The Less Travelled Path

A short poem read inside a hollow tree just as the rain was passing through, November 2015.

Ground Speaking with Gordon Field

Some days begin with an open heart and an open mind. . . 

And some days push these limits past understanding and comprehension, I believe stories do this when you embrace them properly, but they are always stories, never more than, even if we wish they were.

So Monday was spent tramping field edges and Quantock brambles in search for beacon trees and confluences of energy only my guide could discern.

It was with Gordon Field I travelled, an artist, friend, and in the last few years a tree dowser.

Firstly I am to be working with Cannington College at a Holy Well (St Agnes) which nestles in the southern edge of the Quantock hills in Somerset. Only recently did I find out about the well which itself is a simple medieval building with crystal clear water flowing freely from a medieval building to a gully made by the same students in relatively recent years. 

Chatting with Gordon about the well he was keen to visit and dowse around the locality so a date was set, but before our appointment he remotely dowsed an Ordinance Survey map to trace lines which flow through this location (pictured). Now I must make a confession here as I am a pretty pessimistic (and a little condescending I admit) especially to Glastonbury healers and self asserting aura boasters, so it was great to be with Gordon, a man who has journeyed from a place I understand well - design and has his feet strongly placed on the earth.  But although I am familiar with the place Gordon has come from, I am not so sure I understand the place he has found himself - which is talking to trees.

According to Gordon there are six lines passing through the well, the first of which is 2 miles wide. These lines also travel over the hill and cross at specific beacon points and it was our task after visiting the well to search out these beacon trees.

So - OK time to follow this one down the rabbit hole, I think it's time to explain how Gordon dowses with his Walnut wood rod to ask a question of a tree.

First he asks if the tree is well, and secondly if it would like to talk. A yes sees the rod moving, a no is no movement at all, and it is through this process of elimination which answers are sought. So if he were to ask a tree if it were more than 100 years old, and it was then the rod would move i.e. he would get a yes. He might then ask if it were more than 200 years old, if there was no movement on the rod then it was not more than 200 years old. By breaking this down into smaller and smaller parts he eventually arrives at a  date for when the tree was planted.

A month or two back I worked on The Gather-ing project (see previous blog) and in the Priory building adjacent to the Tithe Barn Gordon found a timber which he dowsed to ascertain the date it was installed. The timber informed him it was placed there some 634 years ago, and even more incredibly it was 500 years old when cut for that purpose. I remember Gordon informing me of this at the time and not really sure how to respond, but I noted and nodded and my curiosity was piqued.

So here you have not only a tree giving its age but a dead one to boot, I would not be alone in thinking

'Ladies and Gentlemen I believe we have now given leave to our sensibilities.'

But then, with storytelling I am constantly bending the world order to steel the truth inside a tale, was this any different? Here Gordon was reporting what the trees were telling him, and he is a level and sensible individual whom I have known for many years. He is not swayed by fad or fantastical whim, in fact he is both grounded and creative, and seemingly no more, which makes it all the more curious.

So I've broken it down into these steps

1 - Communing with trees

2 - Asking them questions in a way to get specific quantifiable data

3 - Communing with long dead trees with similar questions

4 - Communing with the Holy well itself

Whether you believe this or not I would just like to give you some of Gordon's answers and dispel with how they were divined. So on Monday, Gordon asked the well its age and incredibly he came upon not one but two dates, the first was the date water started to flow and the second was the date when humans began to visit. These dates were 11,120 and 5452 years ago, surpassingly precise and defined. It is interesting to note that the ice sheet retreated from Somerset and Northern Europe about 12,000 years ago which chimes surprisingly well with Gordon's dates.

Are they real, are they correct, I wonder.

So the next job was to find the tree on the hill, which itself had apparently been there for around 5400 years too, although Gordon was quick to say that it's not the same tree. We climbed in the mist up Cothlestone hill to a tumuli and view point - although the view was slow to materialise Gordon found what he was looking for which turned out to be quite a young Oak. This beacon tree told Gordon it was 193 years old and was planted by a Jay.

Apparently anyone can dowse which just starts with approaching a tree, saying hello and spending a little time with it. It requires you return again and again but then that's no hardship, we all have special places we love and personally I have a strong bond with woods. They pervade my stories and dreams, I like the way they sway in storms and throw dashing colours in autumn. I like the way they catch the rain and beg to be climbed, and my favourite early memory of a wood when walking as a child was not being able to crack twigs under my boots as my tread was too light. Today, I wish I were that light and cold walk through the forest without crashing and bashing like some city oaf.

I often say Storywalks are special as they are both in this world and the story world, but on Monday I went on a walk through the forest with a gentleman who does the same but in a manner I find both baffling and intriguing in equal measures.

But in the mean time here is a little poem I wrote

From wasp ripe fruits to frost kissed blossom,

From sinuous roots to mossy damp cushions

I am timber of heart and bark of head

And it's through the forest my soul will thread.

And here are Gordon's instructions for contacting a tree, in a time when the word acorn has been removed from the Oxford Children's Dictionary I think we should reacquaint ourselves with the forest just by spending some time there.

Poetry (R)amble

Yesterday a Poetry Ramble was convened in Burridge Woods near Dulverton, the workshop journeyed into the forest to create and write inside the landscape. This was the second of two Poetry Rambles commissioned by the Lynmouth Pavilion Project and Exmoor National Park and tasked with taking words into the Exmoor woodlands.

The walk itself was more of an amble than a ramble with the actual trail being only a mile or two and much of which was sitting in the dappled shade of the camp above Dulverton in Burridge woods. Here secreted away is a precious makeshift wigwam shelter, constructed by generations of hands, large and small all leaning logs against a simple forked tree. Initially just a few timbers were set, but over the years more have been added and now it has become Dulverton's alternative venue (well almost!)

Dulvertons walking book club sometimes passes this way and you may find them chatting about the latest month's read beneath the oaken canopy before journeying off to get lost in their words once more.

But poetic words were the measure of this day, with the initial gathering and hoarding on cards provided to create a resource which would be valuable later on in the session.

Once at the den these words were remodelled and re sculpted to try and construct something which echoed this space and place. Fresh tea and biscuits did play their part in grading this wheel too.

The final task was to stitch serendipitous phrases (provided and drawn from a metal pot) into compositions intended for those who could no longer walk in these woods - be they too old or too infirm. One of the poems which came forth seemed to be written to the author's future self as a squirreling of beauty to be revisited a long time in the future.

Breath the White Barle flow

Governs and guides and lifts us long

Its moorish hue all seeded strong

Up across the brash and litter

Downy moss against hazel sheen

Fox gloves stretch our seasons sync

Woodpecker presses this broken link

Chestnut finds reach skyward

Snow weight twisted this fibrous bower

Now lazy turns to elfin tower

So that's a piece from the day, not exactly a poem, more a gathering of phrases all brought from the day, the time and the place. Foxgloves flowering in late September seemed far from their usual season, and sounds of a woodpecker which followed us up the climb seemed strangely disconnected and out of sync.

A fascinating and rewarding day, where the Exmoor woodlands provided a majestic and diverse canvas from which it was easy to draw inspiration. As yet there are no plans for future Poetry Rambles (or Poetry Ambles) but hopefully the Exmoor National Park with Lynmouth Pavilion will be keen to revisit this and build on this year's successes.

Please get in touch if you would like to attend one in Spring 2016.

Lynmouth Pavilion Project 01598 752509

And find out more about Dulverton's Walking Book Club here.

Quivers of Words

The river Barle is unusual as it has no towns or villages baring its name along its meander through Exmoor. The river Exe which is equal in measure when they run together is the very opposite, but it is the Barle which is this summer's muse; as the Poetry Boxes have been situated along a short length of it just next to an ancient crossing known as Tarr Steps.

The poetry box project is quite simple in concept, just a tin with book and pencil inside, left for strangers to populate with their words of wonder. In the summer of 2014 I tethered six such tins at Valley of Rocks for June, July and August supported by The Lynmouth Pavilion Project. By the end of the three months we had amassed over 2000 poems which was quite incredible, and now with only two weeks to go until the tins are removed we already have some 1300 entries written by passers by.

Moor-tinged head bows
Velvet kisses its reflection
Barle-quenched thirst

David Arnett

This first response I usually receive when explaining the project and poetry boxes is 'what are you going to do with the poems?' Initially I explained that the project didn't expect to do anything, it was designed to simply gather and provide a space for writing if anyone felt so inclined. But as it turned out people were inclined and after the amazing quantity and quality that were collected last year it seemed that a publication would indeed be possible and requested by participants.

The second question people ask is about vandalism and I have to say that there is an element of this but it is minor, really surprisingly minor. Sometimes books have been edited by visitors, a page removed, a rude drawing erased (I only place pencils in the boxes for a good reason) and about one in twenty books will go walkies. But these losses are well beneath the number I initially expected. There is also a couple of repeating poems which would make my mum blush (probably not actually - I know she is made of sterner stuff!) but nothing which a little editing can't mask to make exhibition ready.

So how have I managed to get so many poems from complete strangers?

I think there is a mix of elements, firstly the location, Tarr Steps and Valley of Rocks are both beautiful places which many gravitate to when they visit Exmoor. 

Secondly the quality of the tins and contents which must be A1 all the time, I check on them weekly and keep them tip top, replacing and repairing the tins, refreshing the books, sharpening pencils etc each time.

The poetry boxes are the seeds and they do need time to nurture and grow just like any good plant, so a little time in the field is essential. 

The final ingredient which makes the perfect mix is space, to entice people to write they must feel under no pressure nor obligation to write. The books and boxes are just so tempting that people can't resist, and if their offering is not really up to their own expectation then they just pop it back in the box and leave for the next. But more often than not, the authors are rather pleased and like to sign their works (even when they are not their own!) some even add a copyright symbol.

For me what is astounding is the latent talent of passing strangers, those people treading the trail just like yourself, caught in a moment of relaxation and beauty, interest piqued they open the tin, read a little then add their own composition - just like that!

So perhaps when this set of books is in we will indeed start to pull together a little publication, it would be a shame not to. But in the mean time here are some extracts and images from this year's Tarr Steps' books, with the one below from me. The books and boxes will be retrieved without leaving a trace beyond memories and smiles, however they are still in situ until the end of August 2015 so you've still got the chance to add your own words. Throughout September a selection of the books are to be exhibited at  The Lynmouth Pavilion, so catch them there too.

If you would like to be on the mailing list or notified of the publication date for the Poetry Box Project then please get in touch though either Number Seven Dulverton or Fly Catcher Press.

Across Sanskrit of leaf brash hall
A glowing spring evolves forth with
Forest twines and un-winds and gives
Rhythm of breath labours full strong
Upwards greets the blue bell haze
Indigo phase with eastwards bend
Where a brew of thoughts comes fresh to comprehend
A throw of ferns now into the trees
Down through the soul-scape of rivers casting
Towards the ocean a lazy life unmasking
Moss crazes this luscious mantle
Bilberries fringe where the text dismantles
All jigsaw pieces beyond the sum of its parts
Each segment spoke forming a wheel to this cart
Fold it up into phrases for elaborate cording
Entwine the words for future hoarding
The appetite of forest glamour
With which we may construct an armour
Against the raging wearing clamour

Christopher Jelley

Also for those interested in poetry which responds to landscape there is an exhibition of The Poetry Pin Project at Contains Art in Watchet, with special event on the evening of 31st October. The Poetry Pin Publication - A Walk Down the Rift will be for sale (Fly Catcher Press)

A Walk Down the Rift

Exhibition at Contains Art, Watchet

Open 11 – 4pm Wednesdays to Sundays

From 21st October until 1st November 

Evening event with readings  31st October 7 – 9pm

The Sequencing of Space

Here Mr Jelley talks about how Storywalks skills link back to his reading and writing when he was a child (shamefully little to be honest - his words) but how moving furniture and re sequencing rooms developed skills which are key to creating a successful Storywalk (as well as creative writing!)

Confused, well don't worry, make yourself a nice hot drink and then press play, it's only ten minutes long and was recorded in Dunster Deer Park Summer 2015.

The spaces between words

Here Mr Jelley talks about how writing a Storywalk is different to other mediums even though it is fundamentally a book tied to a specific place or location. When you start writing you will find that the distance between story parts changes the flow of the narrative, something which a good Storywalker will know all about. If the spaces are too large then the story can become forgotten through distractions, this is especially true with younger children but if written correctly then the Story and location based tasks can draw the pupils back in to help keep them engaged.

Have a listen to how Mr Jelley talks about it, and what he does to keep pupils on task.

So enjoy the audio below, it's only ten minutes long, why don't you pop the kettle on and then press play?

Missing Histories for Frome Festival

This saturday we have a real treat planned, a new Storywalk trail called 'The Missing Histories' which is an opportunity for our Festival Workshop Storywalkers this Saturday to add their own mark on Frome by writing location based history.

The Storywalk engine can easily be used as a history machine, but I am always very cautious about following this thread. History, as we all know is being constantly re written and re remembered, the very phrase History - His Story suggests that the news is only one persons point of view at a certain point in time.

Recently I was delivering a workshop and one of the attendees pointed at a wall and said 'my dad built that'. It was such a refreshing thing to hear, a piece of tangible history which we can lean against and touch has a story still today, a connection with the people walking by. Then looking around at every laid stone and every paving slab I thought of their history, their story of how they came to be.

But what if we took this a little step further and added a tiny pice of history ourselves? What if we took the liberty to go just that little bit further than perhaps the Blue Badge Tour Guides would be happy with! Where would that lead, what histories would we create for future generations to read and enjoy, how far can we go and still keep on the ground?

So this Saturday, we will hopefully find out with a little bit of history in the making! Family tickets are £5, bring a lunch, and your tablet / iPad if you have one, plus a little bit of imagination to write history just too good to be true!

But in the mean time, here is a little Soundcloud of me talking about the concepts and possibilities of Missing Histories whilst walking in Dunster woods this morning.

This is the Festival Storywalks link where trails from the Gifted and Talented pupils above are posted, and our new Missing Histories will be tethered too.

Enjoy.

Top and Tail Tales

Here is a little audio snippet of Mr Jelley talking about Storywalks which have a beginning and end, but the middle section is perfect for lots of pupils to add their own creations. They are designed to play to the strengths of children's incredible imaginations, but can also include quite factual or more historical type works.

Whilst working with Curry Mallet Primary School on their Magna Carta Storywalk 'The Weaver of Curry Mallet' it was important to keep the children stories grounded. There was a tendency for the tales to be so fantastical that they defied themselves, but once a few sensible rules were set up for the class as a whole they seemed to come back to earth.

There are lots of resources inside the Storywalk engine, all designed to support curriculum focused teaching and learning beyond the classroom walls.

To find out more please visit http://storywalks.info and throw the team a line.

Frome Festival Storywalks

As part of this years Frome Festival, Storywalks has a special family event to make a storywalk in a day. Here are the words from the Rook Lane Trust and Break 3 who are sponsoring the event and making it as close to free for participants as possible.

 Storywalk in a day at Rook Lane Chapel, Frome. 

4th July 2015

As part of Shape Shifting and Story Walking at Rook Lane, help Break 3 create a new walking story to hide in the winding streets of Frome town. Led by artist / technologist Chris Jelley, this workshop will harness your writing in response to particular, peculiar, places in Frome, and geo-locate them in those locations through the power of the Storywalk engine.

Think geo-caching, but words. 

The tale created will be available to the wider public to download and explore through the rest of the Festival week. 

Workshop is based at Rook Lane Chapel but will involve stepping out and exploring Frome. 

Sounds great I am sure you agree, but what will it entail?

Storywalks is a simple concept, just imagine sticking a note it to a tree and then another a little down the lane, followed by a third just round the corner. To read you have to physically be there in the location and walk between those notes. Storywalks does this digitally by pinning words to a virtual map inside the Storywalk Engine, which sounds complicated but it really isn't.

The words can then be read on any smart phone just by opening the story in your phones browser. Once this page is open you then just walk to the location set (here a tree but could be anywhere) and the text will reveal. On the 4th July we hope to pin a story to the streets of Frome, it might be a treasure hunt, or just a reading journey as there are lots of options and possibilities with Storywalks, perhaps too many!

Once complete the walk will be open and available for all to view along with other tales created by Gifted and Talented pupils from Frome schools.

This is the page where all the stories will sit, just open in your phone and then click on a story and follow the instructions. But be patient, save the web address for later when we can publish the stories for all to read and explore.

http://frome.storywalks.info

So don't delay, book in your family now and snatch up one of the exclusive Storywalks seats.

If you can then please bring your iPad as we'll need all the tech we can get, and don't forget to pack a lunch to keep those imagination cells in top order.

Tickets are £5 per family from the Frome Festival Box Office 01373 455420

Also here is a little link to Grass Roots Liturature who have a short window for applying for grants under £500, enough to bring some Storywalks shenanigans your way perhaps!!

Stogumber Stories

Stogumber village C of E Primary School has been working hard on their Storywalks all year under the careful tutelage of Mr Wedderkopp. It's been an epic journey and this was the spring day when all that hard work came together. Pupils lead the trail and read to their parents and careers who had come especially to see what all the fuss was about.

For me it was brilliant as many of the adults brought their own iPads and smart phones to read the story from. The film just captures the little sound bites which happen as the group and story bubbles along. It was a great day and a really brilliant way to celebrate the children's reading and writing skills.

If you want to travel to Stogumber in Somerset to read their story trail then this is the link below, it can be enjoyed from your armchair too but I'm sure you'll agree that's just not the same as walking the trail. Plus there is a little mountain of pebbles at one specific point on the path, each one is left by a Storywalker who has read and traveled the trail. If you read it from your lap then you won't be able to leave a counting stone for the children to see!

http://stogumber.storywalks.info/Stogumber-s-King-Of-The-Cats

If the Earth were the size of a pea?

A fresh soundcloud audio about the new Storywalk 'If the Earth were the size of a pea' just added to the Storywalk Engine. Listen closely to the birdsong in the background, as it was recorded on a walk I took this week in the woods behind Dunster, Somerset.

If the Earth were the size of a pea, then how far you would need to walk from the Sun to the Earth along the ground? But be warned don't run as you'll be travelling faster than the speed of light!

Twitter but Exmoor style!

Last week I was asked to do a short Poetry workshop at the Lynmouth Pavilion, just a couple of hours working with anyone and everyone stepping through the door. I scratched my head a little and wondered what I should do to 'write these up' as they happened. Schools I work with have white boards and are generally tooled up for this kind of group note taking, but this was not going to work for the Pavilion.

It just so happened that I'd been hoarding these off cuts from the slating of our kitchen roof, and with a little chalk they had just the right space for a snatch of words.

And so Twitter 'Exmoor Style' came about, and here are the fruits of the session.

Each has a journey, a history, an emotion attached. Some are from children visiting Exmoor for the first time, others from residents and generations of visiting this place again and again.

One reads 'Chaos house of children' where two families, each with four children were staying in the same  house over the week.

'Cream teas, yes please, neoprene squeeze'

Was about a family who's enjoyment of cream teas came to a head when trying to put wet suits on the day before!

A couple had visited Clovelly the previous day to see if the pub in the middle of the village really did exist. She has been looking at an old photograph of it on her fathers wall all her life and finding themselves with in stones throw they went to investigate. Well did it actually exist? Yes it did, but the photo was taken with The New Inn on the wrong side of the street. Had it been reversed in the negative? No the pub had switched to the other side of the street around 1914 for a larger premises.

I must confess I had a great conversation with one boy about the 'phony pony' (the one which is actually two men in a pony suit.) He asked me 'how can you tell?' I explained you must always look at the legs, they are a give away. He wrote this slide above as he loved how the ponies were free.

This slide is about lying down in the bracken or heather and how the sounds become very focused and totally about the immediate surroundings of perhaps just a foot from your ears.

The final slide evoking the history of visiting poets from ages gone Shelly, Southey, Coleridge and Byron.

It was a short session with great depth (you just have to ask) and is a great pre-empt for the Poetry Box Project due to go live on 1st June along the Barle river at Tarr Steps on the moors which is also funded by the Lynmouth Pavilion Project.

Thankyou to all who picked up the chalk.

Riddles of the Magna Carta

What has no hinges, key, or lid, but inside gold is hid?

This riddle was set by a pupil from Curry Mallet Primary School near Taunton whilst working on 'The Riddler' Storywalk with me over the last few weeks. I'll let you work a little before giving you the answer, but I didn't get it for ages! 

So why am I working with Curry Mallet Primary School?

It was over a year ago when the school began it's preparations for the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta being June 13th 2015. They lined up a whole series of projects with Heritage Lottery Funding and Somerset Art Works and it was through this connection that they approached Storywalks about creating a trail. You may be aware that Baron William Malet, Lord of Curry Mallet was one of the 25 signatures on the original manuscript and so the village has been gearing up for celebrations for some time.

So what are storywalks?

The easiest way to explain is to describe a book being ripped up page by page and placed on trees down an avenue. To read the book you must walk down the avenue stopping at each tree and page in turn. Storywalks do this but digitally, so rather than breaking up a real book (which would be a shame) we choose which trees, or more specifically which location a text will trigger.

Within minutes the pupils understand how the system works and are off, running across the school fields, revealing the stories. It becomes like a treasure hunt with story and narrative revealing at different spots as the gold. It is quite something to see and I relish the reluctant readers taking their turn to lead the pack and trigger the content. 

But storywalks is only a small segment of the day, a lot of the session is class based, writing and crafting their own riddles or stories to pop into the Storywalk engine. Once this is done we then head out again and reveal their own words tethered to their school field.

So three days are already complete with the school at Curry Mallet, with two still to go and we've already started on 'the biggy', it's called 'The Weaver of Curry Mallet' and is a fictional tale set in the village. 

There once lived a weaver, in Curry Mallet, Somerset, whose skills were used to repair cloth and clothes for well pursed people. So great and desired was her craftsmanship that a poem or ditty would often follow her about. 

When the wear of time is such a to do,

And the weft and weave have run right through.

She'll sew a seam so straight and true,

And stitch a patch as good as new. 

Well one day a young man brought her a drawer of tapestries, which were in dire need of her skills and although this box was very heavy he did not seemed burdened by its weight and lightly placed it down in her workshop. She then set to making him a ticket and valuing the job before her.

The story continues asking the weaver to walk with him in the evenings whilst the tapestry is in her care and tell stories as they walk. This is where the pupils step up to lace and weave their own tales along the trail and inside the Storywalk. This formula plays to the strengths of each child's imagination, it energises their reading and writing skills and opens possibilities of narratives which before were not possible. 

For example you can ask the reader to stomp on the bridge to wake the troll, or not to whistle along the path as the wild dogs will be summoned, or even perhaps to walk around the font three times just for luck. All these things you can do in a Storywalk, interactions within a storyline which seem much dryer in the classroom.

This story will begin at the gate of Curry Mallet School and reveal as you journey along the path into the village, following the stream much of the way. The fabric of the tale sits inside a world before the modern day but not too long ago, perhaps when fields were hoed by hand and horses set to the plough, some time in the past 800 years perhaps.

On the story trail expect to meet talking cattle, warty toads and mischievous dragons. I would hope that the children of the old Curry Mallet village being excavated during the festival, would enjoy these just as much as you today. For me those long passed residents feel like the audience for this project in a peculiar and curious manner.

So join us on Saturday 13th June, but make sure you have a clear head to solve riddles, keep a bright eye out for the Forest Tree King and what will happen in The Tale of the Weaver of Curry Mallet.

More details about the events here http://www.currymallet.org/magna-carta/curry-mallets-magna-carta-celebrations/

For Storywalks on the day, http://currymallet.storywalks.info and open in your smart phone then journey to the trail head.

See you on the 13th to find out, oh and the answer to the riddle - An Egg!