adam & Eve, Paradise, (formerly The Plough Inn), A46
The Bell, (bombed 1941) Bell Street
Bunch of Grapes, Cheltenham Road
Cross Hands, Stammages Lane
Fleece Inn, Bisley Street
Golden Heart, Tibbiwell Street
New Inn, St Mary’s Street
Red Lion
Star Inn, Gloucester Street
White Horse, Vicarage Street

Sheepscombe
Crown Inn (now private residence: Church Orchard SO 892104)

Pitchcombe
Eagle Inn (now Eagle Cottage), A46

Ruscombe
George Browning’s off-licence

STROUD
Walbridge
Anchor Inn/Linton Inn, Anchor Terrace
The Bell,
Kings Arms, (Butts site), Lower George
Ship Inn/Ship and Anchor, Walbridge

Lightpill
The Cyprus Inn, Bath Road
Fleece Inn
Kite’s Nest, Bath Road

Bowbridge
Canal Tavern
New Inn

Dudbridge
Bridge Inn
Railway Inn , Dudbridge Road
Victoria Tap

Cainscross
Alpine Lodge (The Stratford) Stratford Road
Clothiers Arms
Hope Inn, Cainscross Road
White Horse Inn, Westward Road
White Lion, High Street
Henry Robbins & Son, Cider Licence (off sales)
Alfred Cratchley’s off-licence (Godsells Brewery)
Mrs Haden’s Off-licence

Paganhill
Stag & Hounds
Spring Inn, Paganhill Lane (now called Spring House – residential)

Cashes Green
Gardeners Rest, Harper Road

Ebley
Bell Inn, Ebley Wharf, Stroudwater Canal (by Oil Mills Lane)
Coach & Horses 260 Westward Road
Lamb Inn, Westward Road
Old Crown, Chapel Lane SO 827048
Malakoff Inn, Westward Road

Whiteshill
Star Inn, Star Green
Bird in Hand, on the road to Edge: now residential Bird in Hand Cottage SO839082
Bell Inn, Bell Pitch (now residential Bell House) SO 840072, Woodcutters Arms

In Town
The Railway Station
The Imperial.

Russell Street
Bricklayers Arms
Foresters Arms (just up from the Railway Hotel)
Railway Hotel

Gloucester Street
Masons Arms
Ye Old Painswick Inn

King Street
Chequers Inn
Golden Heart (junction of Oxfam and the betting shop in Stroud. In the 19th century, the Golden Heart had a skittle alley, and the famous Chartist, Henry Vincent, spoke near there before the Selsley Hill mass meeting in 1839.
The Greyhound; Green Dragon 43 King Street
Kings Arms
Royal George Hotel

High Street
Corn Exchange Hotel (45 High Street)
Dolphin
George Inn,
Nelson Inn 46/47 High Street.

George Street
Post Office Inn
Woolpack Inn

John Street
True Briton

The Shambles
Butchers Arms/Corn Hall Hotel

Union Street
Market Tavern
Plough Inn
Swan Inn
Union Street
Union Inn (The Pelican – Market Tavern)

London Road
Sundial Inn

Near the Cross at the top of the High Street
Bedford Arms
Kings Head
The Lamb
Corn Exchange
The Crown
Orange Tree, (Hill Street?)
White Hart

Nelson Street
New George
New George Inn/Horseshoes Inn
Rising Sun
Wellington Arms

Acre Street area
Butchers Arms, 42 Acre Street
Cross Keys
Chapel Street off-licence
White Horse, Old Chapel Street
Swann Inn, Old Chapel Street

Parliament Street and beyond
Butchers Arms, Parliament Street
Cross Hands
Half Moon Inn, 62 Hill Street
Leopard Inn (stood just below Cotswold Playhouse)
New Inn, Silver Street (now Parliament Street)
Star in Tower Hill, Parliament Street
Oddfellows Arms, Summer Street
Red Lion Inn (Summer Street)
Middle Street off-licence
New Inn, Lower Street
Star Inn, Tower Street (prob near Orange Tree)
Weavers Arms, Meeting Street

Bisley Road
Target Inn
Spread Eagle, Bisley Old Road (north side – demolished 60’s part of road widening)
The Bisley House.

The Leazes
Globe Inn, Lower Leazes
Horse and Groom, Upper Leazes.

Slad Road
Prince of Wales

Callowell
Plough Inn (just to the north of Callowell Farm).

Rodborough
The Lamb Inn, Butterrow Hill
Princess Royal, Butterrow
Off-licence, Spillmans
Woolpack, Inn (Woolpack Cottage), Butterrow
Golden Cross Inn, Bath Road
Boot Inn, The Street, Kingscourt, SO 845033
Nags Head, Bowl Hill, Kingscourt (just possible to read the name), Golden Fleece, The Butts
Edward Barradine’s off-licence (Spillmans Pitch?)
White Lion, Dudbridge Road
Princess Royal, Butterow (about 50 yards from The Prince Albert), Duke of York

Avening and Cherington
Sawyers Arms 71 High Street
Nags Head, Nags Head Lane
Farriers Arms/Horse & Farrier Avening,
Barn House, Cherington
Yew Tree Inn, Cherington.

Uley, Dursley, Cam, Coaley, Berkeley, North Nibley, Wotton-under-Edge, Arlingham, Framilode, Cambridge, Slimbridge, Saul, Sheppardine, Elmore, Longney

White Lion, 49 The Street, Uley, Nags Head, Uley, Lower Crown Inn, The Street, Uley (was next to the village hall), Shears Inn, Uley (residential: houses: The Shears), Swan Inn, Coaley (now Old Swan Cottage), Heart of Oak, Ham Hill, Coaley (now residential: Oak House), White Hart, Wotton Road, North Nibley, Apple Tree Inn, Wotton-under-Edge, The Ram, Wotton-under-Edge, New Inn, Kingshill Lane, Cam, Lamb Inn, Chapel Street, Cam, Foresters Arms, 31 Chapel Street, Lower Cam, Butchers Arms, Lower Cam, White Lion, Market Place, Dursley, White Hart, Long Street, Dursley, Star Inn, Silver Street, Dursley, Railway Inn, Long Street, Dursley, New Bell, Long Street, Dursley, Lamb Inn, Long Street, Dursley, Hen & Chicken, Woodmancote, Dursley, Crown Inn, 41 Long Street, Dursley, Cross Keys, Union Street, Dursley, Apple Tree Inn, Cam, Bull Inn, Bull Pitch, Dursley, Broadwell Tavern, Silver Street, Dursley, Boot Inn, Silver Street, Dursley, Bell Inn, Cam, Bell & Castle Inn, Parsonage Street, Dursley, Bell Inn, Berkeley Heath, Bell Inn, Arlingham, Old Bell, Arlingham Bell Inn, High Street, Arlingham (just off Passage Road), Yew Tree Inn, Woodfield Road, Cam, Berkeley Vale Hotel, Stone A38, Spread Eagle, Newport, nr Berkeley, Off-licence, Alkerton? Newport nr Berkeley, Newport Towers Hotel, Newport, Darrell Arms, Upper Framilode, Junction Inn, Framilode, Drover’s Arms, Bristol Road, Cambridge, Fox Inn, Woodford, Stone, near Berkeley (now a private residence Foxley House ST 692958), Crown Inn, Stone (just off the A38 on the road to Lower Stone – private residence, Crown Cottage), George Inn, Berkeley, George Inn, Bristol Road, Cambridge, Bell Inn, Bristol Road, Cambridge, White Lion, Bristol Road, (now residential) Cambridge, Shepherds Patch Inn, Slimbridge (now Patch Farm), Drum & Monkey/Junction Inn, Saul (now Junction House), Saul off-licence, Windbound Inn, Sheppardine, Stonebench Inn, Elmore, New Inn/Plate of Elvers, Longney, Swann Inn, Coaley, White Hart/Stagecoach Inn, Newport, near Berkeley, Star Inn, Heathfield (A38), near Berkeley, (now a private residence Star Inn Cottage ST 702984), Apple Tree Cider House, Halmore Lane, Hamfallow, near Berkeley (now a private residence the Old Cider House).

Stone, North Nibley, Wotton-under-Edge
White Hart, Wotton Road, North Nibley
Apple Tree Inn, Wotton-under-Edge
The Ram, Wotton-under-Edge

Berkeley Vale Hotel, Stone A38
Fox Inn, Woodford, Stone, near Berkeley (now a private residence Foxley House ST 692958)
Crown Inn, Stone (just off the A38 on the road to Lower Stone – private residence, Crown Cottage)

Berkeley
Spread Eagle, Newport, nr Berkeley
Off-licence, Alkerton? Newport nr Berkeley
Newport Towers Hotel, Newport
George Inn, Berkeley,
White Hart/Stagecoach Inn, Newport, near Berkeley
Star Inn, Heathfield (A38), near Berkeley, (now a private residence Star Inn Cottage ST 702984)
Apple Tree Cider House, Halmore Lane, Hamfallow,near Berkeley (now a private residence the Old Cider House).
Bell Inn, Berkeley Heath
Crown Inn, Bevington (2 miles SW of Berkeley).

Arlingham, Framilode, Cambridge, Slimbridge, Saul

Bell Inn, Arlingham
Old Bell, Arlingham
Bell Inn, High Street, Arlingham (just off Passage Road)

Darrell Arms, Upper Framilode
Junction Inn, Framilode

Drover’s Arms, Bristol Road, Cambridge,
George Inn, Bristol Road, Cambridge
Bell Inn, Bristol Road, Cambridge
White Lion, Bristol Road, (now residential) Cambridge

Shepherds Patch Inn, Slimbridge (now Patch Farm)

Drum & Monkey/Junction Inn, Saul (now Junction House)
Saul off-licence

Sheppardine, Elmore, Longney

Windbound Inn, Sheppardine
Stonebench Inn, Elmore
New Inn/Plate of Elvers, Longney,

Sharpness and Purton
Sharpness Hotel & Dockers Club
Severn Bridge and Railway Hotel, Station Road, Sharpness
Plume of Feathers/Lammastide Inn, Brookend, near Sharpness (on Lip Lane on OS map)
Pilot Inn, Purton (now a private residence, ‘The Pilot’)
Berkeley Hunt, Canalside, Purton
Berkeley Arms, Purton
Waifers Arms, Halmore, near Purton
Fox & Goose, Halmore, near Purton

Horsley
Bell and Castle, The Cross
Boot Inn (next to the village shop)
Yew Tree Inn, Nupend (just before Cox’s Farm on the B4058 W-under-Edge road – private res now)
White Hart Inn, Downend (now a private residence, the Old White Hart SO 835983)

Chalford/Frampton Mansell/France Lynch/Bisley/Oakridge Area
Bell Inn, Chalford (used for Chartist meetings in the 1830s)
Company’s Arms, Chalford
The Crown, Waterlane
Company’s Arms, Chalford
Duke of York, Queen’s Square, Chalford Hill

Oak Inn, Thames & Severn Canal, Frampton Mansell
White Horse Inn, Cirencester Road, Frampton Mansell (at top of Cowcombe Hill)
Oak Inn, Frampton Mansell

Court House, France Lynch (to the south of the village on the hill leading up to Avenis Green)

George Inn, Bisley

Nelson Inn, Far Oakridge (junction of the Daneway and Far Iles Green Road)

Stonehouse and vicinity

Brewers Arms, Gloucester Road
Cross Hands Inn, nr the Midland Railway station
Crown and Anchor, High Street
Nag’s Head, Regent Street
Royal Arms, Bath Road
Royal Oak
Royal Arms, Burdett Road
Ship Inn, Bristol Road
Spa Inn, Oldends Lane

The Anchor Inn, Ryeford Wharf, Stroudwater Canal
New Inn, Roving Bridge, Newtown (Stroudwater Canal)
Victoria Inn, Foundry Lock, Upper Dudbridge, Stroudwater Canal

Ryeford Arms, Ebley Road, Ryeford
Haywardfields Inn, ‘Nowhere’, Ryford, (on main road from Ryford to Ebley – hardly anyone lived there GL10 2LQ)

Fleece Inn, Stanley Downtown, nr Stonehouse

Off-licence, Nupend, nr Stonehouse

The Stanleys and Eastington

Britannia, High Street, (just south of the Kings Head – now residential: Britannia Cottage), Kings Stanley
Crown Inn (western edge of southern village green), Kings Stanley
Lamb Inn, Leonard Stanley
Middle Yard, Kings Stanley,
Nelson, Kings Stanley
New Inn, Church Street (residential property called the Old New Inn) Kings Stanley,
Old Castle, Inn (now a private residence), Kings Stanley
Old Crown, Kings Stanley
Red Lion, 3 The Green, Kings Stanley
Royal Oak, Shute Street, Kings Stanley (on road corner where the street meets roads to Middleyard and Selsley (Broad Street – now a private residence)
Star Inn, Kings Stanley (now a private residence in Broad Street, on the western side, opposite the rec., next building south down from the Kings Head)
Weavers Arms, Middleyard, (now a private residence) Kings Stanley, White Hart Leonard Stanley.

Britannia, Eastington
Castle Inn, Mill End, Eastington (prob the private res Castle House SO 783055)
Fox Inn, Bath Road, Eastington
Kings Head, Alkerton Cross, Eastington

Selsley

Nags Head, Selsley (opp the village school in School Square and the Bell), New Inn, Selsley Common

Nailsworth Area
Clothiers Arms, Nailsworth
Crown Inn, The Cross, Nailsworth
George Hotel, Nailsworth
Red Lion, Nailsworth

Crown Inn, Inchbrook
New Inn, Cow Lane, Inchbrook (next door to the Crown on a bend of the A46)

Jovial Forester, Star Hill, Forest Green
The Rock and Fountain, Star Hill, Forest Green
The Star, Star Hill, (a few yards from the Jovial Forester), Forest Green The Upper Star, Star Hill, Forest Green

Kings Head Inn, Forwood

Kings Head Inn, Dunkirk
Nag’s Head Inn, Dunkirk

Rising Sun Inn, Shortwood

Yew Tree Inn, Atcombe Road, South Woodchester (private residence: Yew Tree House)
Ten Bells Inn, Convent Lane, Frogmarsh, South Woodchester
Ram Inn, South Woodchester
Plough Inn, Bath Road, Little Britain (A46), Woodchester
Cross Inn, High Street, South Woodchester SO 840023

Minchinhampton

Crown Inn
White Hart

White Lion
Salutation Inn
Trumpet Inn

Box and Burleigh

The Box Inn, Box, (Box Inn Cottage)
Halfway House, Box
Bell Inn, Burleigh
Red Lion, Swells Hill, Burleigh,

Brimscombe and Thrupp

Brimscombe:

Kings Arms, Bourne, Brimscombe
Nelson, Brimscombe
Port Inn, Brimscombe
Victoria Hotel, Brimscombe
Port Inn, Brimscombe

Thrupp:

Forester’s Arms, Thrupp
Fountain Inn, Middle Pitch, Thrupp
Malakoff Inn, London Road, Thrupp
Phoenix Inn, London Road, Thrupp
Barley Mow/Railway Tavern, Brownshill (a few hundred feet above Brimscombe station; opposite the footpath which went down through Brownshill Banks to the main road by the Victoria Hotel
Red Lion, Eastcombe
King & Castle, Waggon & Horses, London Road, Thrupp
Foresters Arms, Claypits
Thrupp off-licence (Thrupp Lane?)
Brewers Arms, Thrupp Lane
Bourne off-licence
Waggon & Horses, London Road, Thrupp.

Randwick and Ruscombe

Rising Sun, Randwick, Rising Sun (SO 831066 approx – nr the closed Methodist Chapel)
New Inn, Randwick nr the centre of the village SO (827066 approx) Ludlow Green Inn, Ludlow Green, Ruscombe,(tiny hamlet s of Ruscombe nr Randwick)

Slad

Star Inn
Riflemans Arms, The Vatch
Barley Mow (now a private house near the Woolpack)

Virtual Walking for Foodbanks

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #9-#13
Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Wallingford to Cholsey
Sunday March the 15th

Beware the Ides of March – but I’m a long way from the tidal reach of the Thames – Wallingford Castle – High Street – Thames Street – St Leonards – a glimpse of the Chilterns in the distance – Littlestoke Ferry – the Papist Way – Ferry Lane – Cholsey – 5 miles.

Springtime on the Thames

When is spring not a spring?

When Edward Thomas went in pursuit of spring,
When spring’s advance was slower,
Compared with today’s two miles an hour,
In that so-called Golden Age before the Great War,
He hadn’t endured biblical floods,
And a seeming apocalyptic pandemic,
A pandemic that has arrived in this country
After a forty-year post-Thatcherite zeitgeist,
A zeitgeist that foregrounds charity,
And emphasizes individualism,
Rather than welfare state collectivism.

And the consequence of this zeitgeist?
Panic buying, hoarding, selfishness,
And a consequent diminution
In charitable donations,
Thereby indicating the fragile
Efficacy of charity …

The Guardian 11th March, Robert Booth, Social affairs correspondent:

‘Food banks in Britain are running out of staples including milk and cereal as a result of panic-buying and are urging shoppers to think twice before hoarding as donations fall in the coronavirus outbreak.’

Patrick Butler, Social policy editor:

‘Mental health charities and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have called for an independent inquiry into the deaths of vulnerable people who were reliant on welfare benefits.’ There has been ’69 cases of suicide linked to benefit issues in the last six years’.

How will Universal Credit/Universal Cruelty,
And the five-week wait help in this crisis?
When the Department for Work and Pensions
Reply to criticisms
Highlighted by the death of Errol Graham,
Who starved to death,
Has this sentence within:
‘We always seek to learn lessons where we can’.
‘Where we can’ …

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #9-#13
Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Wallingford to Cholsey
Sunday March the 15th

Beware the Ides of March – but I’m a long way from the tidal reach of the Thames – Wallingford Castle – High Street – Thames Street – St Leonards – a glimpse of the Chilterns in the distance – Littlestoke Ferry – the Papist Way – Ferry Lane – Cholsey – 5 miles.

Springtime on the Thames

When is spring not a spring?

When Edward Thomas went in pursuit of spring,
When spring’s advance was slower,
Compared with today’s two miles an hour,
In that so-called Golden Age before the Great War,
He hadn’t endured biblical floods,
And a seeming apocalyptic pandemic,
A pandemic that has arrived in this country
After a forty-year post-Thatcherite zeitgeist,
A zeitgeist that foregrounds charity,
And emphasizes individualism,
Rather than welfare state collectivism.

And the consequence of this zeitgeist?
Panic buying, hoarding, selfishness,
And a consequent diminution
In charitable donations,
Thereby indicating the fragile
Efficacy of charity …

The Guardian 11th March, Robert Booth, Social affairs correspondent:

‘Food banks in Britain are running out of staples including milk and cereal as a result of panic-buying and are urging shoppers to think twice before hoarding as donations fall in the coronavirus outbreak.’

Patrick Butler, Social policy editor:

‘Mental health charities and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have called for an independent inquiry into the deaths of vulnerable people who were reliant on welfare benefits.’ There has been ’69 cases of suicide linked to benefit issues in the last six years’.

How will Universal Credit/Universal Cruelty,
And the five-week wait help in this crisis?
When the Department for Work and Pensions
Reply to criticisms
Highlighted by the death of Errol Graham,
Who starved to death,
Has this sentence within:
‘We always seek to learn lessons where we can’.
‘Where we can’ …

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #10
Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Tuesday 17th March Cholsey to Tilehurst 12 miles
Sunrise 6.08 Sunset 18.08
Carbon count: 414.24
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350

I posted this today on to the Global Walking Artists Network:

Hello there

As some of you know I have been walking the Thames from source towards London to raise funds for the Trussell Trust and food banks but the public health crisis requires a change of approach. Please see below if you are interested in how I am going to rethink and de-walk:

I’ve reached the conclusion that individual, family and public health considerations mean that I will now walk the Thames in a virtual/pretend way.

How will I do this?

By laying out the route-map for the day and by measuring the required distance on my phone. I will walk within my home and within my immediate locality, but far from the madding crowd: 19 corvids rather the COVID-19, as it were.

By using imagination and memory rather than observation.
By following my usual practice of blending reflections on topographical, historical, and contemporary contexts, with the Trussell Trust and food banks always in focus.

I’ve now reached Wallingford in the real world and have also done London bits towards the end, but if anyone wants to join me in a pretend section for the duration, let me know. I’m ‘doing’ Wallingford to Cholsey and then on to Tilehust today btw …

Best wishes,

Stuart

Walking to work, walking at work,
Walking home, walking at home,
Up and down the apples and pears,
Walking to the allotments,
Digging the allotment plot,
Up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire,
Takes me all the way to Tilehurst,
In a manner and manor of speaking,
Imagining some of the following:

Littlestoke ferry point – Cholsey Marsh – Offlands Farm – Moulsford – Ferry Lane – The Beetle and Wedge – Cleeve Lock – Goring Lock – Streatley Church – Goring (ancient ford and meeting point of the Icknield Way and the Ridgeway) – Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s GWR bridge – Gatehampton Ferry Cottage – Hartslock Farm – Whitchurch – The Greyhound – Whitchurch Mill – Church Cottages – the Toll House – Whitchurch Bridge – Pangbourne – Mapledurham (Mapledurham House as in The Forsyte Saga and the inspiration for Toad Hall in The Wind in the Willows) – 78 and a half miles to London – Purley – Kentwood Deep – Tilehurst.

BBC Football Gossip:

‘With the Premier League currently suspended, Liverpool players, staff and fans have stepped in to offer support and donate cash to a foodbank, which relies on donations on match days. (Liverpool FC)’

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #11
Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Tilehurst to Shiplake 10 miles
Thursday March 26th
Sunrise 5.48 Sunset 18.24
Carbon count: 414.34
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350

Along the virtual towpath; imaginary Chiltern hills; half-remembered GWR line; signage: ‘Welcome to Reading’; ‘Thames Side Promenade’; remember Oscar Wilde on his release from Reading Gaol, May 1897: ‘Oh Beautiful World!’; more bridges over these troubled times: Caversham Bridge; Reading Bridge; on to Caversham Lock (down); King’s Meadow; the conjoining of the Kennet and the Thames (Kennet, my brother’s ‘House’ at school); Horseshoe Bridge (bring us luck, please); Sonning Lock (down); Sonning Bridge (How I loved Sonning Cutting on the train as a child!); Jerome K. Jerome on Sonning:’ It is the most fairy-like nook on the whole river … more like a stage-village than one built of bricks and mortar. Every house is smothered in roses … bursting forth in clouds of dainty splendour’; Shiplake Lock (down); onomatopoeic Lashbrook; Lower Shiplake; The Baskerville Arms; Shiplake.

Chief Executive of the Trussell Trust, Emma Revie:

‘We welcome the extra financial support announced, particularly the £500m hardship fund for local councils, which can play a key role in anchoring us all from poverty.

But as coronavirus unfolds, more people could need this safety net than ever before – especially those who aren’t eligible for sick pay or have unstable jobs. For many of these people the five-week wait for a first Universal Credit payment could cause real hardship, despite measures announced in today’s Budget. We know the five-week wait is already pushing people to food banks, trapping many in debt and making issues with housing, ill health, disability and domestic abuse worse …

As more people look likely to move onto Universal Credit as a result of the outbreak, the most effective way to help would be to end the five-week wait for a first Universal Credit payment by giving people grants, rather than loans that have to be paid back further down the line. We can prevent more people being locked into poverty as the outbreak develops by ending the wait now.’

The Trussell Trust’s #5WeeksTooLong campaign is calling for an end to the 5+ week wait for Universal Credit.

About the Trussell Trust:

• We’re here to end the need for food banks in UK.
• We support a UK-wide network of more than 1,200 food bank centres and together we provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.
• Our most recent figures for the number of emergency food supplies provided by our network: https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/
• You can read more about our work at trusselltrust.org

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #12
Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Shiplake to Marlow 11 miles
Tuesday March 31st
Sunrise 6.37 Sunset 19.32
Carbon count: 415.68
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350

Bolney Ferry – Marsh Lock (down) – Mill Lane – Mill Meadows – The Angel on the Bridge – Henley Bridge – Remenham Church – Temple Island – Hambledon Lock (down) – Hamledon Weir – Aston Ferry – Ferry Lane – The Flowerpot – Medmenham – Medmenham Abbey (the Hellfire Club) – Frogmill – Danesfield – Hurley Lock (down) – Hurley – the Olde Bell – Temple footbridge – Temple Lock (down) – Temple Island – Bisham Abbey – Bisham Church – Marlow – where Mary Shelley completed Frankenstein and Percy Shelley penned A Proposal for putting Parliamentary Reform to the Vote (which included a proposal for annual parliaments – the one point of the Chartists’ eventual Six Points that didn’t become into eventual actuality).

‘Time and again over the past decade, food banks across the UK – aided by a generous public who have donated time, food and money – have stepped up to protect people on the lowest incomes in our communities. But with the spread of coronavirus we all now face an unprecedented challenge and uncertain future. It is possible that food banks will face increased demand as people lose income, at the same time as food donations drop or staff and volunteers are unavailable, due to measures rightly put in place to slow the spread of infection. All of this comes when food banks are already dealing with a record level of need for emergency food.

We’re working with our network on how best to support people as the situation unfolds. Wherever possible, food banks will continue to provide the lifeline of emergency food to people unable to afford the essentials and we encourage the public to continue donating after checking with their local food bank what items are most needed.

We welcome the Department for Work and Pensions’ measures that will not penalise or sanction people for self-isolating, but we ask our government to go further and consider additional measures they could take to ensure everyone has enough money for essentials at this challenging time. Ending the five week wait for a first Universal Credit payment would be one such measure that could help significantly.’

Chief Executive of the Trussell Trust, Emma Revie:

That note from Emma Revie is from two weeks ago; I am reading The Guardian at the moment on March 30 2020. Here’s a few snippets from Rebecca Smithers’ report today: ‘The supermarket chain Morrisons is to distribute £10m worth of food to the UK’s food banks during the corona virus outbreak … The UK’s food banks have been struggling to meet demand at a time when the number of volunteers, typically older people, has slumped because of self-isolation. It is estimated that the outbreak of Covid-19 has led to a 40% reduction in donations to community foodbanks …’

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #13
Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Friday 3 April Marlow to Windsor 14 miles
Sunrise 6.30 Sunset 1937 Carbon count: 415.68

Marlow Bridge – Seven Corner Alley – All Saints Church – St Peter Street – Two Brewers – Marlow Lock (down) – Marlow Mill – Quarry Wood – Winter Hill – Spade Oak Ferry Cottage – Spade Oak Farm – Bourne End – Cock Marsh – Cookham Bridge – Cookham churchyard – Holy Trinity – Churchgate – Tarry Stone – The Bell and Dragon Inn – Royal Exchange – Stanley Spencer memorial gallery in the restored Methodist church – four channels downstream from Cookham Bridge – My Lady Ferry – Cliveden – Boulter’s Lock (down) – Ray Mill Island – Maidenhead Bridge and Brunel and Turner – Bray Lock (down) – Summerleaze Bridge – Dorney – Thames Field – Dorney Court – Oakley Court – St Mary Magdalene – Boveney – Boveney Lock (down) – Etonian bathing place – Brocas Meadow – Windsor Castle (partly built of Cotswold stone brought down the Thames) – The Waterman’s Arms – Eton High Street – Windsor.

He has been voted the second greatest ever Englishman (sic) in a Sunday Times poll:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a special constable during the Bristol Riots of 1831 when “he was heard to complain that his fellow constables did not hit the rioters hard enough”.

A few years later, we find him surveying a different line where he had, it seems, an ambiguous attitude towards the lower orders and bodily harm – 131 navvies were taken to Bath hospital between September 1839 and June 1841 with serious injuries: ” I think it a small number considering the heavy work and the amount of powder used. I am afraid that it does not show the whole extent of accidents in that district.”

Indeed, it doesn’t. Over 100 navvies were killed in the subterranean depths of gunpowdered Box Tunnel.

A hundred years after the GWR was commenced, Bertolt Brecht wrote this poem –

Questions From a Worker Who Reads

Who built Thebes of the 7 gates
?
In the books you will read
the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps
of rock ?

And Babylon, many times
demolished,
Who raised it up so many times
?

In what houses of gold
glittering Lima did its builders
live ?
Where, the evening that the
Great Wall of China was
finished, did the masons go?

Great Rome is full of triumphal
arches.
Who erected them ?

Over whom did the Caesars
triumph ?
Had Byzantium, much praised
in song, only palaces for its
inhabitants ?

Even in fabled Atlantis, the
night that the ocean engulfed
it,

The drowning still cried out for
their slaves.

The young Alexander
conquered India.
Was he alone ?

Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Did he not even have a cook
with him ?

Philip of Spain wept when his
armada went down.
Was he the only one to weep ?

Frederick the 2nd won the 7
Years War.
Who else won it ?

Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the
victors ?

Every 10 years a great man.
Who paid the bill ?

So many reports.

So many questions.

Dear Stuart Butler

Thank you for your kind donation of 50.00.

With your help we are committed to providing emergency food and support to people in crisis. The food banks distributed over 1.6 million three-day emergency food supplies last year and even before the current crisis were seeing an increase in demand.

As the Coronavirus outbreak develops, more people than ever are needing our help. The teams are working tirelessly to ensure that food banks are able to remain open and have the necessary stocks to respond to this crisis.
We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people. Your support means we can respond to the changing situation and continue to provide this vital lifeline.

You will appreciate that in the current climate we are having to adapt to working in different ways, with most staff working from home. Please do accept this email as an official thank you as we are unable to send postal acknowledgements at this time. If you need a written receipt please email supportercare@trusselltrust.org.

If you would like to hear more about our work and how you’re helping us fight hunger in the UK, why not sign up to our e-newsletter? Or if you’d like to find out more about what we do, including our latest campaign actions, please visit our website.

Thank you for helping to create a future without food banks.

The Trussell Trust team

Stroud Scarlet and William Cuffay: An Exploration

We have written before about Stroud Scarlet, the slave trade, and triangles of conjecture. (See point 5 at https://sootallures.wixsite.com/topographersarms/post/a-community-curriculum )

But what of William Cuffay?

William’s mother, Juliana Fox, was born in Kent, whilst his once enslaved father, Chatham Cuffay, made it to Kent from St Kitts. William Cuffay, of mixed-heritage, born in 1788, became a famous Chartist leader in the mid nineteenth century and then an activist after transportation to Tasmania. ( See https://sootallures.wixsite.com/topographersarms/post/william-cuffay for an imaginative reconstruction of William’s life.)
William is one of the first working-class leaders of colour, and possibly the most famous. There is a campaign for a memorial to honour him in the Medway area of Kent:

‘Hi Stuart …
We are working with Medway Afro-Caribbean Association to get a plaque for Cuffay in Medway, hopefully in time for Black History Month. They need at least £3000 and have been talking to Medway Council who have only offered them £1500. This is something the Trade Union Movement could (and should) easily pay for and we will be approaching local branches and national unions for support. It might even encourage them to think about some sort of memorial to Cuffay in London.

There is much more to Cuffay’s story than can be put on a plaque so we are also looking to organise some sort of annual event so that Cuffay and the Chartists, a key part of both Black and working-class history, become much better known.’

We have written before about Stroud Scarlet, the slave trade, and triangles of conjecture. (See point 5 at https://sootallures.wixsite.com/topographersarms/post/a-community-curriculum )

But what of William Cuffay?

William’s mother, Juliana Fox, was born in Kent, whilst his once enslaved father, Chatham Cuffay, made it to Kent from St Kitts. William Cuffay, of mixed-heritage, born in 1788, became a famous Chartist leader in the mid nineteenth century and then an activist after transportation to Tasmania. ( See https://sootallures.wixsite.com/topographersarms/post/william-cuffay for an imaginative reconstruction of William’s life.)
William is one of the first working-class leaders of colour, and possibly the most famous. There is a campaign for a memorial to honour him in the Medway area of Kent:

‘Hi Stuart …
We are working with Medway Afro-Caribbean Association to get a plaque for Cuffay in Medway, hopefully in time for Black History Month. They need at least £3000 and have been talking to Medway Council who have only offered them £1500. This is something the Trade Union Movement could (and should) easily pay for and we will be approaching local branches and national unions for support. It might even encourage them to think about some sort of memorial to Cuffay in London.

There is much more to Cuffay’s story than can be put on a plaque so we are also looking to organise some sort of annual event so that Cuffay and the Chartists, a key part of both Black and working-class history, become much better known.’

We intend to raise funds for the memorial by taking some Stroud cloth alongside the Stroudwater Navigation from the slavery abolition arch at Paganhill to Framilode; thence alongside the Severn to Bristol Docks.
We will then ‘sell’ the cloth to ship owners before its imagined eighteenth century journey to north-west Africa.

We shall create triangle poems to leave on our journey so as to recreate the possible consequences of this cloth’s voyage to Benin. These reconstructions of the triangular trade will reflect voyages to Benin, the Americas and thence back to Bristol – and Stroud. The triangles are below.

And who knows? Perhaps Stroud cloth enslaved Chatham and William’s ancestors and took them from the Door of No Return across the crimson-splashed Black Atlantic Archipelago.

So, perhaps you would like to sponsor us on our sixty-mile trip to Bristol?
We would forward the money straight away to Medway Trades Union Council as explained above.
In Solidarity,
Stuart Butler and Bob Blenkinsop

The
Stroudwater
Canal and Navigation

A link
Betwixt Stroud
And the River Severn at Framilode

The
River Severn,
A link from Framilode to Bristol Docks

Was
Stroud Scarlet
A cloth-link betwixt
Stroud and Bristol Docks?

Was
Stroud Scarlet
A cloth-link betwixt
Bristol and north-west Africa?

Was
Stroud Scarlet
A cloth-link betwixt enslavement,
Africa, the West Indies and the Americas?

Was
Stroud Scarlet
A cloth-link betwixt enslavement,
Tobacco, sugar, cotton, rum, the West Indies,
Bristol, Clifton, Bath, refinement, and the Age of Elegance?

Stroud
Scarlet,
A cloth-link from
Bristol Docks and on to Stroud?

The
River Severn,
A link from Bristol Docks to Framilode.

From Framilode,
The Stroudwater Navigation,
The canal, wends its way to Stroud,
Past Stroud Scarlet stretched on tenterhooks.

And so
Triangles of speculation
Complete their conjectural voyage,
Where they began, at the slavery arch in Paganhill.

‘All
Ship-shape
And Bristol fashion’:
With river, canal and turnpike,
Cloth could be carried down to Bristol, bound for
Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Angola, Gambia.
 Then
The Door
Of No Return:
 The Middle Passage,
 Nevis, Barbados, Jamaica,
Virginia, Haiti and South Carolina.
They fill the hold with sugar, cotton, tobacco:
Commodities that still cast a ship-shape shadow. 

From
Where else
Did this nation’s
18th century boom time come?

War,
Slavery,
Enclosure,
Exploitation
Mechanisation,
And the British Empire,
But the most lucrative of all
Was the shark’s feeding frenzy. 

And
Stroud lies
Hidden within the
Long decayed ledger books
Of Bristol merchants at their quayside,
Stroud Scarlet bought and sold in the damp
Teasled mill air of the tenter hooked Five Valleys,
Before exchanging use and life for human life and death
On the Middle Passage for the West Indies and the Americas.

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #7

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust

In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert

Oxford to Abingdon 11 miles

A swollen, turbid, fast flowing river; blackthorn blossom; osiers, rushes and willows half-drowned; many trees down with the recent storms. Flooded mediaeval water meadows; rain at twilight.

I had companions today, including a food bank volunteer for Stroud. Here are some observations from a weekly commitment:

‘Stroud Foodbank has two outlets in Stroud town and a few others in the District. I help run the Nailsworth one. We don’t have much demand, so we don’t have weekly drop-in sessions in a centre. But, of course, there are some individuals in our little town who can benefit from what the Foodbank offers. They can contact the Foodbank office and obtain a voucher through the usual channels, and we arrange a Foodbank delivery to their home.’

‘I volunteer at Stroud Foodbank on Fridays, usually this is the busiest session of the week. We never know who might turn up on the day. We have a wide range of customers. A few we see every now and then who have longer term issues, others are just one-offs, caught out by temporary problems – job losses, benefit delays, health issues, work with unreliable hours etc.’

‘Although we are there mainly to help them with food parcels, we try to engage with our clients on other matters. Our experience is that the local agencies work well together, but we check that our clients haven’t slipped through the net regarding other help that could be out there for them.’

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust

In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert

Oxford to Abingdon 11 miles

A swollen, turbid, fast flowing river; blackthorn blossom; osiers, rushes and willows half-drowned; many trees down with the recent storms. Flooded mediaeval water meadows; rain at twilight.

I had companions today, including a food bank volunteer for Stroud. Here are some observations from a weekly commitment:

‘Stroud Foodbank has two outlets in Stroud town and a few others in the District. I help run the Nailsworth one. We don’t have much demand, so we don’t have weekly drop-in sessions in a centre. But, of course, there are some individuals in our little town who can benefit from what the Foodbank offers. They can contact the Foodbank office and obtain a voucher through the usual channels, and we arrange a Foodbank delivery to their home.’

‘I volunteer at Stroud Foodbank on Fridays, usually this is the busiest session of the week. We never know who might turn up on the day. We have a wide range of customers. A few we see every now and then who have longer term issues, others are just one-offs, caught out by temporary problems – job losses, benefit delays, health issues, work with unreliable hours etc.’

‘Although we are there mainly to help them with food parcels, we try to engage with our clients on other matters. Our experience is that the local agencies work well together, but we check that our clients haven’t slipped through the net regarding other help that could be out there for them.’

From our customers.

‘When my husband was made redundant it took a bit of time before the money came through from his new job. We just needed some help to bridge that gap. We were so pleased that the people of Stroud had given so much nice food. And not just food, there was shampoo and toilet rolls too, and a bit of pet food! It made a difficult time for our family a bit easier.’

‘I was a bit scared when I first needed the Foodbank. Going into a room and feeling a bit like a beggar. But the volunteers were so friendly to me. They were kind to me, and made me feel comfortable, before we went through the food parcel. I’m a vegetarian, and they managed to help me, which was great.’

And this from Robin Treefellow:

The Thames
Was a country
thick and fast flowing
through the gizzard of Oxford’s streets.

By canal, over bridge, we tramped after the great swilling of Thames
and the thrashing tail of Cherwell.

The mud ground slipping, the land finding river,
and the geese clamouring ghosts,
honking grey-barred spirits of the Thames:
their wings beat at the air.

Oxford left behind,
the marshy seat of scholars and professors:
all gone.
Oxford with its well-bred students in costly gowns, or panting up and
down the canal to maintain a well-bred outline:
never here.

Here is: Poplar trees, reeds, birch, sedge,
the citizenry of the Thames path,
the river in the thoughts of everything, absorbed, drunk up.

Existence is the river flowing on through the low fields
where I cannot see a tarmac road or a house.
Hinksey, Iffley, Radley: the powers to summon
on this day.

I walked as fish stride,
ahead there’s more water and more water
to welcome us back to the visceral earth.

As ants scream in summer,
as the Thames roars in winter,
as our hearts tremble in our skins.

The path by the river was all the land left
between us and the primordial ordinance of water way
whirling and going on.

Human
not long lasting:
the river is always.

The Thames
completed what I couldn’t.

Treefellow 2020 February

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #5

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Lechlade to Newbridge 16 miles

I walked past Shelley’s Close by the Church …

Where Shelley wrote his ‘Summer Evening Churchyard’,
Crossed the bridge and turned left for London,
It was just the sort of light I like for a riverine walk:
Waves of silver rippling through the dark waters,
Moody clouds above Old Father Thames’ statue,
Once of Crystal Palace, now recumbent at St John’s Lock –
But the nineteenth century was soon forgotten:
It all got a bit Mrs Miniver and Went the Day Well?
After Bloomer’s Hole footbridge:
I lost count of the pillboxes in the fields and on the banks
(‘Mr. Brown goes off to Town on the 8.21,
But he comes home each evening,
And he’s ready with his gun’),
As I walked on past Buscot, with its line of poplar trees,
Planted to drain the soil in its Victorian heyday of sugar beet
And once with a narrow gauge railway dancing across
A lost Saxon village at Eaton Hastings;
Then on past William Morris’ ‘heaven on earth’
At Kelmscott Manor (‘Visit our website to shop online!’),
Walkers occasionally appearing beyond hedgerows,
Like Edward Thomas’ ‘The Other Man’;
Then to Grafton Lock, and on to Radcot’s bridges and lock
(The waters divide here with two bridges:
The older, the site of a medieval battle after the Peasants’ Revolt;
A statue of the Virgin Mary once in a niche in the bridge, too,
Mutilated by the Levellers, before their Burford executions;
The newer bridge built in the hope and expectations
Of traffic and profit in the wake of the Thames and Severn Canal),
Past Old Man’s Bridge, Rushey Lock and Rushey Weir:
A traditional Thames paddle and rymer weir
(The paddles and handles, called rymers,
Dropped into position to block the rushing waters).
Now it’s on to isolated Tadpole Bridge on the Bampton turnpike,
Now past Chimney Meadow – once a Saxon island,
Then Tenfoot Bridge – characteristically,
Where an upper Thames flash weir sed to pour its waters,
Until Victorian modernity silenced that;
Then past Shifford Weir and the hamlet of Shifford,
Once a major Wessex town, where King Alfred
Met with his parliament of
‘Many bishops, and many book-learned.
Earls wise and Knights awful’.

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert
Lechlade to Newbridge 16 miles

I walked past Shelley’s Close by the Church …

Where Shelley wrote his ‘Summer Evening Churchyard’,
Crossed the bridge and turned left for London,
It was just the sort of light I like for a riverine walk:
Waves of silver rippling through the dark waters,
Moody clouds above Old Father Thames’ statue,
Once of Crystal Palace, now recumbent at St John’s Lock –
But the nineteenth century was soon forgotten:
It all got a bit Mrs Miniver and Went the Day Well?
After Bloomer’s Hole footbridge:
I lost count of the pillboxes in the fields and on the banks
(‘Mr. Brown goes off to Town on the 8.21,
But he comes home each evening,
And he’s ready with his gun’),
As I walked on past Buscot, with its line of poplar trees,
Planted to drain the soil in its Victorian heyday of sugar beet
And once with a narrow gauge railway dancing across
A lost Saxon village at Eaton Hastings;
Then on past William Morris’ ‘heaven on earth’
At Kelmscott Manor (‘Visit our website to shop online!’),
Walkers occasionally appearing beyond hedgerows,
Like Edward Thomas’ ‘The Other Man’;
Then to Grafton Lock, and on to Radcot’s bridges and lock
(The waters divide here with two bridges:
The older, the site of a medieval battle after the Peasants’ Revolt;
A statue of the Virgin Mary once in a niche in the bridge, too,
Mutilated by the Levellers, before their Burford executions;
The newer bridge built in the hope and expectations
Of traffic and profit in the wake of the Thames and Severn Canal),
Past Old Man’s Bridge, Rushey Lock and Rushey Weir:
A traditional Thames paddle and rymer weir
(The paddles and handles, called rymers,
Dropped into position to block the rushing waters).
Now it’s on to isolated Tadpole Bridge on the Bampton turnpike,
Now past Chimney Meadow – once a Saxon island,
Then Tenfoot Bridge – characteristically,
Where an upper Thames flash weir sed to pour its waters,
Until Victorian modernity silenced that;
Then past Shifford Weir and the hamlet of Shifford,
Once a major Wessex town, where King Alfred
Met with his parliament of
‘Many bishops, and many book-learned.
Earls wise and Knights awful’.

But you finish your waltz through a Saxon landscape:
(The honeystone bridge at Newbridge is in sight)
Buscot, Eaton Hastings, Kelmscott, Radcot, Shifford;
And along the Red Line of resistance from the summer of 1940,
The skeins of geese and ducks no longer calling,
There’s an evening mist gathering over the river:
‘The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman plods his weary way
And leaves the world to darkness and to me’;
It’s time for an imaginary pint

At the Maybush (the Berkshire bank),
And another imaginary pint …

At the Rose Revived (the Oxfordshire bank) –
The bridge is actually 13th century, and only called Newbridge
As it’s newer than the original 12th century bridge at Radcot:
‘The Thames Path 40 miles to the Source 153 to the Sea.’
‘In 1644, the Battle of Newbridge was fought on the banks of the river.
Parliamentarian William Waller attempted to cross in order to surround Oxford and capture King Charles, but was defeated.’
I rather like the use of the word ‘but.’

STATE OF HUNGER RESEARCH:
PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN
REFERRED TO A FOOD BANK
CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY THE ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS
THAT WE ALL NEED TO EAT,
STAY WARM AND DRY, AND KEEP CLEAN –
WITH 94% FACING REAL DESTITUTION

It seems certain that in the next few months there is going to be growing pressure on the food banks. At the same time ,the collection points at supermarkets are nearly empty as people shop for their families. Can the supermarkets make provision for those that can afford it to make a monetary donation when they pay for their goods. ?

Each week the Food Bank managers could find out how much is in the “pot” and buy goods to that value by ” click and collect”. In this way they can get the food and other goods they are most short of. It also cuts out multiple handling . A simple sign in each Supermarket in front of the tills would be sufficient to remind shoppers to help the Food Banks in these difficult times.

Mike Putnam
Stroud

Some say Incompetent, Some say Criminal

Dominic Raab, knowing that a week is a long time in politics, has said that “Now is not the time to commit to an inquiry”.

He knows that the government’s actions and inaction have led to needless loss of life.

We believe that the government must answer for these deaths under the Corporate Manslaughter Act and are seeking to crowdfund a prosecution.

The link is here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/keith-
butler?utm_term=9wxY78P9Z

The link will reveal the serious, principled and sequential structure to the
campaign.

The BBC and The Guardian have both been contacted today about this.

Keith Butler is assiduously, sedulously and forensically compiling a compelling dossier of evidence.

Please support financially if you can and/or by sharing this as widely as you can.

Dominic Raab, knowing that a week is a long time in politics, has said that “Now is not the time to commit to an inquiry”.

He knows that the government’s actions and inaction have led to needless loss of life.

We believe that the government must answer for these deaths under the Corporate Manslaughter Act and are seeking to crowdfund a prosecution.

The link is here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/keith-
butler?utm_term=9wxY78P9Z

The link will reveal the serious, principled and sequential structure to the
campaign.

The BBC and The Guardian have both been contacted today about this.

Keith Butler is assiduously, sedulously and forensically compiling a compelling dossier of evidence.

Please support financially if you can and/or by sharing this as widely as you can.

Virtual Walking

KEEP FIT WHEN SELF-ISOLATING by pretending to walk the Thames to London. Join me for a virtual walk and measure your steps inside your house. As many of you know, I have been walking the river piecemeal towards London to raise funds for the Trussell Trust and food banks. I’ve got as far as Wallingford in reality and have now walked to Tilehurst in a pretend way. Join me if you wish and I’ll let you know what you’ve seen along the river banks. The next stage is from Cholsey to Tilehurst which is about twelve miles.

It may be that you might want to send me a sentence or two about your ‘walk’ in exchange, as we build up a journal of this new plague year. The first two posts about walking from Stroud are up here – please see below.

I have reached the conclusion that individual, family and public health considerations mean that I will now walk the Thames in a virtual/pretend way.

How will I do this?

By laying out the route-map for the day and by measuring the required distance on my phone. I will walk within my home and within my immediate locality, but far from the madding crowd: 19 corvids rather COVID-19, as it were.

By using imagination and memory rather than observation. By following my usual practice of blending reflections on topographical, historical, and contemporary contexts, with the Trussell Trust and food banks always in focus.

By all virtual means, please join me.

KEEP FIT WHEN SELF-ISOLATING by pretending to walk the Thames to London. Join me for a virtual walk and measure your steps inside your house. As many of you know, I have been walking the river piecemeal towards London to raise funds for the Trussell Trust and food banks. I’ve got as far as Wallingford in reality and have now walked to Tilehurst in a pretend way. Join me if you wish and I’ll let you know what you’ve seen along the river banks. The next stage is from Cholsey to Tilehurst which is about twelve miles.

It may be that you might want to send me a sentence or two about your ‘walk’ in exchange, as we build up a journal of this new plague year. The first two posts about walking from Stroud are up here – please see below.

I have reached the conclusion that individual, family and public health considerations mean that I will now walk the Thames in a virtual/pretend way.

How will I do this?

By laying out the route-map for the day and by measuring the required distance on my phone. I will walk within my home and within my immediate locality, but far from the madding crowd: 19 corvids rather COVID-19, as it were.

By using imagination and memory rather than observation. By following my usual practice of blending reflections on topographical, historical, and contemporary contexts, with the Trussell Trust and food banks always in focus.

By all virtual means, please join me.

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #2

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert

So here I am walking from Walbridge in Stroud,
Along the Thames and Severn Canal,
To Trewsbury Mead and the source of the Thames,
The prologue to my pilgrimage
To the Celestial City.

Prologue: Wednesday, 5th February 2020 Stroud to Source

It’s a great walk down to Capel’s Mill from my house,
Past old ridge and furrow and tenterhook hedgerows,
Teazles here and there to raise your nap,
Imagining the patchwork quilt of fields of two centuries ago:
You pass an old oak sentinel to reach the River Frome,
Railway viaduct and canal-bridge close at hand,
And there is the dell that once was Capel’s Mill:
Trees clambering down the steep riverbank to shroud the waters,
The remains of the mill sluice quickening the river’s pulse,
Rusting iron work still visible,
The steady drip down from the railway arches,

The echo of the 1839 Miles Report:

The weavers are much distressed; they are wretchedly off in bedding; has seen many cases where the man and his wife and as many as 7 children have slept on straw, laid on the floor with only a torn quilt to cover them … children crying for food, and the parents having no money in the house, or work to obtain any; he has frequently given them money out of his own pocket to provide them with a breakfast …These men have a great dread of going to the Poor Houses, and live in constant hope that every day will bring them some work; witness has frequently told them they would be better in the (work)house, and their answer has been, ‘I would sooner starve.’

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists’ group from The Prince Albert

So here I am walking from Walbridge in Stroud,
Along the Thames and Severn Canal,
To Trewsbury Mead and the source of the Thames,
The prologue to my pilgrimage
To the Celestial City.

Prologue: Wednesday, 5th February 2020 Stroud to Source

It’s a great walk down to Capel’s Mill from my house,
Past old ridge and furrow and tenterhook hedgerows,
Teazles here and there to raise your nap,
Imagining the patchwork quilt of fields of two centuries ago:
You pass an old oak sentinel to reach the River Frome,
Railway viaduct and canal-bridge close at hand,
And there is the dell that once was Capel’s Mill:
Trees clambering down the steep riverbank to shroud the waters,
The remains of the mill sluice quickening the river’s pulse,
Rusting iron work still visible,
The steady drip down from the railway arches,

The echo of the 1839 Miles Report:

The weavers are much distressed; they are wretchedly off in bedding; has seen many cases where the man and his wife and as many as 7 children have slept on straw, laid on the floor with only a torn quilt to cover them … children crying for food, and the parents having no money in the house, or work to obtain any; he has frequently given them money out of his own pocket to provide them with a breakfast …These men have a great dread of going to the Poor Houses, and live in constant hope that every day will bring them some work; witness has frequently told them they would be better in the (work)house, and their answer has been, ‘I would sooner starve.’

Watery sunshine, blue skies, bit of cumulus later on; 5 degrees initially; sunrise 7.33, sunset 16.56; carbon count: 414.32, pre-industrial base: 280, safe level: 350; ‘LANDOWNERS WELCOME CAREFUL WALKERS’ (Is this what the Tories mean by their mantra, ‘Levelling Up’?); Source of the Thames 3pm. 13 miles.

THE COURTS HAVE RULED THE GOVERNMENT
DISCRIMINATED AGAINST THE DISABLED
WITH UNIVERSAL CREDIT

PEOPLE ARE TOO SCARED
TO SIGN UP FOR THE NEW
UNIVERSAL CREDIT SYSTEM
THE TORY MINISTER RESPONSIBLE
WILL QUINCE
BLAMES ‘SCAREMONGERING’
YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP
COULD YOU?

LANDOWNERS WELCOME
CAREFUL WALKERS
IS THIS WHAT THE TORIES MEAN
BY ‘LEVELLING UP’?

WALKING THE THAMES TO LONDON #1

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists group from The Prince Albert

I’m walking the Thames to London,
Not in linear sequence:
Flooding prevents that –
But in an act of near nominative determinism,
I present the famous words of Thomas Rainsborough,
From down by the river bank at the Church of St Mary the Virgin,
From the Civil War Putney Debates of 1647:
‘For really I think that the poorest … that is in England
Hath a life to live, as the greatest …’
What would Mr Rainsborough make of the need
For food banks, four hundred years later?

I’m not a great one for sponsorship,
Tbh,
My mantra is ‘Parity not Charity’:
I’m rather more of a supporter of tax,
Not regressive taxes such as VAT,
Where everyone pays the same,
Irrespective of income,
But progressive taxes such as income tax,
So as to redistribute wealth from the rich;
Oh, and another thing about charity:
I dislike the virtue-signalling,
And Americanisation
Of our society, with chuggers in the street,
And the incessant rattling of tins,
And that apparently self-validating cry:
‘Charidee!’

I do give, however, in a random way:
Domestic appeals, national appeals, international appeals,
Beggars in the streets,
Big Issue (not a charity),
Food banks …
Even though it’s a piecemeal patchwork,
Random and uncoordinated:
A personification of charity itself, I suppose …

So here I am in February 2020,
In the year of our Lord of Paupers’ Burials,
In the year of our Lord of Bet Fred,
In the year of our Lord of Universal Credit,
In the year of our Lord of Universal Cruelty,
In the year of our Lord of the Five Week Wait,
Pragmatically doing my bit
For the Trussell Trust,
Which, I think, also feels ambivalent
About its work – as its website says:
‘94% of people at food banks
Are in destitution.
This isn’t right.’

‘Destitution’, now there’s a throwback
To a Victorian lexicon:
‘Poverty so extreme that one lacks
the means to provide for oneself’.
Synonyms for destitution include:
Penury; privation; indigence;
Pauperdom; beggary; mendicancy –
Isn’t it interesting to notice,
How many of these synonyms
Seem like archaisms?
Our semantic field for poverty is reluctant
To acknowledge the impact of modernity:
Universal Credit, the gig economy,
Zero hours contracts and so on,
It likes to pretend that poverty is old hat,
Dickensian: Scrooge before redemption;

Home

Raising Funds for the Trussell Trust
In association with the cyclists group from The Prince Albert

I’m walking the Thames to London,
Not in linear sequence:
Flooding prevents that –
But in an act of near nominative determinism,
I present the famous words of Thomas Rainsborough,
From down by the river bank at the Church of St Mary the Virgin,
From the Civil War Putney Debates of 1647:
‘For really I think that the poorest … that is in England
Hath a life to live, as the greatest …’
What would Mr Rainsborough make of the need
For food banks, four hundred years later?

I’m not a great one for sponsorship,
Tbh,
My mantra is ‘Parity not Charity’:
I’m rather more of a supporter of tax,
Not regressive taxes such as VAT,
Where everyone pays the same,
Irrespective of income,
But progressive taxes such as income tax,
So as to redistribute wealth from the rich;
Oh, and another thing about charity:
I dislike the virtue-signalling,
And Americanisation
Of our society, with chuggers in the street,
And the incessant rattling of tins,
And that apparently self-validating cry:
‘Charidee!’

I do give, however, in a random way:
Domestic appeals, national appeals, international appeals,
Beggars in the streets,
Big Issue (not a charity),
Food banks …
Even though it’s a piecemeal patchwork,
Random and uncoordinated:
A personification of charity itself, I suppose …

So here I am in February 2020,
In the year of our Lord of Paupers’ Burials,
In the year of our Lord of Bet Fred,
In the year of our Lord of Universal Credit,
In the year of our Lord of Universal Cruelty,
In the year of our Lord of the Five Week Wait,
Pragmatically doing my bit
For the Trussell Trust,
Which, I think, also feels ambivalent
About its work – as its website says:
‘94% of people at food banks
Are in destitution.
This isn’t right.’

‘Destitution’, now there’s a throwback
To a Victorian lexicon:
‘Poverty so extreme that one lacks
the means to provide for oneself’.
Synonyms for destitution include:
Penury; privation; indigence;
Pauperdom; beggary; mendicancy –
Isn’t it interesting to notice,
How many of these synonyms
Seem like archaisms?
Our semantic field for poverty is reluctant
To acknowledge the impact of modernity:
Universal Credit, the gig economy,
Zero hours contracts and so on,
It likes to pretend that poverty is old hat,
Dickensian: Scrooge before redemption;

So that’s why I am donning my boots and pack,
And walking to London along the Thames,
Piecemeal through the winter, spring and summer,
A homonymic walk along a river’s banks,
To raise funds for the destitute, and food banks,
And you can contribute at the end if you wish,
A mite will do; it all adds up in the end:

Home

Radical Stroud Walks programme 2020

Some walks confirmed – others will have dates confirmed on this website – others more tentative – walkers may need to check social media etc or Good on Paper for precise details. After discussing it with Radical Stroud members, we can’t do Saturdays, I’m afraid.

Wednesday January 29th: A hidden colonial landscape – from the Archway arch to the blackboy clock in Nelson Street. Empire, imperialism, the nation-state of the UK then and now. Meet at the arch at 9.30.

Sunday February 23rd: Rodborough (see website)

MAY DAY Chalford to Stroud – how late 18th and 19th century national politics affected Stroud – Thelwall and Spence – green roots of socialism – the radical lessons of 1790-1820 for today, both in terms of state repression and radical responses. Stroud Labour Party May Festival MAY DAY

Some walks confirmed – others will have dates confirmed on this website – others more tentative – walkers may need to check social media etc or Good on Paper for precise details. After discussing it with Radical Stroud members, we can’t do Saturdays, I’m afraid.

Wednesday January 29th: A hidden colonial landscape – from the Archway arch to the blackboy clock in Nelson Street. Empire, imperialism, the nation-state of the UK then and now. Meet at the arch at 9.30.

Sunday February 23rd: Rodborough (see website)

MAY DAY Chalford to Stroud – how late 18th and 19th century national politics affected Stroud – Thelwall and Spence – green roots of socialism – the radical lessons of 1790-1820 for today, both in terms of state repression and radical responses. Stroud Labour Party May Festival MAY DAY

June – Frampton Green – hear the nightingales – John Keats and his ode – also Keats and To Autumn written a day after Henry Hunt enters London to huge acclaim after imprisonment after Peterloo. 1820-2020 – the Six Acts.

June – Rodborough Fete and beating the bounds of Rodborough possibly.

July (before school holidays) Circular walk to Slad – the deserter in CWRosie and the army mutinies at the end of WW1 – what is ‘progressive nationalism’ in today’s world and future?

August – Golden Spire walks and the parish church.

September – earlyish – Bisley to Stroud – the 1839 Miles Report and the gig economy today and the ‘new working class’. 5. Chartist walk to Selsley and weavers’ riots etc of 18th/19th centuries – how can we recreate the sense of community-based socialism of the 19th and 20th centuries today within the ‘new working class’?

October – earlyish – Chartist walk to Selsley and weavers’ riots etc of 18th/19th centuries – how can we recreate the sense of community-based socialism of the 19thand 20th centuries today within the ‘new working class’?

Liaise with Dursley and Cam and Sharpness etc – Purton hulks walk – riverscapes and communities. NOVEMBER

London – subvert the Mayflower 400th anniversary with a performative walk to the Mayflower pub. DECEMBER