One of my favourite walks in Chester, before the lockdown, was to take the riverside path that follows the west bank of the Dee all the way from the city centre out to the village of Eccleston. Here there was … Continue reading
A bridge that divides. Border country, and in my mind I’m so close to the edge. But fly-strewn water fills my mouth, and drowns all possible words. Cold pellets of rain beating a tattoo on the gore-tex fabric of my … Continue reading
But where does the river sit in all of this: as a reflection of (and receptacle for) change? Surface Tension, Rob St John This is as far as I can go. I have been following the course of the River … Continue reading
Viewed from my vantage point on the old lifeboat station, Hilbre’s role as guardian of the seaward approach to the River Dee becomes clear. Her cliffs, layers of weathered red and yellow sandstone come to a point just here. Sitting … Continue reading
In April 2013 I wrote on this site about the plotlander movement of the inter-war years and the riverside chalets on the Dee at Farndon, near Chester. The piece stirred up quite a lot of interest; I even heard from … Continue reading
Walking along the foreshore of the Dee estuary near Parkgate, enjoying the silence and the wide vista of land and sky, I was put in mind of the old poem by Charles Kingsley, The Sands of Dee. Kingsley was Canon of Chester Cathedral at … Continue reading
That from this castle’s tatter’d battlements Our fair appointments may be well perused. Methinks King Richard and myself should meet … Continue reading
Wheels must turn steadily, but cannot turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as steady as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment. Crying: My baby, my mother, my only, only love; … Continue reading
This gallery contains 66 photos.
The chalet colony, through which I walked with Anna on that bright morning, was larger and more cheerful than the neighbouring villages. Nobody needed an expulsion order to move in. ‘Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project’ – … Continue reading
Pilgrim paths, green roads, drove roads, corpse roads, trods, leys, dykes, drongs, snarns, snickets – say the names of paths out loud and they become a poem or rite – holloways, bostles, shutes, driftways, lichways, ridings, halterpaths, cartways, carneys, … Continue reading
