Home of walking artists and artist walkers
Below are two of the poems I wrote specially for and read on Alison Fure’s Walk with Jane Soundwalk with the Museum of Walking back in September. There is another soundwalk taking place on Saturday 19th October from 10.30am. It is FREE but please book via the Walk with Jane website. See Alison’s blog for … Continue reading Cambridge Road Estate Tree Poems →
Alison Fure is leading a Soundwalk as part of her Walks with Jane project, in conjunction with The Museum of Walking, through the Cambridge Estate in Kingston Upon Thames, this Saturday evening, 7th September, 2019. From the Museum of Walking website event page: This … Continue reading Walk with Jane on the Cambridge Estate →
Meaning “sod, turf” developed from the notion of the “skin” of the earth (compare Old Norse grassvörðr, Danish grønsvær “greensward”). Walking the central reservation of the A240 Kingston Road, from Tolworth Roundabout to the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames boundary with the Borough of Epsom and Ewell. The project is called ‘Sward’ after reading … Continue reading Sward →
At the wooden bridge, beside the washing-willow, under frayed dare-devil rope-swing, we small-fry gather; splash-paddle in the sun-filled slipstream, our expectant jam jars perched ready on banks for contents of day-glo nets on bamboo poles, skim-dunked, dipped into laughing sparkle, we seek out elusive piscine lurkers, shoal-darters, minnow-school pretty-carpers, spike-backed silver-bellied sticklebacks, shimmer and shift … Continue reading Hogsmill Tiddlers →
Last year I was lucky enough to be part of a wonderful project by 26 and the Imperial War Museum: Armistice 100 Days. This ambitious project involved 100 writers each writing a centena – a specially created form of writing for the project – about someone who was alive during the First World War. Each … Continue reading Votes For Women! Annie Kenney and the 26 Armistice Project →
Borderlands: Disruptions between remote map-making and local readings of place Dr Tracey Benson, …
John Payne in W.G Sebald’s Footsteps…. There is no doubt in my mind that Austerlitz Station in Paris is the key to this rather enigmatic novel which draws a personal and emotional and rather misleading map of Europe, said John, misleading in that the novel appears to be meandering nowhere and the story and […]
‘A map can tell me how to find a place I have not seen, but have often imagined. When I get there, following the map faithfully, the place is not the place of my imagination. Maps, growing ever more real, are much less true.’ Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry A map constitutes relationships and connections, […]
In the mundane modern semi-detached suburbs slippers, gravel, teatime tables GCSE revision the Moon guides me home welcomes me to this season with its golden corona moonflower harvest sky The Moon ~O~ I speed down the A3 toward Tolworth Tower follow the curve of the road there it is again on the right … Continue reading The Moon Over Tolworth →
“The poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge, about the new-mown mead; That is the Grasshopper’s.” On the Grasshopper and Cricket, John Keats In the midst of the summer heatwave and haze, we … Continue reading Ancient Droves and the Tolworth Area Plan →
Dr Tracey M Benson, April 2018 *Edited from article commissioned by Institute of Art and Ideas (www.iai.tv) You are at the Eiffel Tower and want to get that perfect picture, a selfie with the tower in the background, just like the ones you see in the travel guides. But there is a problem. You find it […]
The latest in our series of Tolworth Treasure and the Hogsmill Hum walks is a walk across Tolworth Court Farm Fields, our local nature reserve. We will meet at the white bridge over the Hogsmill / Bonesgate Stream at 11am and take you on a journey through the ancient fields of Tolworth Court Farm, which … Continue reading Walk the Ancient Droves of Tolworth Court Farm, Sunday 12th August →
Yesterday started with a silent walking workshop with Ienke Kastelein. Although the workshop started at 8am it was already very hot. Our small group ventured up the hill in silence, meeting under the shade of a tree so Ienke could guide us to the next part of the workshop. We were asked to see want […]
Outside Richard Jefferies’ House, Ewell Road “Jefferies left school at fifteen and at first continued his habits of solitary wanderings about the local countryside. He dressed carelessly and allowed his hair to grow down to his collar. This, with his “bent form and long, rapid stride made him an object of wonder in the … Continue reading Walking in Richard Jefferies’ Footsteps, Monday May 7th 2018 →
Court Farm Writers is a new writing group, and it starts tomorrow, Wednesday 16th May! Each week, you will be able to try different styles and forms of writing in a relaxed, friendly and supportive workshop. Meeting in the comfortable surroundings of Court Farm Garden Centre Cafe, we will talk about writing and look at … Continue reading Court Farm Writers →
Did you know that one of our most cherished and important nature writers lived in Tolworth? Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) was born in Coate in Wiltshire, but moved to live in Tolworth, at 296 Ewell Road, from 1877 – 1882. During this time he wrote what is acknowledged to be his finest writing, some of which … Continue reading In the footsteps of Richard Jefferies – Part One →
The Tolworth Memory Tree has taken root at the Court Farm Cafe – Alison Fure has created a tree, and it even has mistletoe! The tree is starting to bloom and sprout memories of Tolworth. We would like it to blossom with as many memories from as many people as possible. The tree will still … Continue reading The Memory Tree and a Sunday Stroll to the Moated Manor →
This post is the online version of a paper presented at the Women*, Art and Feminism in Australia since 1970 symposium, at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. The summary states: Women*, Art and Feminism in Australia since 1970 seeks to bring together diverging and complementary views on feminism, its history, practice […]
I am delighted to be performing a new collaboration with Susie Campbell at the opening of the Museum of Futures Visual Poetry exhibition, this Thursday, 22nd February. I am also thrilled to have a piece of work in the show. Last year Susie and I had great fun writing and performing a piece about soil, … Continue reading Museum of Futures Visual Poetry Exhibition 2018 →
Come and discover some of Tolworth’s ‘edgelands’ – find out what edgelands are and why they are important. This is the second of our ‘Tolworth Treasure and the Hogsmill Hum’ walks of 2018. The walk takes places on Sunday 25th February from 11am-2pm. Facebook event here We will meet outside the Hogsmill Pub (KT4 7PY) … Continue reading Walking the Tolworth Edgelands →
