“Yet mostly we seem to notice very little of this, and even less to savour it. So much in the visionary landscape with its circus of philosophizing objects, floating texts and people-machines goes unremarked. Esoteric symbols in petrol station logos, accidental poems made by the breaking of signposts, bathetic business names and massive geometrical puns go ignored. If we really did live in the ‘instant gratification’ society of right wing commentators’ imaginations, then the correction of this sensual deficit would be a far higher priority than reducing the burden of government debt. A crash hypersensitisation would be ordered.”
Phil Smith, Enchanted Things (Triarchy Press, 2014)
The Stroudwater Canal: a List
@Wallbridge
A signpost; benches; locks and a life belt;
Cosmos in flower; an over-full litterbin;
A bridge; the Cotswold Canals Trust Visitor Centre;
Bikes propped up and locked up opposite the café;
Iron railings and iron edged kerbsides;
Fences and a torn site safety sign;
Buddleia climbing crumbling brewery limestone walls;
Redundant brewery windows with rusting iron grilles;
Another signpost and an information board;
People cleaning up after the Stroud Fringe;
Hay bales;
Parked cars and a busy roundabout;
Blackberries and shallow, turbid water;
The Slad Brook arrives on its chequered path;
A sunlit light show underneath Brewery Bridge;
A mural too, then another signpost;
Restoration work and a detour:
‘Volunteer on the Canal restoration
We have lots of opportunities along the canal …
Great fun and get fit … Learn new skills
All welcome’
And another sign about SITE SAFETY,
Ripped apart like an old piece of paper,
And so, along the pavement,
Into the old canal basin, now a car park,
With barbed wire on one side
And the tree girt River Frome on the other;
Past a plumber’s called Doug Field;
A heap of tyres;
‘Danger of Death’
(Western Power Distribution),
Through an entrance door onto the towpath,
Its wall grooved by old towropes;
Seed head thistles, Himalayan Balsam,
The shadowed path below Lodgemore Mill,
Tagged red and blue brick walls,
Tagged Cotswold stone walls,
An old gas main curving round an old telegraph pole
(Tagged),
A restored swing bridge,
Afternoon sunlight glowing on leafy woodland,
A signpost,
Japanese hogweed skeletons dancing in the breeze,
An information board,
Painswick Stream, and Lodgemore Sans Pareil.
Next day, last day of August:
More Himalayan balsam; more dead hogweed;
Diseased, old, horse chestnuts;
Wire fencing and a sign:
‘THIS IS AN ECOLOGY AREA
Provided and created by C&G SERVICES
To protect the natural habitat
PLEASE DO NOT ENTER OR LITTER’
Just behind the sign and the fence,
Two beer cans down in the undergrowth;
Convolvulus everywhere, red berried hawthorn too,
A bridge, new builds and a wood store,
More balsam;
Then on a red brick wall, by the warehouses:
‘FIRE AND SECURITY
CCTV RECORDING IN OPERATION’;
Down the side, more C&G Services (Europe) Ltd signs:
SITE SAFETY;
! Warning! – This site is at risk from flooding!
‘All personnel and trainees will be evacuated to safe ground in the event that a Flood Warning is received …’;
‘Developing Skills Developing People Developing Partnerships
Now Developing The Lodgemore Training Centre’;
An overgrown rugby pitch on the left,
School sports fields on the right;
A couple of conifers and then giant, swaying willows,
Convolvulus everywhere, red berried hawthorn too,
A stack of new wood chained and locked;
More railings, benches, locks,
An information board: ‘LOCKS LAKE AND LAWN’,
Steps and signposts: Danger Weir !
An old red brick wall,
A site ripe for redevelopment,
Stippled waters,
A few houses, both old and new, by the bridge …