August 2019 - Christopher Goddard

The North Yorkshire Coast (or How Places in the Landscape Become Inextricably Linked to Moments in English Cricketing History)

I don’t know why I am heading to the North Yorkshire coast on the Bank Holiday weekend, but I am. Maybe it is reaching a dead-end at Howsham that I question the logic of this. Maybe it is sitting in traffic for over an hour queuing through Malton (not the first time I have experienced this). I … Continued

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Access All Areas

February 4, 2021

In the summer of 2020 I began swimming (I decline to add the unnecessary prefix ‘wild’ because, as my Aussie friend always points out, it is after all just swimming) in a whole series of new places. Until then I’d assumed there were only two good swimming spots in the valley, both of which had … Continued
The Magic of the Woods

December 14, 2020

‘In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantation of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should … Continued
On The Beach

September 18, 2020

I end the day’s work on the beach at Porthcawl. It’s intentional, but this isn’t quite how I envisioned it. It isn’t raining, but it’s wet. That’s Wales for you. The grey air is full of moisture and the wind drives a fine spray over me. All day long I have hunched over the tablet … Continued
For the Love of Sphagnum

January 17, 2020

I’m always on the hunt for new ways to experience the moors of West Yorkshire, so when an opportunity came up to plant sphagnum moss for Moors For The Future I was keen to try it out. We meet near Cock Hill mast above Hebden Bridge on a predictably wild day. It’s not raining yet, … Continued
Ted Hughes’ Calder Valley

November 3, 2019

I’m standing by the twin stones of Abel Cross with a group of half a dozen others. We are all bowed in cagoules as the wind and rain are driven insistently across the edge of this moor above Shackleton. Nick is reading Ted Hughes’ poem Abel Cross, Crimsworth Dean and, while it may be appropriate content … Continued