Two years ago an Alien landed in Nailsworth, unnoticed by the Stroud Valleys folk. Since its arrival after fifty years temporarily rooted on Planet Essex, this strange being has immersed itself in the Gloucestershire soil, attempting to make sense of its move here “for a change, and it ticked more boxes than anywhere else”.
See how a creature far from home has struggled with unfamiliar territory; intensively exploring its new homeland on foot, or by bicycle, guided by its ‘Ordnance Survey Explorer 168’, Gloucestershire ‘Pevsners’, and Wikipedia.
Join a naive explorer for a circular walk, as this being shares with you its Outsider Views on the Stroud Valleys heritage, as it attempts to blend-in with its new people.
The seven mile route takes in the stories of Negelsleag, as well as Forest Green, Newmarket, Shortwood, Rockness, Washpool, Barton End and Avening. We will share stories from the Jurassic period, Long Barrows, stone mines, mills and cloth, Nonconformity, the arrival of the railway, the football clubs, Quakers and bacon.
There will be a couple of readings from Essex exile, Fred Slattern, a poem exorcising his Essex ghosts and embracing his Celtic fringe, and his mercifully short prose piece about a lost soul and a meeting at the Crossroads, where we might meet the ghost of Shipton, high above Nailsworth.
There will be contributions on tangential themes from other members of Radical Stroud. If YOU have any stories to share, bring them along.
Meet at 9:30 at Cossack Square, Nailsworth, opposite the Britannia, a hundred yards south from the Nailsworth bus station. (You could catch the 9:08 Number 63 ‘Forest Green’ bus from Stroud Merrywalks.)
No need to book for the walk, just turn up. Allow five hours. Bring refreshments. There will be a short stop at a pub for a drink, en route, and the option for food and drink after the walk at The Brittania.
More information from sootallures@yahoo.co.uk