Photothon 15: traces of the past

Running is meant to be about being in the moment, where your attention is focused on what you are doing. The thoughts might be able to float free but they always come back to what you are doing at that time. Your physical effort anchors them. It is a refreshing mixture of empty mindedness and particular thoughts.

That is still the case most of the time when I am running but more and more I am thinking of the past. Not my own; I am not reviewing all of my missteps and working out how I got here. No I am looking at my surroundings, a town I have never previously paid much attention to, a place I live in but with which I have no great emotional attachment. However my current running is also is trying to remedy that. It is an exercise in paying more attention and looking for traces – trying to see the continuity between the past and the way we now live

It is focussed on the canal. Firstly, and most importantly it is a pleasant environment for running but secondly it is a ribbon of history. Along it you can see the changes from industry to services and leisure. Most of the people in the barges are out for relaxation and refreshment and by the water and the factories have given way to houses and shopping parks.

Now it is undoubtedly cleaner, more pleasant, and more fun but I like the factories and the old brickwork. I enjoy looking at the back of Nash Mills for example. I can see a part of the history of the industrial revolution and be reminded of the role of the canals. With the surrounding houses you can see how the works were central to the local community. I like the idea that John Dickinson invented a process for the continuous manufacture of paper and he did it from here. Because it would be hard to overestimate the importance of the availability of cheap paper in forming our lives, this is a significant strip of land.

But there is no more paper making. The main Apsley Mill was closed in 1999 and the site has been redeveloped. Nash Mills was bought by Sappi in 1990 and made paper until 2006 but is now empty and I think there are plans for housing



The photo is a tiny trace of that past . These gates to Nash Mills have not been used for many a long year. The notice is a simple piece of stamped metal: “NO PARKING BY ORDER J.D. & CO”. Firm and authoritative then but now painted over and invisible, with J.D & CO long gone.