Reflections from Places & Traces August walk
Places and Traces is about exploring connections to the landscape we live in. In early August the project took to the footpaths near Woodhouse Eaves in the heart of Charnwood Forest. I lead a short walk through village edges, fields and farm tracks with the invitation to think about the land we were walking on. We started off on tarmac which continued to run along the outskirts of the village and gradually wore away and disappeared by the time we reached the second field. Where the tarmac crumbled, we could see the red Charnwood clay soil beneath.
We passed through a traditional meadow which had just been cut, but the shorter cut meant the ridge and furrow was visible. The path goes almost into a holloway at the end of the meadow, dropping down to meet the stream which we then followed along a village street, with slabs of local slate forming bridges from the road to the houses and also making the kerb edge.
As we headed into the fields, I invited the walkers to look down, to notice the soil, the firmly packed edge of this agricultural field. We collected fragments of local slate and broken pieces of old china that dot these fields. I talked about how the fragments reflect the irregular shapes of the fields they are within, the boundaries of ownership and management which we take for granted in this part of England. We noticed the traces left behind when a fragment has been removed from the dry clay soil, leaving a ghost of itself behind. Human impact on this landscape is everywhere. I am intrigued by where humans and nature interface and have overlapped over generations, like the ridge and furrow of medieval farming, like the mostly 18th century hedges, planted and maintained by humans, and the way the land is divided up, the paths, buildings, fences and roads which cris-cross this place.
As we moved into the last, dry and parched field, we paused in an open space to return out findings to the earth. Together we created a map, a landscape, a path or marks of humans back onto the soil. We talked about noticing, about really paying attention to what we are walking on and through, and we headed back to our starting point sharing our new memories of this walk.
About Places & Traces
Places and Traces is a project to create an emotional map of (part of) Charnwood Forest, involving walks and wild workshops over the warmer months and indoor activities with crafts, maps and archives in the winter.
Anyone who lives or visits locally to Charnwood Forest is welcome to join. You can find out more about the sessions here, and there will be options for research and contributing without coming to sessions if that’s not possible for you.
Next event
The next event is an outdoor wild workshop, taking place at Broombriggs community orchard, near Woodhouse Eaves on Friday 23rd August at 10am. This is a hands-on, but very relaxed session using natural materials. No sewing or other arty skills required. You can also spend the time looking at maps and books and having a wander in and around Broombriggs.
If you sign up on the main page you will get an email before each session with all the details and what you need to bring.
Other blog posts about Places & Traces
Memory Maps
What do remember about special places you have visited? What can you remember of your time spent there? What features or experiences stick in your memory? These memory maps of Charnwood Forest were created during my first Places & Traces event at the Outwoods, Loughborough in June. We talked about our different relationships with this…
Ruth Singer 
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