Waterscape

Jim Pentney, Stroud and Myeloma Fund-Raising

CYCLING FROM THE SEVERN TO THE SEINE Myeloma UK is a national charity working on awareness and research into the ‘hidden blood cancer’ of which 24,000 people are treated across the country. Jim Pentney was diagnosed two years ago. Since then, he has had a stem cell transplant and last year took part in the charity’s Challenge 24, organised to cover some 24 miles in any interesting way. He went from the Severn at Framilode to the Thames at Lechlade by bike, canoe and van (see photos). The challenge is more ambitious now, to cycle with a large group from London to Paris in September. James Beecher is kindly providing Jim with an electric bike, the target being for each rider to raise £2000 for the charity. Here’s Jim’s fundraising link https://ride.myeloma.org.uk/james-pentney Here are photos of Jim’s previous Severn escapade: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MygrtY3Lcf8cxvEi6   https://ride.myeloma.org.uk/dashboard Dashboard • London Paris Ride London Paris Ride: Make a donation today to support London Paris Ride ride.myeloma.org.uk
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Trade Cloth

Trade Cloth: strouds, scissors and shrouds We travelled track 32 from Grand Central, The Hudson Line up to Beacon, Where fires were once lit on the Fishkill Mountains, To warn of British army redcoat movement; The hills and woodland were all red fall tint, On both...

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Stroud Brewery

 Stroud Brewery – Organic craft beer www.stroudbrewery.co.uk Stroud is a hotbed of innovation and art. At Stroud Brewery we have crafted a range of organic and vegan beers made with barley grown on the surrounding Cotswolds hills. We love to make delicious beer and...

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Capel’s Mill

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: Rack Hill, Thresher, Bacon Slad, Spout Leaze, Lower...

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Broadway Elegy

When you’re a slightly star struck English tourist, Visiting NYC for the very first time (‘It’s that Broadway Melody!’), It’s easy to forget the Paris Situationists: ‘Underneath the paving stones, the beach!’ You might stare...

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Guiding Principles of Waterscape

WATERSCAPE: Inform, Educate and Entertain

Waterscape is the result of jottings, notes, recreations and re-imaginings after reading a number of texts, as well as navigating and walking canals and rivers, and cycling towpaths.

There is no fetishisation of documentary evidence and primary sources: in fact, a guiding principle of WATERSCAPE is to go beyond any available historical evidence, so as to recreate the lives of the anonymous, unrecorded lower orders. Waterscape is rather more about boatpeople and navvies, slaves, convicts and itinerants, rather than technology, weights, measures, the statistical and the numbered. We are, in the words of E.P. Thompson in The Making of the English Working Class, rescuing the ignored ‘from the enormous condescension of posterity’.

I have concentrated on local canals and, in the spirit of oral culture and balladry, I have changed the words of a few old songs to fit with the rivers and inland navigations of Gloucestershire.

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The Upperlock Cafe

Pleased to be part of the revival of the canal, the Upperlock Cafe is open seven days a week. Located at Wallbridge on the Stroud Water Navigation, adjacent to the visitor centre of the Cotswold Canals Trust. The cafe provides a welcome and convenient place to stop on...

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