Tales from a Slow Way 2023 submission

Slow Ways is a nationwide project to create a network of walking routes between settlements, encouraging people to travel on foot more and explore their local area. Last year they launched 'Tales from a Slow Way', a call for applications from creatives of all kinds to propose ideas for stories told through their preferred medium (writing, painting, music etc) about one or more of their routes, or a journey along them. The idea was also to work with a local community group/s to benefit people on or around the routes.

My application was unsuccessful on this occasion, but I still intend at some point to write the proposed piece, and/or stay in touch with the group I chose to hopefully collaborate in another way in future. It was also a good opportunity to consider some of my recent thoughts about land access and the Right to Roam, an idea full of musical potential, as I have experienced seeing the folk band accompanying the rising of Old Crockern at the Dartmoor Wild Camping Ban protest in January, as well as recently learning a choral piece on the subject of enclosure and trespass.

Below is a selection of pictures, writings and other artefacts that resulted from the planning and research for the piece, 'The Broken Stile'. Italicised text represents extracts from the application or programme note, while standard text is that which I have written today for this blog.

This shows the route of the Camel Trail, encompassing Slow Way routes Bodcam, Wadbod and Padwad

My community story idea was to tell the tale of the Camel Trail, a disused railway turned popular cycle/walking route in North Cornwall that runs from Wenfordbridge to the mouth of the River Camel at Padstow. The idea of this lost railway, littered with remnants of infrastructure such as bridges, running from near the high point of the county all the way down to sea level is full of potential for storytelling. The variety of landscapes it passes through is also very enticing and worth representing, including moorland, woodland, wetland, town centres and estuary. The community group I am working with are St Breward Silver Band. They are based right near the start of the Camel Trail and thus are the perfect group to tell this story, representing a settlement and people that were previously served by the now lost railway but who still have this direct route and link to the sea, c.18 miles away at Padstow.

On the day, I was very lucky to see so much wildlife, with temperatures being below 0 °C for most of the walk. I saw five herons taking off from a frozen flooded field, a fox crossing the path just in front of me, prints/poo of an otter down by the river, lots of pheasants and squirrels, and loads of small birds, including a woodpecker.

This broken stile spotted on a walk from Wenfordbridge to Padstow, like the closure of the railway, is an example of a once useful path, a route along which people and things and ideas travelled, being damaged. While the Camel Trail is now a good way to experience landscapes and wildlife, from moorland to woodland, wetland to estuary, its history is one of industry and exploitation of nature. Signs along its edges saying ‘Private fishing: keep out’ and ‘sporting rights reserved- no public access’ show that most of us are still funnelled along corridors, forced to look at the natural world as it passes by, rather than being able to fully explore and enjoy it, thereby learning to love and protect it, without risk of persecution by land owners either side. On the other hand, as a link between moor and ocean, a route that is full of zero-carbon travellers on foot and wheels, there are few better places locally to choose to take the slow way between settlements, with a great chance of seeing animals, hearing the wind in the trees and the river below, and getting from A to B in an enjoyable/different way.

As part of the walk, I recorded some sounds I heard as I went along. These were never going to be part of any finished piece but helped me capture a part of the spirit of place I experienced on the day, being as they were examples of essential elements of the route I chose, and the specific journey I took along it that day.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/btwya414rtuu87f/Camel%20Trail%20bird%20song.m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lbh3ald8d4s0zns/River%20Camel.m4a?dl=0

Tales from a Slow Way is a great project, a wonderful example of the idea of places and journeys and the feelings they can give us being a rich source of inspiration for creative expression. I look forward to seeing the winning entries and perhaps entering again in the future.