Banburyshire Rambles Journal, Worm Moon 2023:
In pursuit of a route along a brook, I follow a path created by the stormtroopers of the landrights movement – the dog-walkers!
These pages originated from a challenge: my claim that you did not need to travel 50 or 100 miles from Banbury to find beautiful countryside, to the Chilterns, the Peak District or Wales; and that, in fact, Banbury is at the heart of its own geographically unique hinterland – which has its own millennia-old story of human settlement.
It’s also about my long-standing belief that developing an attachment to our own ‘place’ can be a route to making sense of the wider world, and the events taking place within it.
Together these pages weave a view of the local landscape, its history, and my own enjoyment of and place within that landscape – and how that grounding in place affects my view of the wider world today.
Below are the ‘current’ posts in the journal – both photo-blog-posts and YouTube videos combined. Space permitting, I usually keep the last five seasons of walks posts on-line.
For the more ‘distinguished’ walks that I keep on-line, see the ‘permanent collection’ page.
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, Worm Moon 2023:
In pursuit of a route along a brook, I follow a path created by the stormtroopers of the landrights movement – the dog-walkers!
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, 15th December 2022:
As I leave the house it starts to snow: heavily. By the time I reach Crouch Hill there’s a good dumping on the ground. For me, having a day outdoors in the frost and cold is obligatory. Now the north wind is blowing, and it promises a lovely walk!
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, 23rd November 2022:
‘From Green Lane to Weeping Cross’ (with deep green ‘luddite’ subtitles)
Not a planned walk: it was ‘now or never’ for the next few days. Dazzlingly bright sun made the Autumn leaves glow; not good for photography as I’ll be struggling between extremes of light and shadow. Then crossing the canal I notice something unusual… most of it wasn’t there!
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, 9th October 2022:
Autumn’s here, but for me the season really starts with the ‘Hunter’s Moon’ – the first full moon after the Autumn Equinox. So I go off for an afternoon to find it.
Banburyshire’s Ancient Trackways, 11th August 2022:
An ancient route, running through the heartland of the Dobunni and later Hwicce tribes, that linked Banbury Lane at the top the the Thames Valley and Crickley Hill on the Cotswold escarpment with many ancient sites along the way.
Banburyshire’s Radical History, Monday 8th August 2022:
In 1772, a Quaker went on a journey through England, visiting the meeting house in Banbury, to preach about the ills of slavery; a journey that would end with his death in York at the beginning of October. The words he spoke during his life are just as true today, and in the context of today’s materialistic society, are even more revolutionary than when he spoke them over 250 years ago.
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, 31st May 2022:
‘North of Banbury along the Ironstone ridges’
Friday 27th May 2022: A circuit out from Banbury, following the long ironstone ridges that rise from the northern fringe of the town towards Edgehill.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/16, 1st May 2022:
‘Minster Lovell Hall & its ‘Romantic’ Graffiti’
Minster Lovell Hall has a surreal quality; especially if the weather adds to the atmosphere. It’s a classic ‘ruin’, but at the same time you can see that centuries of less reverent visitors have scrawled graffiti over many parts of it. More then anything, it’s just an ethereally beautiful place to visit.
Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites, Beltane 2022:
Minster Lovell Hall has a surreal quality; especially if the weather adds to the atmosphere. It’s a classic ‘ruin’, but at the same time you can see that centuries of less reverent visitors have scrawled graffiti over many parts of it (a practise common before modern times). And while today it seems a backwater, the history of the site ties it to some major events in history.
Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites, Beltane 2022:
Many people don’t know it’s there: A Medieval stone bridge; buried beneath a Victorian brick bridge; that most travel over every day without a thought. It is one of the oldest standing structures in the town, and directly related to the story of the town’s historic development.