This year we invited members of the public along to join in our annual Stirchley skull walk. I say annual… the first one only took place last year under rule-of-six lockdown restrictions but someone on the walk said we should do this every year and so an ethereal manifesto has started to form. Check out the inaugural skull walk to get a skull overlay for your own local streets.
Of course, an unwelcoming storm of horizontal rain and icy winds blew through just before the walk but eight people still turned up to follow an invisible skull outline around the streets of Stirchley in south Birmingham on a wet Sunday night.
Andy Howlett baked the soul cakes and led the 90-minute walk which criss-crossed between this world and the next. And despite fewer houses decorating the front yards this year, there were still plenty of real signs that the spirits were at large.
Messages in the landscape
No! Keep out! Danger of death! Stay safe! Too late! Ends! RIP! Emortal! Warnings of graves being dug. All the signs were there that this was no ordinary walk.
Sounds of the spirit world
At the top of the skull, the spirit sounds came to us in the rustling of tree leaves and whistling of the wind through the back alleys of Stirchley East. We paused at the top of Hazelwell Park and a bat flapped out of the tree line. A flagpole screeched by Selco. And a broken streetlamp flapped overhead against its pole like something out of Twin Peaks. Naming no names, some started saying the words on street signs out loud in monstrous or ghoulish or hissing tones: "Schoooool!" "Caaaaution!" "Travisssss Perkinssss"
Faces in strange places
From van doors to grit bins to cloud formations viewed from the darkness of Wickes' car park, the other side communicated its presence through pareidolia. Witches on broomsticks in the sky. Shadows demons lurking in the corners. Beaked hooded figures in the River Rea of blood. Screaming faces etched into Bournville Lane's Victorian housing.
Portals to the underworld
On Halloween, the portals between worlds open up everywhere. From drain covers in grass verges with moss embossed runes to the gateposts of hell to people frozen into stone bollards guarding entrances and exits. And then there are the snickets, ginnels and alleyways where time itself seems to shiver and ripple as humans pass through to the other side.
The End
After the walk, the participants looked visibly relieved to have made it back. A few went to the pub to sate their thirst. Others peeled away to trains or home. For us, we walked home all alone, past graves and tombstones. Where the bunny rabbits were waiting for us…
Stay safe, everyone. See you next year for Skullwalk 3: Rise of the Walking Dead?