Visible Music - a review

I'm not sure how I would react if my doctor told me I had a life-threatening illness but I would probably run away to some Scottish island. That's what poet Martyn Halsall did and it's an understandable reaction. 

While there he recorded in poems his thoughts and emotions about the cancer - and about the world he saw around him.

Thankfully his cancer is now in remission and, also thankfully, he has published those poems in a collection called, Visible Music.

There's something voyeuristic in reading over Martyn's shoulder his most intimate and personal thoughts during those dark days but there is fortunately also much light to be found in the poetry. 

To many people Martyn already lives in a distant and remote place (Santon Bridge in West Cumbria) so probably had no need to seek out some Scottish island. But a thin place on the edge of the world is precisely where you need to be to face life - and death - full in the face and try to make sense of the world.

These poems are not all about cancer and all the dread that six-letter word brings. Many talk about the beauty of the natural world, the history and culture of places Martyn finds on his pilgrimage and celebrate the landscape's flora and fauna.

I have said before that it is Martyn's eye for detail which makes his poetry sparkle. Perhaps it is the former journalist in him which enables him to see in a crumbling building, a weathered sign or the face of a lone traveller the inspiration for his poetry. Martyn recognises, as Blake wrote, that you can see heaven in a wild flower and infinity in the palm of your hand. And so a stray Biro "loaded with words", nasturtium seeds or a tea-stained mug all offer doorways into the strange, wonderful and scary world that Martyn must encounter on his journey.

It is one we know we will all face at some point in our lives so Visible Music in one sense is a guidebook that will be a welcome companion. This collection may have its roots in a dark day but it is overall a celebration of our world and our lives which readers will want to keep close; a reminder, if one is needed, of all we should be grateful for.

Visible Music by Martyn Halsall is published by Caldew Press, £9 and is available from Martyn on martynhalsall22@gmail.com.

The true Loweswater corpse road

THE first edition of our book, Corpse Roads of Cumbria, repeated the mistake that the corpse road from Loweswater towards St Bees went along the side of the valley. This was an error promoted by the National Trust but diligent historical research by Dr Roger Asquith has shown it actually goes along the bottom of the valley through Holme Wood. This makes sense and it actually makes a nice circular walk, going along the corpse road and then coming back via the valley-side path. Here is the revised chapter...

THE National Trust and other websites have promoted a path running through High Nook Farm and skirting under Burnbank Fell as the Loweswater Corpse Road. However, we are grateful to Dr Roger Asquith, a retired research engineer with an interest in local history, for discovering this is an error and the path through Holme Wood is almost certainly the true corpse road.

He points out the Loweswater Enclosure map shows the higher path, in 1865/6, whereas the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (OS1) of 1863/4 did not show it. Hence we know the age of the path to within a year or so.   This higher road therefore dates back just over 150 years – some way short of the corpse road era over 600 years ago.  Indeed,  Dr Asquith also notes that the vicar of Loweswater in 1929  – J Rowland – wrote of “the tradition, which still exists in the parish… the dead from Loweswater used to be carried via the ‘corpse road’ through Holmwood, for burial at St Bees” (A Few Notes on the Church & Parish).

Dr Asquith adds: “The Maggies Lonning - Watergate - Hudson Place - Jenkinson Place - Iredale Place - Fangs path shown on the OS1 (surveyed in 1863/4) was the ancient way on the south side of the lake, linking the habitations before heading off towards Lamplugh. Clear from the maps and on the ground is the fact that this ancient track was well made, well defined and important. Until modern times it had a wall on either side before emerging onto and crossing the common to join the Fangs to Lamplugh road.”

Research by Derek Denman indicates parochial status was granted to Loweswater in 1403 and ‘the dead have not been carried to St Bees for over 600 years’. Dr Asquith adds: “What was formerly The Holme, now Holme Wood, was finally enclosed after much dispute, in about 1597 so, at the time of the corpse road, beyond Watergate lay open common.”

We’re grateful to Dr Asquith for ‘restoring’ the correct corpse road route and there’s an extra advantage: For the most part the corpse road through Holme Wood is a well-made wheelchair-friendly path making it accessible to many more people. It’s only as it climbs towards Fangs Brow that that path gets tougher. The higher path may have been incorrectly promoted as a corpse road but it is nonetheless a path that offers breath-taking views of the fells and you may wish to use it to make your return journey for a different perspective of Loweswater.

Shortly after leaving St Bartholomew’s Church, the corpse road drops down into the valley through Maggie’s Lonning. ‘Lonning’ is a dialect term for ‘lane’ and most of the lonnings surviving in the county are still only footpaths. Maggie’s Lonning is now a tarmacked road but has not lost all of its character. It is a single track road (NY 136 210) that leads to the impossibly-small car park by Loweswater. We suggest only trying to use this car park midweek in the middle of winter. It quickly gets full-up and there is almost nowhere to turn round once you are stuck in the traffic jam. It’s a Lake District feature that needs a serious rethink. There is not much parking elsewhere in the valley so we recommend parking in one of the lay-bys beside the lake or by the side of the road at Fangs Brow (and therefore do the corpse road in reverse). Since the corpse road is essentially one half of a round-the-lake walk it does not matter too much where you start.

This is a lovely walk but there’s not much history or legend to go with it. However author HC Ivison includes an intriguing entry in her book, Supernatural Cumbria (2010) about a ghostly funereal procession apparently witnessed by the lake: “The apparitions of three nuns carrying what appeared to be a shrouded corpse, was a reported unexplained event that made the national newspapers. It was in the early 1920s, and four young ex-soldiers were walking along by Loweswater Lake in the moonlight, when they witnessed this sight. In spite of later ridicule, they held to their story and the fact that they were sober. Frank Carruthers comments that local records attest to an apparently similar apparition being seen by several witnesses some 21 years before, which would make it around the turn of the 19th and 20th Century. There is as far as my present knowledge goes, neither explanation, or any story or legend that might possibly account for these events. Local folklore does talk of monks and a monastery in Loweswater Valley but thus far no mention of nuns.”

It’s a fascinating and suggestive tale but we have been unable to find the report in any newspapers or any mention in the works of Frank Carruthers.

Corpse Roads of Cumbria is available from bookshops.

Passing Place by Martyn Halsall - a review

Passing Place by Martyn Halsall
Review by Alan Cleaver

IT must take a certain level of cruelty to send someone in lockdown a book of poems about walking in the open countryside.
But Passing Place by poet Martyn Halsall did at least conjure up those wild parts of Britain I was missing and offered me some solace during those difficult days spent imprisoned in my home.
Halsall, who lives in west Cumbria and was formerly poet in residence at Carlisle Cathedral, is our guide through some of the sacred places to be found in Britain - those 'thin places' where the boundary between the physical world and the spiritual one becomes blurred.
It's not the first time Halsall has found inspiration on his pilgrimages but this collection of around 20 poems seems to offer new depth and insight.
And once again it is his eye for detail which helps us to see in even the most barren landscapes something of beauty or history which can enlighten or inspire us. Halsall can find poetry and meaning even in a discarded piece of blue twine and while holding it up for us to see can pan out to introduce us to the characters and the landscape beyond.
The curious typography of a tombstone, a memorial plaque or copperplate handwriting on old documents all provide a way in to a richer world which will send the reader off to Google (and hopefully post-lockdown to the landscape itself) to discover more. Like the scared places he writes about, it's a world where the spirits of the past wander freely with the living so expect to meet Saints and as easily as you might meet the residents of the Isle of Lewis.
Halsall has been a man of words all his life so it's not surprising to discover he can paint the landscape with just a few strokes of his keyboard - a scrap of land is "an afterthought of Pennines" and there are part-time islands to navigate.
He makes it look easy but I suspect it took more than just dipping a nib to come up with these charming delights.
They are poems you can read once and enjoy but read them a second or third time and you'll start to learn more about these passing places and the stories they have to tell. You'll be grateful for your guide showing you that this is a world full of beauty even during its darkest days.
- Alan Cleaver

Passing Place is available at £5 (inc p&p) from martynhalsall22@gmail.com.

Postman's Paths

The Postman's Path at Caldbeck

I WAS introduced to Postman's Paths by historian Tony Vaux of Caldbeck, Cumbria. I was visiting him at his farm just outside Caldbeck and he mentioned the postman's path that went past his home. It was not a term I had heard before but he explained that the postman in the past had short-cutted across the fields when delivering post to the farms that encircle the village. There are places in the drystone walls where you can see the steps added in to aid the postman. These paths had then become recognised public footpaths and registered on OS maps - although it's doubtful that anyone else other than the postman and perhaps the farmers ever used them. 

On googling the term back home I was delighted to find that a number of people had remembered these 'postman's paths' in various parts of the country - indeed the world. Like most paths, these had been created for a specific purpose by a specific occupation. In Cumbria it's easy to think of peat-cutters paths, drovers roads and miners' trods. Perhaps the most famous Postman's Path is the one at Rhenigidale, North Harris, Scotland which is detailed by the wonderful website, Heritage Paths. An idiosyncratic piece of history has been turned into a popular tourist trail, with no doubt a welcome boost to the local economy. In this instance, it's unlikely the postman created the path but he certainly walked it and popularised it. There's a lovely short film available on YouTube where they interview the former postman, Kenny Mackay.

I included the Caldbeck postman's path and a couple of others in my book, Get Lost, along with a couple more such paths that can be found in Cumbria. Since publishing the book I've also begun researching these paths further and hope we can save more of these before they vanish from history. I doubt any postmen still walk long distances across the fells these days, relying instead on motorised transport. So if we don't record these paths while they're still on the edge of living memory they will be lost for ever. If you know of any, do drop me a line.