Laurie Lee Centenary Celebrations 2014
Walks
Our programme of walks following in some of the footsteps of the poet and writer Laurie Lee, meandering around Gloucestershire’s lovely valleys and slightly further afield. Here’s an extract of what will be on offer.
Each walk is planned to extend your creative engagement with the landscape and may include activities such as drawing, photography, writing and performance.
Numbers on our walks are limited and booking is essential.
If you’d like to book your place or have questions, please email walking@artworks.eu.com
Please note that although we love dogs, our walks are unsuitable for them.
SLAD BROOK from SOURCE to CONFLUENCE (10 km)
1st May
14:00
Bulls Cross
Sorry to disappoint, but this walk is now FULL
Without the Slad Brook there would have been no cloth trade in the local valleys around Slad. Without the cloth trade there would have been no riots in Slad and Stroud in 1825. Join us on a walk from the source of the brook to its confluence with the Frome in Stroud. Help us recreate the past along the partially culverted brook with psycho-geographical musings, notes on flora and fauna, together with performance.
(recommended donation £5 p.p. children under 15 free)
Walking by the Slad Brook, from source to confluence. 13336 paces. Pheasant’s calls echo through quiet woodland. Wild Garlic’s heady aromas. First bluebells
‘AS WE WALK OUT….’
SLAD to SOUTHAMPTON WALK (approx.160km)
10th – 17th May (time and meeting point tbc)
(invited walkers and artists)
This 7 day walk follows in Laurie Lee’s footsteps, taken in 1934, on the first leg of his visit to pre-Civil War Spain – chronicled in ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’. Leaving Slad, and armed with tins of treacle biscuits, walkers will pass through Malmesbury, Chippenham, Salisbury Plain and The Wylye Valley, Salisbury and finally the sea at Southampton. The walk will be open to ‘guest walkers’ who may want to join the party for an hour, a day or longer.
Application details or walking@artworks.eu.com
Walking the Old Ways
WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE WALK (10km)
17th May
12:00
The Parish Church of St Mary,
Wotton Under Edge
This walk takes in the memorial to Thomas Duncombe – a member, like Laurie Lee, of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It will involve readings from ‘No Pasarán’ by local poets and performers.
(recommended donation £5 p.p. children under 15 free)
SLAD to WHITEWAY COLONY WALK (10km)
7th June (time tbc)
The Woolpack,
Slad
The Walk will be followed by a Performance of “No Pasaran!” at The Colony. Join us for the Walk. Join us for the Performance or join us for both.
Whiteway Colony was an active supporter of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War – as was Laurie Lee. The walk will culminate in a number of events at the Colony related to this historical event – from a performance of ‘No Pasaran’ by the Football Poets, to presentations and an exhibition by Colony residents of the role it played during and after the conflict.
This performance of “No Pasaran!” is an updated version from an original piece written in 1997 by the collective Stroud Football Poets with music by Souled and Healed.
The musicians joining Souled and Healed for this new version of “No Pasaran!”, written by Stuart Butler with songs by Danny McCue at Whiteway, will be Katie McCue, Alex Rayburn, Jude Woodgyer, Paul Southcott, with flamenco from Keith Patterson and Kostka Garcia. Stuart Butler and Jen B will join the company for the narration and poetry. The songs together with some narrative and poetry tell the story of Laurie Lee joining the fight against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, from his walk over the Pyrenees and back to his beloved Cotswolds.
The performance will be 1 hour and will be performed again in Stroud in September as part of this years celebration of Laurie Lee’s birth and the 75th anniversary of the end of the Spanish civil war. Andy and Dave Butler will be additional musicians for the September performance.
(recommended donation for each event; £5 p.p. children under 15 free)
Late News… the Walk is now FULL, but seats are still available for the performance of “No Pasaran!” and the following supper in the Colony Hall
SLAD FAMILY WALK (5km)
29th June
13:00
The Woolpack, Slad
Poet Adam Horovitz leads this walk around the village of Slad.
The School, the Squire, the Woolpack, the cottages, the characters… all brought to life when walking on the level. Family-friendly stroll on pavements, through the lanes in and around Slad. Cider with Rosie for those who may or may not be ambulant. Meet outside the Woolpack and bring a picnic and/or retire to the Woolpack, as you choose.
(recommended donation £5 p.p. children under 15 free
Overlooking Slad from near Furner’s Farm
‘CROSSING THE BORDER’ PYRENEES WALK, CERET to LA AGULLANA (36km)
24th -25th July (08:30)
(invited walkers and artists)
A retracing of the walk made by Laurie Lee in 1937 – and vividly documented in both ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’ and ‘A Moment of War’ – when he crossed the Pyrenees from France to Spain to join the International Brigades fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. The expedition will involve taking an exhibition to Céret and then onto Cataluña, on the role played by Laurie Lee and other members of the Brigades, who fought alongside the Spanish people in an act of international solidarity against a fascist military insurrection.
Participants will assemble in Céret by 23 July, and information will be available on further possible destinations and trips on both sides of the border. This will be a circular walk for some and a walk out with a taxi back for others. It will be your choice. Stay for a week in the area and make a holiday of it or just do the walk. We meet in Céret, in a bar. This walk is open to invited ‘guest walkers’ who submit proposals for projects.
Application details or walking@artworks.eu.com
PURGATORY to PARADISE WALK (7 km)
2nd November
09:45
Trace a route steeped in myth and superstition on this All Soul’s Day walk. Inspired by the existence of Purgatory and Paradise in neighbouring valleys, artists Ali Kayley and Dan Glaister lead a physical and metaphysical journey between the two points.
(recommended donation £5 p.p. children under 15 free)
Numbers are limited on our walks so if you’d like to join us on any of our walks please email walking@artworks.eu.com
Walking the Land are grateful for the generous support of Stroud Arts Festival and The Museum in the Park
Further contributors to the Celebrations are:
www.stroudartsfestival.org/diary.html
www.cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk
www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk