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Songs of runaway dreams miles away
Directionless wandering reveals another street of once-red brick terraced houses. Its not raining, exactly; but it has been. This could be Middlesbrough or Rugby or Dumbarton or Edmonton, could be...
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The Combe was ever dark, ancient and dark
Its mouth is stopped with bramble, thorn, and briarCwm, corrie, cirque. Geography lesson rote learning that has stuck. The same etymology from different terrains - Wales, Scotland and France; combe is...
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Reliquiae Journal - Volume Three
Reliquiæ is an annual journal of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, translations and visual art. Each issue collects together both old and new work from a diverse range of writers and artists with...
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PhD research paper #1. Approaches to the study of landscape archaeology and...
From time to time I will post 'bite size' chunks of the material I am preparing for my PhD thesis: works in progress, but content which I feel may be of interest to a wider audience. All will be very...
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There's joy in a simple place
Not that I need an excuse for a walk, but inspired by my current read - Rob Cowan's superb nature/landscape/memoir, Common Ground - and buoyed by the small victory of producing a first basic map in a...
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PhD research paper #2. The study of monastic landscapes
From time to time I will post 'bite size' chunks of the material I am preparing for my PhD thesis: works in progress, but content which I feel may be of interest to a wider audience. All will be very...
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PhD research paper #3. Further landscape perspectives: experience and perception
From time to time I will post 'bite size' chunks of the material I am preparing for my PhD thesis: works in progress, but content which I feel may be of interest to a wider audience. All will be very...
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Landscapism dispatch #1
Bloody hell! A PhD takes over your life. Expansive blog posts unrelated to my PhD research are probably going to be few and far between over these three years. So landscapism dispatches will have to be...
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Ultima Thule
'Concerning Thule, our historical information is still more uncertain, on account of its outside position; for Thule, of all the countries that are named, is set farthest north. 'Strabo, Geography, 1st...
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Field research
One of the attractions of researching landscape history is the opportunity to combine a range of sources of evidence: direct investigation in the field, archival documents, maps, aerial photography and...
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Llanthony Priory - landscape perception survey
As part of my PhD research I am carrying out a survey into present day perceptions of the impact of Llanthony Priory on the surrounding historic landscape of the Vale of Ewyas/ Llanthony Valley in the...
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Tales of cartographic landscapes
Having spent most of the last month in my study/ spare room garret, I am now emerging for fresh air having completed the drafts of two PhD chapters on the subject of my first case study landscape: the...
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In search of monastic granges
The sandstone of Tintern's abbey church: 'purple through mauve and buff to grey’ under a glowering November sky. Over the last couple of days I have been out and about in the exceptional Autumnal...
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Tintern Abbey: A ghost of the shape it once had
'A ghost of the shape it once had', a misquote from Ronald Johnson's long-form poem, The Book of the Green Man; reflections on travels around Britain in 1962, passing by Tintern on the way: ‘We have...
View ArticleNew Paths to Helicon Part 1
New Paths to Helicon Part 1, sublime dread from Mogwai juxtaposed with footage from US atom bomb testing in Nevada (via zootelevizor/ YouTube). And if you survive this, then try the My Bloody Valentine...
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PhD Research Paper #4: A diversity of words and images - topographers and...
From time to time I will post 'bite size' chunks of the material I am preparing for my PhD thesis: works in progress, but content which I feel may be of interest to a wider audience. All will be very...
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This Machine Kills Fascists
Fuck TrumpAll You Fascists - Woody Guthrie (a real American hero)I’m gonna tell you fascistsYou may be surprisedThe people in this worldAre getting organizedYou’re bound to loseYou fascists bound to...
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Deep topography practice – landscape walks as PhD fieldwork
Composite map of the landscape walk routes in the Llanthony Priory case study (Source: map drawn in ArcGIS using ArcGIS World Imagery basemap).A note here on the experiential landscape walks that I am...
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Hatterall - Hill towards the sun
The Hatterall ridge looking north from its southern-most point at Trewyn 'hill fort'.The Hatterall, or versions of it, is a long-standing name used in times past for the eastern uplands of the Black...
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Tintern Abbey - landscape perception survey
As part of my PhD research I am carrying out a survey into present day perceptions of the impact of Tintern Abbey on the surrounding historic landscape of the Wye Valley. If you know the area and would...
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