The Right to Roam, Enclosures Acts, and the issues of accessing the countryside.
Rain was still falling hard a week later when I cycled past a garden with two life-size sculptures of giraffes, towards a modern red-brick Catholic church. On the church wall was a statue of a bored-looking Saint George stabbing down at the dragon with about as much enthu- siasm as a community service litter picker. Old George up there took quite the journey to sainthood in rainy England from his beginnings as a soldier in the Roman army. He is the patron saint of not only England but also Georgia, Ethiopia, Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and Corinthians FC in São Paulo.
I turned right at the church into a maze of terraced streets. In one house I saw a dozen trophies shining in an upstairs window. A child’s bedroom, I guessed, proud of their efforts and achievement. An enor- mous railway embankment towered above the houses and overshad- owed the streets. It led onto a viaduct whose ten arches were visible from grid squares for miles around. I was understanding the lie of the land better now, getting a clearer idea of how all these places fitted
together.
What is Local ?
Do you yearn to connect with wildness and natural beauty more often?
Could your neighbourhood become a source of wonder and discovery and change the way you see the world?
Have you ever felt the call of adventure, only to realise that sometimes the most remarkable journeys unfold close to home?
After years of challenging expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spends a year exploring the small map around his own home.
Can this unassuming landscape, marked by the glow of city lights and the hum of busy roads, hold any surprises for the world traveller or satisfy his wanderlust? Could a single map provide a lifetime of exploration?
Buy the book! www.alastairhumphreys.com/local