Stogumber School QR code poetry

Monday 24th March and it's Stogumber and Crowcombe Schools turn to explore the Coleridge Way in Monksilver. The day started with a rather circuitous bus journey which avoided a single S bend, and took 30 mins rather than 10! Undaunted the children were quickly put on task with great support from Stogumber school.

Mr Jelley and Mrs Mash guided the pupils up an ancient Hollow Way which rises out of Monksilver and sits pretty much in the middle of the current Coleridge Way trail. (The extension to Lynmouth is well underway, and being sign posted.) Words were collected from the trail, what they saw, heard, smelt, felt etc, and these were scribed down by teachers and helpers alike. In fact the pupils were so forthcoming that is was tricky for the scribes to keep up.

"The wind was whistling silently in the trees whilst brushing past my face was the light fluffy breeze."

Descending down the Holloway track of the Coleridge Way

"Waterfall flowing in me,
Waterfall flowing in you,
I can see it and you can too. 

Cold, icy water upon your skin
It pricks you like a pointy pin,
I can feel it and you can too,
thats the waterfall flowing in you."

Treasure!

The trail passes Monksilver 13th C Church which purports to have the oldest depiction of dentists in their Gargoyles.

"The wiggly roots knotted in a web of wonder."

At the foot of the trail in Monksilver

Back in the classroom the pupils worked on the art of writing our poetry, Mrs Mash and Mr Jelley along with teachers Mr Wedderkopp and Mrs Phillips drew on their educators acumen to draw some stunning work from the budding authors, many had no idea they could write poetry!

"Slimy, slow and sluggish slugs
Wow! this place is infested with bugs
But there's not just bugs, there's also decay
What hideous things I've seen today."

Back in the class with Mrs Mash leading the poetry workshop

The next job is for Mr Jelley to transcribe the poetry, then render into QR codes for laser etching and installing along the trail (with full permissions of course). With special thanks Stogumber School and staff for being so welcoming, and especially their pupils who rose to the task, what a day.

Laser etched QR code poetry should be in place early June, so keep your eyes peeled along the trail.

New works for 2014

Coleridge Way February 2014
 'and the rain came hammering down'

We are still early in 2014 and The Coleridge Way works are getting underway once more. Firstly Christopher Jelley will be working on the QR code poetry project with three new first schools -  Timberscombe & Crowcombe, Stogumber and Stogursey. The pupils will be out in March experiencing the Coleridge way and writing poetry influenced by their environment just as Wordsworth and Coleridge did 200 years ago. These will be turned into QR codes (square barcodes) and then laser etched onto slate to be installed along the Coleridge Way. This continues the work started in phase one last year by Christopher, with the fruits of the 2013 poetry excursions now being visible along certain sections of the trail. The future work to take place in March, will hopefully complete the picture.

So if you see a QR code, laser etched onto stone on one of the finger posts along the trail, scan it with your smart phone and you will reveal the poetry written by a local child who was influenced by the Somerset landscape.

New poetry pieces are to be installed ready for early summer 2014.

On The Coleridge Way, 'Holloway Track' above Monksilver.
During the great floods of 2014!

More Story Boxes.

After last year's great success, the story boxes will be revisited again this year. The concept is very simple -  find a box read the story so far, add a little text (or drawing) but no more, and then leave for the next walker. Here are some SoundCloud clips of last year's multi authored tales, each audio was written by at least five different authors but they flow together as one.

The locations of the new story boxes are yet to be decided, but we will keep you posted on all developments, though placements will be from June until September this year so keep your eyes peeled.

There are often details about this work on the Storywalks twitter feed including images of the tales so you can follow digitally if you are unable to get out onto the trail.

On the trail of the Coleridge Way
where water falls in to chocolate streams.

The final piece of Coleridge Way magic comes in the guise of the Fly Catcher Project which has been talked about in previous posts. Coleridge used to call his notebooks and journals Fly Catchers as he felt his ideas were like little flies that seemed to flit away if he did not catch them down immediately. For the Fly Catcher Project Christopher Jelley has worked with the British Library to capture extracts from Coleridge's journals which were penned during his time at Nether Stowey. Christopher has geo-located these into environments which relate to the journal extracts and then made them visible only in location, forcing users to travel to view, and so experience the very places which ignited Romantic poetry.

This exciting project is now complete and below are the web links which enable you to open an innovative web-app in your mobile browser, as the files are location sensitive you will then have to travel to the three locations to view, but don't forget to open the links first.

The first is on the castle mound at Nether Stowey and includes an interesting poem written by William Wordsworth for Coleridge's son Hartley, but actually penned by Coleridge himself. The elements reveal as you circle the mound with the final piece on the summit.

http://coleridge.storywalks.info/STC-Stowey

The second at Watchet West Quay, to reveal  after download, walk along the west harbour wall to reveal each element in turn. These are extracts of four pages from the infamous 'Gutch Book'.

http://coleridge.storywalks.info/STC-Watchet

The third is Kubla Khan, geo-located at Porlock Weir, travel over the metal bridge to reveal the first segment. This version of the poem varies from the first publication and these slight differences are noted at the end.

http://coleridge.storywalks.info/STC-Porlock

Just to clarify, you will need to open the URL above before you travel to the locations as there is very little mobile reception in West Somerset. The award winning web-app will initially cache the files on first click, so amazingly they will work without any data or mobile connection at all once opened.

Each file has instructions, directions and text support embedded.

I know it's wet and windy out now, some will enjoy venturing out in these elements but when the weather is warmer do go and see the work in the landscape that inspired it.