Introduction
This guide for a walk through the General Strike in Stroud will be half-way between a conventional guide for a walk (turn left then right for the bus station sort of thing) and a guide for a psychogeographical ramble.
‘What do you mean by that?’ I hear you say.
‘Don’t panic,’ I reply.
All I mean by a psychogeographical ramble is no more than losing yourself in the past as you traverse through space: ‘Slipping through Wormholes of Time.’ I hope this guide helps you do that.
Remember William Faulkner’s dictum:
‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’
But is that so?
Let’s find out.
Start your walk by walking down Gloucester Street and then returning to the top of the street in a loop. 7 Gloucester Street (in 1926) is where you could get a wireless to get the news from the BBC. The Stroud Journal reached an ‘arrangement with the local agent for the Stanley Radio Company’, on Tuesday May 4, so that ‘Government reports concerning the strike broadcast by the B.B.C.’ could be publicly posted in Lansdown, Stroud, outside the offices of the newspaper each day. The wireless had an incalculable but huge influence during the nine days throughout the country: the TUC Intelligence Committee reported that ‘Many districts … have complained of the lack of reliable news and in isolated places the workers must have been without any source of information except the wireless’ and ‘Though the publication of the British Gazette had little influence upon public opinion, the wireless and the newspapers which improved day by day as the Strike proceeded, did exert some influence.’
Now turn left along Lansdown. Look for the sign for the Stroud Journal 1868 on a red brick building on the left. The Stroud Journal made, to say the least, minimal efforts to present both sides of the story during the nine days and beyond: ‘This challenge to constitutional authority, if it is not withdrawn or speedily defeated, means trouble on a scale such as this country has never before experienced’ – the newspaper saw itself and its role, in effect, as a means of defeating the strike – whilst simultaneously boosting circulation and profit. Hence the warm tone of its NOTICE TO “JOURNAL” READERS on May 7: ‘The Stroud Journal will be published as usual each week, with the usual features. As a great demand for the paper is expected, special orders should be sent at once to the Publishing Office, Lansdown, Stroud.’
The Stroud Journal wedded itself firmly with the BBC and the Government – and readers of the newspaper might well forget the possibility of reading The British Worker or of trying to get hold of a copy of the Gloucester Strike Bulletin, or even studying the governmental mouthpiece, The British Gazette, if they did not possess a wireless, when they saw this in the Stroud Journal:
Official Strike News
Broadcast by the Government is being
Posted Outside the “Journal” Office
EACH DAY
The next edition of the newspaper, on the 14th, carried none of the Stroud news from the Gloucester Strike Bulletin Monday May 10: ‘meetings are being held at Stroud. Position satisfactory and orderly’ or Wednesday May 12: ‘The Stroud Council of Action reports the following strike position: N.U.R. and A.S.L.E. & F. Solid as ever. PRINTERS – Solid as ever, position unchanged. R.C.A. Solid as ever, position unchanged. A.E.U. Some out, rest ready to come out on receiving instructions from Head Office. BUILDING TRADES Majority out, rest awaiting instructions. Greeting to all fellow workers who are fighting for justice and humanity. Keep solid and the fight is ours! Council of Action is now functioning, with close co-operation of all Unions and workers concerned and the necessary sub-committees are all in operation.’
Continue walking along Lansdown away from the town centre.
The Stroud Council of Action
It existed but I don’t know where it met … This is tantalising history. It looks as though the Council of Action was formed too late during the nine days to have had any impact and, indeed, leave any records. This is almost reminiscent of EP Thompson and ‘rescuing the poor and anonymous from the enormous condescension of posterity’ … but imagine if the strike had continued. There could have been a very different picture of Stroud during the General Strike, for as Ralph Anstis stated in Blood on Coal: the lack of central direction from the TUC General Council meant that local trade union branches and strike committees took over, some becoming ‘remarkably efficient; they ran sub-committees for food, workers’ defence, intelligence, sports, communications, prisoners aid, mass picketing and others.’ And as the nine days progressed these local strike committees ‘developed into organs of government themselves’ – Ralph Anstis argued that their power grew as the strike progressed, indicated by the growing number of employers who approached the committees ‘for permission to do certain things like moving food and coal. The hitherto cap-in-hand position between employer and employee was reversed.’
Continue walking along Lansdown away from the town centre until you reach a single-story cream building, number 30. This is the site of what was the Labour Exchange in 1926.
On May 6, the Gloucester newspaper, The Citizen, described ‘Stroud and district’ as ‘one of the biggest industrial areas in the county … already seriously affected by the strike.’ The unemployment figure had rocketed by 500 persons, with short-time working at fifteen major employers because of shortage of fuel. (Unemployment rose from 798 to 2,171 by the end of the strike.)
Continue along Lansdown then turn right at the billboard along Brick Row
Make your way to the line of red brick houses on your left. Holloway’s factory was here in 1926 and was one of many firms affected by short-time working during the General Strike. About 2,000 persons went on short-time working as a consequence of a shortage of coal (miners locked-out) and with the GWR and LMS on strike. This is the roll-call of firms mentioned in the press:
Holloway Bros. Ltd., Apperley Curtis Co., Ltd., Copeland, Chatterson and Co., Ltd., Stroud Metal Co., Ltd., G. Waller and Son Ltd., Phoenix Iron Works, Thrupp, Charfield, the Woodworkers Co., Charles Hooper and Co., Bonds Mill, Eastington, Messrs. Vowles and Son Ltd., Upper Mills, Stonehouse, Newman, Hender and Co., near Nailsworth, Howard and Powell, of Walbridge, T.B. Worth and Sons, Ltd., Ham Mills, Erinoid Ltd., Lightpill, Marling and Evans Ltd., are carrying on as usual. Holloway Bros., Ltd., are closing down three days a week. Hill, Paul and Co., are hindered by transport difficulties. The Chalford Stick Mills are carrying on as usual. Henry Workman, Ltd., Woodchester, are keeping on as long as they can in the interests of their employees, hours of labour etc., being the same as usual. Walker Bros., Dunkirk Mills, are keeping on as usual, but do not know for how long. E.A. Chamberlain and Co., Nailsworth, are carrying on as usual with short shifts.
Continue walking along Brick Row, carry on straight across the bend of the road (into Church Street) with the car park on your left, turn right into the churchyard and then left into the Shambles and then stop at the imposing building on your left with the blue plaque. This was the town hall in 1926 …
The General Strike would see England and Wales divided into areas under the aegis of Civil Commissioners, the Earl of Stanhope organised efforts in the south-west, ‘supported by a squad of assistants, coal officer, food officer, four military liaison officers, railway and postal representatives.’
It’s interesting to see how the chain of authority descended down from the Earl of Stanhope to an emergency meeting of the Stroud Urban District Council in the Town Hall in Stroud. The brief was to decide upon the ‘advisability’ of forming a new local committee ‘to maintain essential services’ etc. The chairman was Col. J.R. Morton Ball who declared that the planned and prepared emergency schemes (for example, a circular from November 1925) now needed action.
With the railways paralysed, the transportation of goods – particularly foodstuffs and fuel – occupied minds at this emergency meeting (as reported by the Stroud Journal May 7) A Mr Hudson was responsible for organising food supplies in their large area (Stroud Urban and Rural Districts, Nailsworth Urban, Wheatenhurst and Dursley rural districts) and he believed that ‘Stroud stood as well as any place in the matter of local supplies, at grocers’ shops in particular’ with ‘a number of big establishments, including the two Co-operative Societies and the Cotswold Stores … Mr. Hudson had formed a traders’ committee to help him on which representatives of these three businesses were represented, together with milk retailers.’
Discussions then turned to coal: the Emergency Officer, Mr. Hayne, based at Gloucester, had reported that not all coal merchants were willing to follow orders ‘limiting … supply to one cwt.’ Shortage encouraged competition rather than cooperation at local authority level too: for Mr. Haynes wanted his committee ‘to prevent the departure of fuel from the district.’ There had been panic buying (‘stocks in the hands of coal merchants were low, probably owing to the big demand made upon them by local residents during the last few weeks’); there was sufficient fuel for the Hospital and the Workhouse but the committee would have to, somehow, ‘discover what coal was required’ and ‘get Mr. Harper to bring more coal into the district if necessary’.
The final – and vexed – matter for the committee’s discussions was the required appeal for volunteers to ‘maintain essential services.’ The discourse about this and the social standing of the participants epitomises the impact of the General Strike upon Stroud and the five valleys. We have already come across the chairman at this meeting: Col. J.R. Morton Ball. The County Chairman for the appeal for volunteers was Col. Ricardo; the vice-chairman was Sir Percival Scrope Marling V.C. (local mill family, educated Harrow and Sandhurst) and he led the discussions after revealing ‘that just before he went to Egypt in January, Col. Ricardo asked for his help in this matter in the event of a strike, and he consented, although somewhat against his will, as he thought a younger man could do it better.’
A Mr. Harper (we think a councillor for Rodborough parish council) was not intimidated by Sir Percival’s imperial aura, however, as revealed in what feels like a somewhat heated exchange of words, as reported in the Stroud Journal May 7.
Mr. Harper wanted to know the definition of ‘volunteer services.’ Sir Percival’s answer was curt and to the point: ‘They will carry on essential services.’ Mr. Harper equally curtly demanded a definition of essential services. Sir Percival’s definition mentioned the transportation of food and fuel etc. Mr. Harper then asked if there had been any instructions received from the Government; the Chairman replied affirmatively and monosyllabically. Mr. Harper’s rejoinder employed a Dickensian trope: ‘This is a lot of humbug to run volunteer services …’ ’ Sir Percival cleared the air, perhaps, by declaring, ‘We are recruiting for the well-being of the community and not for the purpose of strike-breaking.’
Mr. Harper stood his ground when the formation of a committee was proposed and seconded; this lone left-wing voice in the wilderness moved that such a decision should be deferred ‘for a fortnight so that they might see how it went … it had all been done behind their backs. The Emergency Order, the appointment of officials etc., had all been done prior to this trouble. The Government had been talking peace and declaring for war at the same time.’
The report in the Stroud Journal finished abruptly: ‘Chairman: Your amendment is a direct negative. The resolution was carried. Mr. Harper voting against it.’
In consequence, over two hundred volunteers were registered within three days: ‘very satisfactory’ said the newspaper, together with its appeal from ‘the authorities’ for the loan of ‘motor cars, lorries and motor cycles.’ By the end of the strike, 362 volunteers came forward, ‘including 29 lorry drivers, 114 motor car drivers, 6 engine drivers, 13 firemen and 10 women helpers. Altogether, 6 lorries, 58 motor cars and 28 motor cycles were placed at the disposal of the local committee, and were made good use of.’
Now walk along the Shambles. Turn right into the High Street, then left at Mountain Warehouse then right at the clock then left at Café Max to reach the railway station. Perhaps have a coffee at The Stroud and study the impact of the General Strike on the railways.
Trains disappeared from ‘our local railway lines’: just 9 out of 75 GWR staff signed on for work at Stroud on the GWR; none reported for work at picturesque Chalford (where a crucial rail car service operated); some 50% were out on the LMS in the area, with ‘one or two working’ on the branch line to Nailsworth, Woodchester and Dudbridge. ‘Altogether, in our district, we understand that there are over 200 railwaymen who have ceased work,’ reported the Stroud Journal.
The local branch of the NUR reported that 98% of members were out, with telegram instructions from their general secretary: “Position unchanged, no wavering anywhere. Pickets should wear prominent badges. All other members, far as possible, must keep off the streets.” There were no reports of pickets interfering with the attempts made by the G.W.R. stationmaster at Stroud to create a minimal replacement bus service for the rail car between Chalford, Stroud and Stonehouse (there were only three buses available for a scant service).
Now cross the bridge to the other side and think about the railways after the strike was called off on May 12.
But how did the end of the strike go down on the local railways?
The GWR station master at Stroud acted initially on official orders from Paddington, informing returning employees that he could not, as yet, reinstate them. Similarly, on the LMS, there was no immediate reinstatement. Then, after company telegrams, the GWR station master was officially instructed to reinstate specified, notified, employees. They refused to return, pending Union instructions, and until all of those who had been on strike were reinstated. The local NUR secretary, Mr. Wake, affirmed that all of the Stroud branch were ‘standing solidly together’ and that the Railway workers had met in the Liberal Hall to unanimously pass this resolution: “That this meeting of the members in this district of the R.C.A, the A.S.L. and F., and the N.U.R. hereby pledge our loyalty to each other and to the Joint Executive of the three Unions. Further, we pledge ourselves to stand firm for the re-instatement of every man who came out on strike at the call of the T.U.C.”
The newspaper followed this news with the strapline BACK TO NORMAL NEXT WEEK? and with a statement from an ‘official of the Railway Information Bureau’ who said he hoped for restored railway normality ‘next week.’ But the official offered a new definition of ‘normal’ (not that the Stroud Journal said so): employees would only ‘be taken back where there was work for them. It was explained that with disorganisation of business some big industries could not get going at once, and there would not be the same work for the railways.’
Now walk towards Walbridge and have a break at the canal:
Similarly, some local engineers, who had been called out on the second wave by the TUC on the last day of the strike, and then returned to work later in the day when the strike was terminated, ‘were told that at present they would not be re-instated.’ The Stroud Journal did not mention that this was hardly in the spirit of the King’s Message or the Prime Minister’s speech: “we should resume our work in a spirit of co-operation, putting behind us all malice and vindictiveness.”
Had there been any malice and vindictiveness in the streets of Stroud and beyond during the nine days? There is an absence of evidence on that question – which may, of course, suggest peaceful streets. The Stroud Journal praised local reserve constables who ‘again donned their uniform’ and the large enrolment of ‘efficient and highly satisfactory’ special constables.’ Significantly, the feature finished with the lofty tone of this sentence: ‘We have been fortunate in this locality in that no disturbances have taken place, which speaks well for the hundreds of men who have been unemployed.’ Indeed, the only court cases that I chanced upon in the May 21 edition of the newspaper involved bicycles (one speeding) and the parking of a motor car.
In consequence, it’s easy to imagine that Beatrice Webb’s diary entry for Monday May 3 could also ring true for Stroud’s comfortably-off: ‘The net impression left on my mind is that the General Strike will turn out not to be a revolution of any sort but a batch of compulsory Bank Holidays without any opportunity for recreation and a lot of dreary walking to and fro.’
And then there is the resonant reassurance of the King’s diary: ‘Our old country can be well proud of itself, as during the last nine days there has been a strike in which four million people have been affected, not a shot has been fired and no-one has been killed, it shows what a wonderful people we are.’
Now walk along the Bath Road towards Rodborough Hill. Turn left to go up the hill and then immediately left onto the cycle track so as to eventually turn right onto the old railway line that connected Stroud with Dudbridge on the Stonehouse-Nailsworth LMS line.
Carry on until you see some interesting industrial archaeological relics on your left …
Stuart,
Thanks again for a really enjoyable afternoon.
Found this link which says a bit more about the coal sidings along the cycle path https://www.stroudiecentral.co.uk/dudbridge-to-stroud-cycle-track-and-gas-works/
Also this from Ian M… ***Stroud Gasworks were on a site between the canal and River Frome on Gas House Lane, now known as Chestnut Lane. The canal obviously brought in coal for the gasworks and the towpath made a convenient route to lay a gas main.
Coal to the gasworks was later brought in by rail along the Midland Railway’s Stroud branch line which ran alongside the river at a higher level. There was a siding and a wagon turntable on the branch line where coal wagons were turned and the coal tipped down a chute to a narrow-gauge railway below which ran into the gasworks. The siding and tip appear on the 1938 OS map but not the 1922 so was probably constructed as trade on the canal was decreasing (the Thames & Severn having been abandoned totally in 1933). I did find the remains of the wagon turntable when poking around the undergrowth about 35 years ago.
Link to the 1938 OS map of the site: https://maps.nls.uk/view/109727533#zoom=5.7&lat=8719&lon=6990&layers=BT
I believe the last delivery of coal to the gasworks by barge was by the ‘Stanley’ in 1941 and indeed was the last commercial toll paid on the canal. I got talking to someone beside the canal once who had witnessed the barge returning empty down the locks at Eastington.***
From elsewhere, the construction of the sidings and tippler was agreed in July 1924 so that by 1926 most coal was delivered by rail, though some still came along the canal from Sharpness. The canal supply continued during the General Strike, despite attempts by pickets. No doubt the tonnage books in Stroudwater archives would reveal the relative amount transported before and during and immediately post-strike.
This is what I wrote a few years ago:
It’s easy to miss Industry’s footprint,
Lost in the elder, primrose, ash and willow.
But see the rusting mighty iron capstans,
One, now toppled, but one still firm and strong,
Once used for winching trucks down the gas works siding,
To a coal tippler (concrete remains there still),
Where a hydraulic ram tipped the trucks’ coal
Down a chute to a narrow-gauge hopper,
And thence over two bridges and the Frome,
To its destination at Stroud Gasworks –
But there was a nine-day General Strike in May 1926,
And the miners were locked-out until November.
When you reach the bridge that takes the cycle path below Dudbridge Hill, take the left ascent by the bridge and then turn left up Dudbridge Hill. Just before the traffic light junction (the Golden Cross) there is a left into Stroud Rugby Club. Walk along there for your penultimate Stroud and the General Strike port of call.
On Wednesday May 12, the Gloucester Strike Bulletin had cheerfully announced that ‘A large Labour Demonstration will be held on Sunday May 16th, leaving Lansdown at 2.30 p.m. proceeding to Frome-hall Park with a band. Speakers: Morgan Jones and Dan Griffiths. A meeting will be held at night in the Cooperative Hall, Cainscross at 7.30 p.m. Speakers: Mr. G. Hall and Dan Griffiths. All supporters of the cause are heartily invited to join the procession.’ When the meeting was held, in the wake of the ending of the strike and with no settlement for the miners, it was, of course, important to raise Labour and trade union spirits and look to the future.
The Stroud Journal on May 21 reported on ‘the May Day celebration held … under the joint auspices of the Stroud Division Labour Party and Trades and Labour Council.’ There was a procession, with a band, ‘red banners flying’, to the meeting ‘attended by several hundreds.’ The prospective Labour candidate, Dan Griffiths, sent this message: “I shall be with you in spirit at your May Celebration. I trust the day is not far distant when the workers all the world over will come into their own.”
The next speaker, Mr. Webb, also spoke with an uplifting tone, ‘pointing out how the older men of the movement had been looking forward to the day when the united workers of the country and the whole world would realise what a mighty power they had in their hands if they desired to use it, and when they would throw down the challenge to those of the employing class who had been crushing the worker under its heel.’
The next speaker, Mr. Hiatt, started by emphasising that the strike had not been a challenge to the constitution; it was an industrial dispute. He went on to say that ‘the dispute had shown the working people of the country their real power, and it had shown how false the conception … that capital was the main spring of industry.’ Trade Unions would continue to progress, he said, and the movement ‘had tasted power, and it needed only men of goodwill, sound judgement, and of understanding’ to use ‘power wisely …Industrially and politically, they were never nearer their goal’, he concluded.
The final speaker was Mr. Morgan Jones, M.P., from a mining constituency. Although he, too, emphasised that the strike had been an industrial dispute not a revolutionary constitutional challenge, he also emphasised that the nine-day working class solidarity just shown was globally and historically unique. He asserted that future progress would rest upon a fusion of the ‘Trade Union movement on the one hand as an industrial weapon, and of the political Labour Party as a political weapon … Now was the time to reflect and reconsider and … he urged that at the next election they would place a cross against the name of his good friend, Dan Griffiths (applause).’
Now climb Walkley Hill and cross the road at The Prince Albert to have a look at Rodborough Allotments at the gate.
Rodborough Allotments and the General Strike (An Imagining)
With so many firms on short-time working as a result of a shortage of coal with the miners locked-out and with the stoppage on the railways, and with the plea from the TUC that people on strike should take up healthy activities such as gardening rather than active picketing … there must have been an unusual number of men and women out working on their plots during the day time in early May 1926, and gazing down at an unusually quiet and smoke free town.
I imagine a number of those people could afford a wireless and would be broadcasting, as it were, the BBC during conversation. Some, no doubt, would read the government’s British Gazette and some, no doubt, the TUC’s British Worker; two or three might have copies of the Gloucester Strike Bulletin, and, who knows? One might have a copy of the Communist Party’s Workers’ Bulletin.
It’s easy to imagine some heated conversations. For those nine days in May bitterly divided the country.
But did they bitterly divide the allotment? Or did gardeners keep their heads down, digging, hoeing, planting and sowing: finding a common cause to override division?
Who knows?
Perhaps there is message here for the whole nation today in this climate of culture-wars and echo chambers.
So, I finish off this presentation with this poem:
Rolled sleeve, break-back, pounding chest,
Up here, just below Butterrow West,
Where I plant and dig and study and sow,
While neighbours wander to and fro,
Past rusting barrows, ramshackle sheds,
Oil drums, baths, and compost beds,
With sticks and string to seed-space measure,
For next year’s crops to plot and treasure,
As rain drops drip on mouldering fruit,
And deep dug spade and couch grass root,
While I look down on canal and town,
Great Western Railway cream and brown,
And hear the ghosts of gramp and dad:
‘Breathe the air ‘fore it’s breathed on lad’,
By the stretched-out cloth on tenterhook,
Old Stroud scarlet where the ghosts just stood,
And feel the past pulse through my veins,
Digging the future in mist and rain,
A time to come; and past, and present,
This is my harvest on Rodborough allotment.
A time to come; and past, and present,
This is my harvest on Rodborough allotment.
Now return for refreshment at the pub.
And now to finish our account of the aftermath of the strike, the last words come from Percival S. Marling and Henry Ricardo:
(To the Editor of the “Stroud Journal’)
Sir – Now that the General Strike is, as we hope, happily ended … I should like, as Chairman of the Volunteer Services Committee for Essential Services for Stroud and District, to thank the Stroud Urban District Council for the use of the room at the Town Hall, Stroud, and also to thank all those who have so loyally helped the Recruiting Committee … The total number recruited up to May 11th was 362. I think we who live in the Stroud area have just cause to congratulate ourselves on the excellent behaviour and good temper shown by all sections of the community during the past trying fortnight.
Yours truly,
PERCIVAL S. MARLING
Stanley Park, Stroud,
May 15th, 1926
Shire Hall,
Gloucester,
17th May, 1926
My dear Marling,
Will you kindly convey to the voluntary workers who assisted in the registration and employment of volunteers in your Area the appreciation of the Civil Commissioner of the South Western Division for their loyal assistance in the national crisis, and as Chairman of the Committee for the County of Gloucestershire may I add my own.
The arrangements in the County have worked most admirably, thanks to the prompt and efficient help we have received, while the offers for assistance which went far beyond what it was in the smallest degree possible to make use of, have shown that the spirit of the County was as fine as it always has been.
Yours sincerely,
RICARDO
Chairman
Some of you may be moved to pen a few lines about all of this.
If so, here is a guide to assist you with your pen if you so wish.
A GUIDE TO WRITING YOUR OWN
If you fancy it, here’s a practical easy guide to creative writing.
(If any readers are into the intellectual side
of all this slipping through wormholes of time stuff,
and fancy some prompts about psychogeography,
Radical walking and the imagination –
an A to Z of Psychogeography
follows the creative writing guide.)
A guide to creative writing: An A – Z Writing Guide
A is for ALLITERATION and ANECDOTES
and ASSONANCE and ATMOSPHERE
B is for BATHOS and BLANK VERSE and BACKSTORY
C is for CHARACTERS and CLIFFHANGER and COUNTER-HERITAGE
D is for DIALOGUE and DRAMA
E is for EFFECT and ELLIPSIS
F is for FIRST PERSON and FORESHADOWING
and FACT and FICTION and FREE VERSE
G is for GENRE (which will you choose?)
and GUERRILLA MEMORIALISATION
H is for HONESTY and HEART (and soul) and HERITAGE
I is for IMAGERY and IDIOM and IAMBIC PENTAMETRE
and IMAGINATION
J is for JUSTICE and the JUST word
K is for KINDNESS and KINESIS
L is for LUCID and LUDIC and LIMINALITY
M is for METAPHOR and MOOD and MEMORIALISATION
and MYTHOPOEIC and METRE
N is for NARRATIVE and NOTEBOOK (necessary)
O is for ONOMATAPOEIA
P is for PERSONA and PLOT and PACE and PUNCTUATION
and PARENTHESIS and PEN and PENCIL
and PAPER and POETRY and PROSE
Q is for QUEST (for the right word) and QUESTIONS
R is for RULE OF THREE and RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
and RESEARCH and READING and RHYME and RHYTHM
S is for SIMILE and SIBILANCE and STRUCTURE
and STANZA and SETTING and SENSES and SENTENCES (varied)
and SYNTHESIA
T is for TRIPLES and THIRD PERSON
U is for UNDERSTATED
V is for VARIED SENTENCE STRUCTURE and VOICE
and VERSE and VARIED VOCABULARY
W is for WANDERING and WRITING and WORMHOLES
X is for X-ROADS (liminal wormholes through time)
Y is for YEARNING (for the past and for the right word)
Z is for ZEN and the ART of STATIONERY MAINTENANCE
An A-Z Psychogeographical Guide
A is for Ambulatory Art; the Arcades Project; Alienation; Ambience/Ambiance; Aleatory Walking; Ackroyd (Peter); the Association of Autonomous Astronauts; Autism and Walking; Ambling.
B is for Beach (Beneath the Pavements!!); Benjamin (Walter); Baudelaire; Bohemian; Barthes (Roland); Baudrillard Jean) and Bucolic.
C is for Commodity Fetishism; Crowds; Chtcheglov (Ivan); Coverley (Miles); Cartography (Re-imagined); Critique of Everyday Life; Commodification; Cultural Terrorism; Choreographed Walking; Cadogan (Garnette); Cyberflanerie; Crowds; constitutional.
D is for Derivee; Detournement; Debord (Guy); Defoe (Daniel); de Certeau (Michel); Disabled Walking; Dementia and Walking; Dreamtime Walking.
E is for Edgelands; Existentialism; Experimental Exeats; Egressions; Ecophilia.
F is for Flaneur; Flanerie; Flaneuse; Five Valleys; Fete (see Potlatch); Foucault (Michel) and Feminist Psychogeography; Field Walking.
G is for Geography.
H is for Hessel (Franz); Huizinga (Johan), Homo Ludens; Harvey (David); Hawksmoor (Nicholas); Home (Stewart); hollow-ways; hike.
I is for International Situationniste (the S.I. journal); Infraordinary; Interpellation; Indolence.
J is for Journals; Journeys; Jorn (Asger); jogging.
K is for Kaleidoscope; Kafkaesque.
L is for Ludic; Lefebevre (Henri); Lettrist International; Literary Communism; Ley Lines; the Loiterers’ Resistance Movement; Languid.
M is for Marxist-Materialists; Mythogeographers (discovering political and/or multiple meanings in landscapes; Maps (mmm …); Manifestos; May ’68; the Materialist Psychogeographical Affiliation; the Museum of Walking; Multicultural Inclusive Psychogeography; Memory Retrieval through walking (dementia sufferers); POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces).
N is for Noctivigant; Noctambulist; the Neoist Alliance; Navigation; Navigators (inland); Navvies.
O is for Occultist Walking (invoking de Quincey, and William Blake for a harder political edge.); Oldfield Ford (Laura); Ocularcentrism.
P is for Psychogeography; Potlatch (the S.I. journal) and Potlatch (devoid ‘of all Productive logic in which everyone may Participate’ – A Fete*); Performance (Poetic and subversive Potential of ordinary life revealed); Pranks and Property Defacement; Praxis; Papadimitriou (Nick); Postmodern Flaneur; Psychogeography and the Deriviste;
Q is for de Quincey (Thomas); Queues (bus stop).
R is for Rural (reading and writing the rural – individually/collectively); Romantic (literary tradition); Rhythmanalysis; Reverie; Richardson (Tina); Rimbaud; Relational (cf solitary) Walking and Recollection.
S is for Signifier; Signified; Semiotics; Situations; Spectacles; Situationist International; Society Of The Spectacle; Stroud; Site Specific (art/performance); Solnit (Rebecca); Subversion; Spatial Interruption (cf Temporal Interruption); Sinclair (Ian); Savage Messiah; Social Critique ; Schizocartography; Smith (Phil); the Situational Derive; Situational Walking Arts; Sensory Mapping; Soundscape and Smell Walks.
T is for Time; Temporality Interruption (cf. Spatial Interruption);
Three-Sided Football.
U is for Urban (reading and writing the city/town – individually/collectively); Unitary Urbanism; Utopianism.
V is for van Ratingen (Witold Jerzy) (see * Potlatch above); Virtual Psychogeography.
W is for Watkins (Alfred); Walking as ‘A Pedestrian Speech Act’ (de Certeau); Wrights and Sites and the Walking Artists Network and Walking Women and Walking While Black.
X is for Cross Roads and X marks the spot of whatever you wish to bury or find.
Y is for Yearning/Nostalgic walking.
Z is for Zen-Fullness; The Art of Zen and Shank’s Pony Maintenance.
