Planning the next bit of the adventure
Since being back in Bristol after the Manchester-Sheffield part, I’ve been planning the the next part of the journey to Scotland.
My plan is to train it up to Edinburgh where I’m hoping to print a bookmark that the good folk of ploterre have designed at The National Poetry Library. I’ll also get to catch up with my friend Jon McNaught, who is a wonderful illustrator, and we’ve worked together on a number of things.
Then I’ll cycle to Aberdeen a three day 150 mile hike. I’m hoping the weather is kind. I plan to get the ferry to Orkney from Aberdeen where I’ll print at the Kirkwall Library and travel to see my friend, Joanne B Kaar and visit the Soulisquoy Printmakers with her.
From there I’ll head back from Stromness to Kirkwall and get the ferry to Lerwick on Shetland. All very exciting and I look forward to telling more about Edinburgh, Orkney and Shetland on the next instalment.
Once again, thank you for supporting this project, I definitely couldn’t have done it without your help.
I am looking forward to collating all the bookmarks and sending them out.
Here is a little diary of the last bit, printing in Manchester and Sheffield.
Thursday 19th September 2024
Today I printed at Chetham’s Library is the oldest library in Britain has Britain, it has been a public library continuously for 350 years. I immediately got told off for taking a cup of tea at the start of the tour (even though it was empty, the tour guide, said there was still some liquid in the cup, which to be fair, there was).
The library is best known as the meeting place in 1845 of Marx and Engels and as the place that they wrote at least part of what would become The Communist Manifesto. My friend Jane Randfield, had cut a wonderful wood engraving of Marx and Engels. I added two versions of text: one a sort of caption and description of the meeting of the two at Chetham’s. And the other a bit of the chorus of the Internationale. Both seemed to work well with the brilliant detail of the engraving.
Friday 20th September 2024
I have to admit to not quite organising this leg as well as I might. So I was left with a Friday and no library to visit. I had an idea to print a nice Woody Guthrie bookmark that I’d prepared and my good friend Jeb had cut a lino for this one.
When I was 14 at school in Stafford I discovered the library had vinyl records and I took to heading up to the library in the lunch break. I was drawn to Woody Guthrie records, I imagine that at the time, I’d not heard of him or new of his songs. So I must have been drawn to his travel-weary face and maybe the ‘this machine kills fascists’ wording on his guitar. Anyhow this introduction became a lifelong investment in Woody and his songs. In 2011 I went to the Woody Guthrie Center which at that time was in the Hudson Valley and I got to meet Woody’s granddaughter. She read a beautiful piece of her grandfather’s called ‘I hate a song’ which is still on NPR I even went to a concert in Beacon to celebrate Woody’s 100 years since his birth and I got to hear Pete Seeger talk about their time together.
As Woody was a rambling man I thought is was appropriate to print his bookmark on the street, so I chose St Peters Square in Manchester which is in from of the amazing Manchester Central Library, a neoclassical rotunda built in the early 1930s.
It’s a thriving hub with a great cafe reference library and an amazing reading room below the glass rotunda roof.
and the square in-between the tramlines and the library was perfect for me and Woody to do our thing.
Lots of people took or printed bookmarks, and lots of people now know a little more about Woody and his work now.
The print we made includes his brilliant and oft left out verse from This Land is Your Land. I have to say that the two bookmarks printed in two days, reflect the mood of Manchester, which seems like a progressive and successful Labour run city and one that was very pleasant to stay in, especially as I was staying with an old friend, Dolores. Thanks as well to Josef, who not only helped organise the visit to Chetham’s Library, but also supplied cake and the infamous tea.
Saturday and Sunday 21/22nd September
Saturday was a cycling day and quite a bit of hill cycling. The hills definitely found me out for lack of fitness.
I decided to just get about 22 miles into the Peak district and spent (quite a nice) night in Chapel-en-le-Frith in the Royal Oak that had rooms. I got to the pub just before a lighting storm arrived.
On Saturday I cycled from Manchester to Chapel-en-le-Frith which is at the foot of the Peak District on a fine day. Then Sunday I cycled from Chapel to Sheffield on a wet, windy and misty day. It was a hard day, but enjoyable, not cold either.
Just before I came down off Stanage Edge I met up with Tomo Thompson who had a welcome flask of sweet hot chocolate.
Tomo is brilliant. He is in the mountain rescue team that deals with rescues and issues on the Peaks, he also runs the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England in Sheffield and the Peaks area. He has dedicated his life for the past 5-6 years to the Peaks. So it was great to spend time with Tomo.
Monday 23rd September
On the Monday we headed to Broomhill Community Library in Sheffield. Broomhill was where our bookmark subject lived and worked for most of her life.
Ethel Haythornthwaite was an environmental campaigner and pioneer of the countryside movement. Ethel helped set up the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (Peaks District and South Yorkshire) and was the group’s secretary for 56 years.
The CPRE group had organised and funded a great book about Ethel called, well, Ethel and written by Helen Mort.
The lino that I printed of Ethel was cut by my friend Gemma Trickey and printed beautifully.
