Sweet Frome Flow Softly
Vaguely to the tune of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger singing ‘Sweet Thames Flow Softly’ I found her springs near Climperwell, Flow sweet River Frome, And then at Nettleton as well, Sweet Frome flow softly. Walked her path to Caudle Green, Flow sweet...
Walking and Pop-up Open-air Museums
Purton and the River Severn Walking around Purton on the River Severn is almost literally rather than figuratively a pop-up experience. The biggest riverine boat-grave in Britain: old boats and barges rammed into the river bank to try and keep it stable. And there are...
“No Pasaran!”
“Where Are the Faces We Seek?” This extract from a contemporary poem gives a flavour of the 1930s. You’ll hear about the Means Test which was, in essence, a vicious attack on the unemployed living on the dole during the Great Depression when unemployment as a national...
The Blackpool of the West (A Tale of Two Bridges Or Two Bridges and a Tunnel)
The Blackpool of the West It’s so close to the endless edgelands of Avonmouth, That warehouse-dystopian modernity, Where no-one seems to manufacture anything, Just store stuff, move stuff or exchange stuff, And then choose a café for a coffee and a croissant: The...
Why No Hoboes Over Here?
I’m writing this after rereading Kenneth Alsopp’s classic Hard Travellin’ after a gap of some nearly fifty years. It is, needless, to say, a book of its time but what a poetic piece of extensive research it is. It’s a piece of Americana but the book also opens up the...
A Walk can be an Open Air Museum
A BS3 Museum Walk (Others Are Available) Join me on one of my regular walks from my home to Ashton Gate, the home of Bristol City. I am highlighting the exhibits I connect with. If you were to undertake the walk you would, undoubtedly, see different things. Exhibit 1...