‘Landmarks’ and the Stroud Valleys (a local perspective on Robert Macfarlane’s new book)
Robert Macfarlane writes of topograms, Descriptive signifiers of the landscape That act as tiny poems, conjuring ‘scenes’, With words that act as ‘Landmarks’, Nuanced terms that evoke the uniqueness And particularity of a landscape, A lexis both descriptive and...
A Picture of Stroud
To see the picture of Stroud that has prompted the piece below, please follow this link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/gerardin-delaplace/paintings/slideshow#/3 It’s harvest time up towards the Heavens, Up there, by Holy Trinity Church in Stroud: The...
Railway Time
Do you remember that lazy afternoon Back in August 1958? Well, I bloody well do mate. We were sitting on the bunker At the end of platform four, Just by the giant semaphore signal, When 5050 The Earl of St Germans Came steaming, Brunswick green and brass dome...
The Incinerator at Javelin Park
We got up too late for the revolution, And a winter walk along the lanes Meant we missed the demonstration too – The one in Stroud against Balfour Beatty (‘Balfour Beatty is a multinational infrastructure group with capabilities in construction services, support...
The Prince Albert
I like visiting the Albert, I like the way it commands a crossroads, Welcoming all cardinal points of the compass, Just like a traditional inn should. I like visiting the Albert in springtime, When vases of flowers greet you in the bar, With vernal fragrance and...
Wiltshire walking with Edward Thomas
Years ago, when cycling along the lanes of mid-Wiltshire, truly, deeply, madly in love, I stopped to ‘phone Trish at a call box opposite an old pub which had just been closed down. When I came out of the phone box I heard not just all the merry sounds of a public bar,...